Our work
The BASC Wildlife Fund offers financial support to shoots, clubs and syndicates for hands-on conservation initiatives and sustainable land management.
Thanks to your donations, we can provide funding for land purchase and conservation projects in the UK. We are also involved in international projects where these relate to UK migratory species.
Since January 2020, we have awarded more than £500,000 in grants for a range of projects. You can find some of these below.
Bowland wildfire mitigation project
In 2024, an award of £10,000 was agreed to support a new landscape-scale wildfire mitigation initiative across the Forest of Bowland National Landscape. The funding is contributing to a comprehensive risk assessment led by Incendium Wildfire Solutions, working with the Bowland Wildfire Group of Landowners (BWGL). The final report will cover an area of approximately 69,500 acres (28,125 hectares) of moorland, including approximately 48,000 acres (19,425 hectares) of private land within Bowland. The findings will also help to shape future wildfire resilience strategies for other upland areas in the UK.
The Bowland Massif Wildfire Risk Mitigation Project will identify high-risk areas across the region’s moorlands and propose management tools tailored to evolving climate models and weather patterns. As part of the agreement, BWGL will collaborate closely with BASC to promote the project’s outcomes and ensure wide engagement across conservation, government and sporting sectors.
Black grouse range expansion project
The black grouse range expanse project is an ambitious initiative which seeks to create a new foothold for black grouse in the North York Moors. The BASC Wildlife Fund is supporting the project through a grant of £30,000 over three years.
In its first operational year, 20 black grouse from the species’ last remaining UK stronghold in the North Pennine hills were translocated in the hope of starting a new population. As young black grouse tend not to travel far before breeding themselves – males typically less than 1km and females an average 9km – translocation is a way of increasing range and, ultimately, reversing the decline and shrinking distribution of the species.
Working for Waders Scotland
Working for Waders Scotland was awarded £5,000 in 2024 to collate existing guidance on predator control into a single, practitioner-focused resource for land managers involved in wader conservation. Its purpose is to make current research and case studies easier to access and apply, rather than to commission new research. The resource draws together information on key aspects of predator management, including:
- assessing predation pressure
- use of thermal scopes
- predator fencing, both permanent and temporary
- efficient Larsen trapping
- diversionary feeding of predators
- anti-predation habitat design
- DOC trapping for stoats and weasels
The aim of the project was to provide clear, practical support for those delivering conservation on the ground.
GWCT badger GPS collaring
A grant of £15,000 was awarded to the GWCT for a project which involves the GPS collaring of badgers to assess whether diversionary feeding increases the breeding success of ground-nesting birds. The project is being carried out at the GWCT demonstration farm in Aberdeenshire, where three known badger social groups are established within woodland on the site. Up to twelve badgers will be captured and fitted with GPS collars to track their movements and feeding behaviour. The work has attracted strong interest and backing from supporters of Scottish research and conservation projects.
Shelduck on the Ribble Estuary
A grant of £4,529 was given to Preston and District Wildfowling Association for the installation 4G cameras on Hutton Marsh.
With the use of 4G cameras and an automatic feeder, the project will seek to verify the suitability of live feed cameras for the gathering of important scientific information such as behaviour, leg ring resighting information. The project seeks to verify changes observed anecdotally in the nesting habits of Shelduck on the Ribble Estuary.
Emergency action for capercaillie
A grant of £52,405 was agreed in 2023 to help restore Scotland’s capercaillie population in its last remaining stronghold in the Cairngorms National Park.
At the time of the award there were only 542 capercaillie left in the UK, 80 per cent of which were found in the Cairngorms, the lowest recorded number for 30 years. Recent modelling by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) suggests that following this project, capercaillie numbers in the Cairngorms could be 16 per cent higher and the risk of extinction within 50 years would drop by 92 per cent.
The BWF grant funded work to mark or remove 10km unmarked fences sited in the Badenoch and Strathspey area which presented a significant risk to resident capercaillie.
Wentloog Wildfowling and Conservation Association
ln February 2024 a BWF loan £35,000 was agreed to allow Wentloog Wildfowling and Conservation Association (WWCA) to purchase 932 acres of foreshore in Wentloog, a rural community southwest of Newport.
