Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts

The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts is a registered charity, incorporated by Royal Charter to promote conservation and raise and manage funds for environmental programmes throughout the UK.

People

• Patron is HRH The Prince of Wales
• The President is Professor Aubrey Manning OBE

The Vice Presidents are:

• Sir David Attenborough | Prof. Chris Baines | Prof. David MacDonald | Julian Pettifer | Sir Robert Worcester | Chris Packham | Nick Baker | Bill Oddie

History

The Society started way back in 1912 when Charles Rothschild (1877-1923) formed the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves (SPNR), with the view "The only effective method of protecting nature is to interfere with it as little as possible..." Rothschild's idea was to set up a network of local Nature Trusts (most of which would later become individual Wildlife Trusts) that would raise funds locally to conserve over 200 of the most important wildlife areas as reserves.