Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT)

Management and funding

The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) is the largest UK-based charity dedicated solely to international wetland conservation. Its mission is to 'save wetlands and their wildlife'. WWT operates nine UK centres as well as undertaking substantial environmental management, research and public education programmes. WWT centres are operated as visitor attractions with the aim of 'bringing people and wildlife together for the benefit of both'. They are economically self-supporting, depending on visitor admissions and secondary spend, membership fees (WWT has over 150,000 members), donations and legacies for income. Almost one million people visit the nine WWT centres each year. Developments are normally funded from grant-giving bodies, corporate and individual sponsorship.

Founded/opened

WWT was founded as the Severn Wildfowl Trust by naturalist/painter Sir Peter Scott in 1946 at Slimbridge on the banks of the River Severn in Gloucestershire, west England. WWT's ninth centre, in London, opened to the public in 2000.

Description

WWT centres feature spectacular wild UK wetlands. Across the nine centres there are over 1800 hectares of wetlands including eight Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), five Ramsar sites and three Special Protection Areas (SPA). Seven of the nine centres have captive collections of globally threatened wildfowl, and all centres contain a greater or lesser degree of interpretative-led exhibitry including Discovery Centres and Pond Zones. Individual WWT wetland centres are profiled separately on this site (WWT Arundel, WWT Caerlaverock, WWT Castle Espie, WWT London, WWT Martin Mere, WWT National Wetland Centre,Wales, WWT Slimbridge (National Headquarters), WWT Washington, WWT Welney).

Key species/features

WWT centres range from vast coastal inlets and estuaries that house important numbers of migratory and resident wetland birds (including most of the world populations of wintering Light-bellied Brent Geese at WWT Castle Espie and ditto for Barnacle Geese at WWT Caerlaverock) to seasonally flooded inland wetlands at WWT Welney (with large numbers of wintering Bewick's and Whooper Swans). Reedbeds with summer warblers dominate at WWT Arundel whereas the WWT London Wetland Centre is a model of wetland creation in an urban context. Other wetland biodiversity from frogs and fish to dragonflies and voles is present at WWT centres. Further details may be obtained by visiting individual WLI site profiles.

General

WWT has been a leading exponent of environmental education (e.e.) and latterly Education for Sustainable Development (e.s.d.) for the last 60 years. WWT is developing a Learn for Life Policy which details its 'People' agenda and a curriculum which will inform all its CEPA activities from future interpretative-led exhibitry to formal schools programmes and community-based projects.

WWT believes that 'education' is lifelong and all-inclusive for everybody regardless of age, gender, race, background and belief. Its activities are rooted in e.e. and e.s.d. and aim to be learning rather than teaching centred, people-focussed, interactive and fun.

WWT coordinates the WLI network.

Interpretation and exhibitry

WWT has an international reputation and track record for producing innovative environmental interpretation and exhibitry. WWT's newest centre, the WWT London Wetland Centre which opened in 2000, was interpretation-led in its design and features state-of-the-art interactive exhibits relating to wetlands. See the WWT London Wetland Centre WLI site profile for more details.

WWT is currently undertaking a centre development process whereby all WWT centres will eventually be redesigned according to interpretative planning principles and processes.

WWT hopes to share its expertise in interpretation through the WLI network via e-communications and future training opportunities. WWT also manages a consultancy - WWT Consulting - whose remit includes interpretation planning and design, from whole wetland education centres to individual exhibitions and exhibits. Recent WWT Consulting clients for interpretation-based consultancy include the Chinese Government (For the International Wetland Park, Hong Kong), the Ghana Wildlife Division (for Ankasa rainforest visitor centre interpretation) and the UK Government for planned initiatives in Brazil and Korea.

Formal (school and university) learning

All WWT centres have school programmes based around the overarching slogan of 'WISE -UP to wetlands'. The programmes are about aspects of water, biodiversity, ecology and sustainability (WEBS) and are differentiated by age/ability. Although programmes are informed by the WWT curriculum, to make them relevant in the UK, they are tailored to the English National Curriculum or regional equivalents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Programmes are also available to suit different syllabuses, tertiary education requirements and special needs students.