Wentloog’s foreshore comprises intertidal flats which fall within the Severn Estuary protected network – an area of vital importance to the wetland and migratory wildfowl in the region. The Gwent Wildlife Trust is a neighbouring landowner. With the support of BASC and the BWF, the WWCA created a habitat management plan for the site, which gives them a mandate to protect and preserve the habitat.
SOTKA wetlands project – Finland
In 2023 grant of €45,000 was awarded to the SOTKA wetlands project in Finland to restore and create three wetland sites spanning 47 hectares. The projected aimed to benefit a wide range of wildlife, not least a host of wildfowl species that migrate to the UK each autumn.
SOTKA wetlands, a Finnish Wildlife Agency project, has a goal of creating 40 wetland sites by 2025. The funding will be used to build dams and dykes in order to hold spring flood waters for the benefit of breeding wildfowl and it is hoped this project will prepare the ground for further innovative, international multi-stakeholder partnerships.
Combatting the curlew crisis
Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) received a grant of £75,000 for its Combatting the Curlew Crisis project, run over three years (2020 to 2022).
The grant has been used to fund habitat improvement and head-starting for the curlew breeding recovery project in the Severn and Avon vales. Seeking to increase the population of breeding curlew from a baseline of 36 pairs in 2019 to 50 pairs by 2023, the project provides a model for other local conservation efforts for curlew and their habitats in lowland areas of southern Britain.
Hen harrier brood management
In 2013, no hen harrier chicks fledged in England. However, since 2016, collaboration under the Defra Hen Harrier Recovery Plan between gamekeepers, Moorland Association members, other moorland stakeholders and Natural England has led to five consecutive record-breaking years.
During summer 2023, 141 hen harrier chicks fledged from 54 nesting attempts in England. There are now more hen harriers in England than at any point in the last 200 years.
The BWF grant of £25,000 (which brings the total awarded to the project to £125,000 since 2020) will extend the trial and allow exploration of whether brood-managed hen harriers can breed in the wild long-term, and whether the wider population increase is due to brood management.
The project has yielded some outstanding results. Read more about the scheme here.
Hen harriers at Swinton Estate
Swinton Estate was awarded a grant of £4,800 for the purchase and installation of camera equipment to record and monitor nesting hen harriers.
Providing valuable information to aid research into hen harrier ecology, the cameras transmit a live feed to give the public access to previously unseen footage of these majestic birds.
Watch some of the 2022 footage from the nest camera by clicking on the film.
Project Penelope
The Waterfowlers’ Network was awarded a grant of £50,170 for Project Penelope, which tracks Eurasian wigeon through their annual migration cycle to support effective conservation efforts.
Running from spring 2021 – 2024, Project Penelope aims to better understand the winter movements, flyway paths and breeding sites of Eurasian wigeon, which in turn will inform sustainable shooting of this species.
The project saw 4,000 wigeon ringed, with 102 fitted with GPS-GSM trackers. Having been monitored from their wintering grounds in the UK, Project Penelope sees UK teams working collaboratively with researchers in Denmark and Finland to track wigeon across the eastern flyway. The project is endorsed by FACE and Defra.
Wetlands at Poulton Court
Gloucestershire Wildfowling and Conservation Association received a grant of £23,913 for the creation of wetland habitat at Poulton Court on the Severn Estuary.
The grant was awarded to fund the creation of new wetland ponds and scrapes for breeding and overwintering waders and waterfowl at Poulton. Learn more about the project by clicking on the film link.
Boa Island recovery project
Lough Erne Wildfowling Council were awarded 25,000 (£5,000 per annum until 2024) for the 2020-2024 Boa Island Wader Recovery Project.
The project primarily aims increase the breeding success of threatened waders in Northern Ireland (curlew, lapwing and redshank, and amber-listed snipe) at key sites across Boa Island, Lower Lough Erne.
Contributing towards several initiatives, the grant has funded aspects such as habitat improvement – including sward management and scrub clearance – predator control, education of farmers, wildfowlers and the public, and the annual ornithological monitoring of the impact of the project on breeding wader populations.
Wetland creation on the Humber
Barton-on-Humber Wildfowlers were awarded a grant of £35,790 to assist with the creation of wetlands areas over 28 acres at Horkstow, Barton-on-Humber.
The project created new and additional wetland and ponds from existing grassland, enhancing the club’s north and south wetland purchased in 2017.
The club created common wetland water level areas throughout the land, providing an ideal habitat for wildfowl, waterfowl and waders, along with a host of other bird and mammal life.
