The Bat Conservation Trust
Noctule Bat
The Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) was established in 1991 and is the leading UK non-governmental organisation solely devoted to the conservation of bats and their habitats. BCT acts as the umbrella organisation for bat conservation in the UK, and has access to a wide range of academic, professional and species specialists. BCT has offices in England, Wales and Scotland and its staff team includes scientists, database managers, and training, outreach and education, volunteer engagement, fund raising, media and membership specialists.
BCT is the lead partner for UK Biodiversity Action Plans for five species. BCT coordinates a steering group and expert panels to identify species needs and develop partnerships for conservation action. BCT has a Biodiversity team comprising 3 staff to coordinate BCT’s BAP delivery, and ensure that policies impacting on bat conservation incorporate appropriate measures.
Volunteer Bat Surveyors
A core BCT work area is the development and management of surveillance approaches for bats, through the coordination of trained volunteer surveyors. BCT established the National Bat Monitoring Program (NBMP) in 1996. This program is a partnership between BCT, Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and over 2000 volunteers throughout the UK. The NBMP now delivers statistically defensible population trend information and an IUCN defined red alert system for 11 resident UK bat species (www.bats.org.uk/pages/nbmp.html). More than 3000 sites have been surveyed since the surveys began in 1997. The programme is underpinned by a strategic training programme and sophisticated statistical modelling (e.g. GLM, GAM) which addresses covariate influences on trends and uses power analyses to set targets for the number of sites surveyed. The program is continually being updated to include new species, innovative field methodologies and the latest advances in statistical analysis. The NBMP is internationally regarded as state-of-the-art and the programme has influenced the development of bat surveillance programmes in other countries including Ireland and Romania.
Daubenton's Bat
BCT is contributing to the BICCO-Net project through its provision of access to various NBMP datasets, such as the Field survey, which covers noctule, serotine and pipistrelle bats and the Waterway survey which covers Daubenton's bats.
Current NBMP work is focused on extending the range of data applications, improving our understanding of the drivers of population change and enhancing the accessibility of information to policy maker and public audiences. To this end, a key activity stream is the development of indicators for policy maker and public audiences.
Indicator work
BCT has led recent projects on the development of biodiversity indicators using NBMP data and convenes the EUROBATS Intersessional Working Group on Bats as Indicators (www.eurobats.org/about/IWG.htm). Examples of recent indicator work:
Incorporation of bat trends in the UK Biodiversity Indicators
NBMP data were used to develop the indicator “Bat populations: Trends in widespread bats”, a measure under the focal area “Status and trends in the components of biological diversity”. This measure was formally adopted within the UK Biodiversity Indicators in May 2008 (http://www.jncc.gov.uk/page-4271).
Developing a methodology for using bats as indicator species
BCT led a desk study (European Environment Agency contract, 2007) Developing a methodology for using bats as indicator species; and testing the usability of GBIF data for use in 2010 biodiversity indicators. The project collated information on the status of bat population surveillance throughout Europe and proposed a methodology for indicator development at European scale.
Monitoring Bat Biodiversity: Indicators of sustainable change in Eastern Europe.
BCT is currently working in partnership with The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) on this Darwin project delivered in Romania and Bulgaria. Teams of volunteers have been trained to conduct car surveys to record bat distribution and abundance on long-distance transects. The Indicator Bats Program - iBats (www.ibats.org.uk) is a partnership between ZSL and BCT, working in partnership with a number of national NGOs. Together we run a number of national and international bat biodiversity monitoring projects to track changes in global biodiversity.
Bats as indicators of environmental quality (Environment Agency contract, 2003).
This project developed models for predicting the occurrence of Daubenton’s bat Myotis daubentonii using environmental data from the Environment Agency River Habitat Survey (RHS). Sites in the NBMP Daubenton’s batwaterway survey are matched to RHS monitoring data to understand links to environmental variables. A recently completed project (2008) tested this model further incorporating newly available RHS variables.