All WWT centres offer direct contact learning sessions to visiting schools. Such sessions range from indoor activities to field experiences and aspire to embrace aspects of cognitive and affective learning. Sessions are child-centred, fun, interactive and employ a varied menu of techniques from Earth Education, drama and the arts to more traditional science-based pond dipping and bird watching. Some WWT centres offer teacher courses and all allow teachers to visit free of charge on preliminary planning visits.

Nearly all WWT school learning support materials are now delivered through this website.

The Learn area of this site has free downloadable teacher lesson plans linked to the National Curriculum, datasets, factfiles, games, ideas for activities at home and around the school/local environment, and numerous links to related sites. The site also has information about school visits to individual WWT centres, all of whom may be contacted for their specific programme details.

Following a review by WWT's Head of Learning (Schools Service), formal schools programmes are being re-designed. A new programme - Great Pond Safari - will be offered to Key Stage 2 pupils (8-11 years) from April 2004. The programme comprises a six-week cross-curricular Scheme of Work with elements at school, and a full-day of varied learning experiences at a WWT centre. WWT continues to evaluate the effectiveness of its formal schools programmes. Future plans include assessing different ways of delivering programmes in terms of the effectiveness of learning outcomes. The wide range of WWT centres may mean that different modes of delivery are more effective in some centres rather than others. It is hoped that the results of this work will inform the whole wetland education sector.

WWT is also aspiring to allow schools to visit free of charge. At present, schools pay admission charges to visit WWT centres as there are no subsidies from government or nongovernment sources. WWT is seeking funding to enable free school admission, principally because it considers that all children (indeed all people) have a right - an 'entitlement' - to access their local wetlands and nature generally.

Informal (general public) learning

In addition to interpretative-led exhibitry, WWT 'reaches' the general public through a coordinated, strategic programme of events and activities at its centres. These vary enormously but include daily swan feeds, volunteer-led guided tours, pond dipping, land rover safaris, bird fairs, alternative health and sustainability weekends, wetland-based pantomines, green gardening demonstrations, bat detecting, vole tracking, community arts activities, meet the scientist and so on.

The 150,000 plus members of WWT have free admission to centres and reduced rates for events. They also receive a quarterly magazine, 'Waterlife'.

It is hoped that WWT will take on the coordination of World Wetland Day events for strategic wetland centres and WLI partners in the UK.

Professional

WWT centres regularly welcome colleagues involved with wetlands worldwide. These range from environment ministers and government officials (from both the UK and elsewhere) to policy makers, planners, politicians, scientists, educators, celebrities and many more. All are potential or actual advocates of wetlands and wetland conservation.

In this context, WWT adopts several roles : that of influencer and advocate, consultant, mentor and trainer. WWT is involved in several international environmental education training programmes and is planning its own courses for the future.

Staffing

WWT is presided over by a Council that provides expert advice and sets policy. A Managing Director (MD) has responsibility for managing WWT's affairs and activities to achieve its Aims and Objectives. Other directors and Heads of Department support the MD. These in turn are supported by centre managers and their staff. About 340 people work full- and part-time for WWT.

WWT CEPA activities are directed by the WWT Director of Programmes and Development, and led by two Heads of Learning (one for Resources and Outreach and one for the Schools Service). Individual WWT centres have a varying number of education staff and volunteers.

Contacts

Malcolm Whitehead, WWT Head of Learning (Resources and Outreach including WLI Coordinator), Education and Visitor Services Manager WWT London Wetland Centre

T: (+44) 020 8409 4400 F: (+44) 020 8409 4400 E: malcolm.whitehead@wwt.org.uk

Chris Francis , WWT Head of Learning (Schools Service), Centre Manager WWT Washington, Pattinson, Washington, Tyne and Wear, England NE38 8LE

T: (+44) 0191 416 5454 F: (+44) 0191 416 4801 E: chris.francis@wwt-washington.inty.net