Support our first manifesto for bats

BCT launches our first manifesto, created so that evidence-based conservation policy ideas are available for political parties and decision makers. Now we’d like your support to get these ideas out there.

Find our full Bat Conservation Manifesto and local politics toolkit here.

Bat conservation faces many threats, from the climate crisis to chronic underfunding of environmental services. And though legal protections have enabled some positive signs of recovery, there are still UK bat species at risk of extinction and declines in some species and areas.

Political action is needed now to protect, conserve, and enhance our natural heritage. So, we have distilled expertise from across BCT into policy asks that would protect bats - and create a nature-positive economy that benefits wildlife, people and communities.

A Bat Conservation Manifesto consists of five key actions which are needed to help bat and wildlife conservation. We believe every UK political party should make commitments to:

• Keep legal protection for all bat species and improve its implementation.
• Make all new development species-friendly.
• Deploy climate change mitigation in harmony with nature.
• Support long-term nature-friendly farming through agricultural schemes.
• Improve wildlife crime recording, investigation and prosecution.

For more detail you can read the full manifesto: A Bat Conservation Manifesto.

We need help to get our manifesto read by as many people as possible, to build awareness that what helps bats thrive helps other wildlife, and people too.

Here are some ways you could help:

• Talk about BCT’s manifesto with election candidates at every opportunity.
• Let friends and family know about the manifesto and why it matters
• Follow us on social media and support posts about the manifesto (links to our social media are at the bottom right of this page).
• Sign up to our campaigning mailing list.

By helping us spread the word, you’re joining a growing number of people advocating for bats, wildlife and for future generations.

If you do support our manifesto, we'd like to hear from you. We'd be very grateful if you could fill out our tracker form. It takes less than a minute.

Find the BCT policy action tracker form here.

BCT is a charity, and as such we are a non-partisan organisation.

Our purpose is to work with all policymakers and wider decision makers to share our knowledge with them.

We want to further bat conservation in line with our vision of a world rich in wildlife where bats and people thrive together.