A Wilder Dorset by 2030: Our Strategy

Nature in Dorset and across the UK is fragmented and under increasing pressure, leaving wildlife less able to recover from environmental change or adapt to climate impacts. Dorset Wildlife Trust’s nature reserves protect some of our most important habitats, but they cannot stand alone. More connected habitats and stronger nature recovery networks are essential to creating more space for wildlife and restoring biodiversity and abundance across Dorset.

Nature recovery is also critical to tackling climate change. Healthy habitats store carbon, reduce flood risk, improve water quality and strengthen resilience to climate impacts. Given the opportunity, nature can play a vital role in climate adaptation and mitigation through nature-based solutions. Achieving national ambitions, including the 30 by 30 target, will require sustainable land and sea management, habitat restoration and stronger ecological connectivity.

Success depends on collaboration. By working alongside farmers, landowners, communities, businesses and partners, we will help create a healthier natural environment that supports wildlife recovery, climate resilience and people’s health and wellbeing.

Human activity has driven long-term declines in wildlife across Dorset and the UK, leaving habitats fragmented and species under increasing pressure from development, pollution, climate change, and unsustainable land and sea management. While Dorset Wildlife Trust and our partners have protected important habitats and prevented further losses, nature remains under significant threat. While there is strong public support for nature recovery, this cannot be taken for granted.

Political priorities, economic pressures and competing demands on land and resources can weaken environmental ambition and place wildlife recovery at risk. At the same time, growing public awareness and support for environmental action show that positive change is possible when evidence-based, nature-focused solutions are embraced.

Standing up for nature has never been more important. We will champion strong environmental leadership, influence policy and decision-making, and ensure that both challenges and solutions are clearly understood. We will advocate for ambitious action and evidence-based solutions, not accept inadequate compromises that enable further declines, and work across sectors, including planning, education, public health and the green economy, so that protecting and restoring nature becomes part of everyday decision-making and a shared societal responsibility.

Creating opportunities for people to connect with nature and take action is essential if we are to inspire more people to play a role in nature recovery and contribute towards the wider ambition of one in four people taking action for nature. We will work with communities to build confidence, inspire participation, and provide opportunities to learn about, enjoy, and care for nature while supporting health and wellbeing.

To improve our effectiveness as an organisation we are committed to diversifying our supporters and engaging people of all backgrounds and abilities, particularly groups currently underrepresented in the environmental sector, and young people. Contact with nature supports physical and mental wellbeing and helps create healthier communities and better places to live and work. Everyone has a role to play in creating a wilder Dorset.

By supporting action at community and individual levels, we will help people turn ideas and interest into meaningful change where they live. Our nature reserves and visitor centres will remain welcoming, accessible places that connect people with nature, enable more people to benefit from it, and inspire action for its recovery.

Delivering our charitable objectives requires strong leadership, sound governance, and efficient use of resources. We will operate with integrity, accountability, and value for money, while providing a safe, inclusive, and rewarding environment for staff and volunteers with equality of opportunity for all.

Long-term financial resilience is essential. We will strengthen financial sustainability through robust planning, effective fundraising, diversified income generation, and careful stewardship of resources.

A supporter-focused culture is central to our future success. We will strengthen our brand, grow awareness of our impact, and build lasting relationships by engaging meaningfully with people and communities. Expanding and diversifying our supporter base will help secure long-term resilience.

We will also demonstrate leadership through exemplary environmental performance across our own operations, ensuring Dorset Wildlife Trust remains credible, trusted, and fit to lead nature’s recovery.

Dorset Wildlife Trust’s strategy is being delivered at a time of profound environmental, political and economic change. The global climate and nature crises are accelerating alongside continuing environmental degradation, while geopolitical instability, economic pressures and political division risk weakening environmental ambition. The false narrative that nature recovery and economic development are competing priorities must be challenged: a healthy natural environment underpins resilient communities, food and water security, climate adaptation, wellbeing and a sustainable economy. The international commitment to conserve and effectively manage at least 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 (30 by 30) provides an important framework for action, but delivery now requires rapid progress at every level.

Nature in Dorset remains under significant pressure from habitat loss and fragmentation, pollution, climate change, development and unsustainable land and sea use. Recovery must therefore move beyond protecting individual sites towards restoring connected landscapes, catchments and seascapes at scale.

Dorset Wildlife Trust has an important delivery and influencing role within Dorset’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy and through partnerships including the Dorset Local Nature Partnership, Dorset Catchment Partnership and Dorset Coast Forum, helping align conservation, land management, water, coast and community action.

Proposals for devolution, including the Heart of Wessex approach, create opportunities to embed nature recovery within regional decision-making, investment, land use, infrastructure and economic development, and to work across administrative boundaries at the ecological scale required.

The Convention on Biological Diversity and the Global Biodiversity Framework establish global goals to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, including the 30 by 30 commitment.

The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions provides an internationally recognised framework for ensuring that nature-based solutions deliver robust benefits for biodiversity, climate resilience and people.

The Wildlife Trusts are developing an International Strategic Framework, recognising that ecological challenges cross borders and that the movement can contribute expertise, partnerships and practical conservation experience to wider international action.