Vincent Wildlife Trust
Conserving mammals in need
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| Abbreviation | VWT |
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| Formation | 1975 |
| Legal status | Non-profit company and registered charity |
| Purpose | Conservation of mammals in Britain and Ireland. |
| Location |
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Region served
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UK and Ireland |
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Chief Executive Officer
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Natalie Buttriss |
| Website | Official website |
The Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT) was founded in 1975 by the late Honourable Vincent Weir. It is a charity that focuses on mammal conservation in Britain and Ireland. Its Head Office is in Herefordshire, with local offices in south-west England, Wales and Ireland.
Vincent Weir was the younger son of Andrew Weir, second Baron Inverforth. He was educated at Malvern College and on leaving school, Vincent joined the family firm, the Andrew Weir Group.
In 1975, Vincent established The Vincent Wildlife Trust, to focus initially on the status of the otter. Other species the Trust has been or is involved with include the water vole, dormouse, stoat, weasel, polecat, pine marten and the rarer species of bats in Britain, notably the horseshoe bats, Bechstein's bat and barbastelle and in Ireland, the lesser horseshoe bat.
National otter surveys of England, Scotland and Wales began in 1977, with the VWT covering Scotland. In the 1980s, VWT again surveyed Scotland and also Wales and Ireland. In the early 1990s, the VWT also took over the surveying of England. The surveys relied on searching for otter spraints. The surveys recorded a level of recovery in Britain’s otter population between the first round of surveys in the late 1970s and the third round in the early 1990s.
The trust carried out the first and second national water vole surveys in 1989-1990 and 1996-98. These surveys identified the crash in the water vole population in Britain. Following the publication of the first survey, the water vole was given a degree of legal protection in 1998 under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act. In 2008, a greater level of protection was given in England and Wales. The long-term decline of the water vole resulted from a loss of habitat and changes in farming practices, but the acceleration in the rate of this decline in the 1980s was down to increasing predation by feral American mink. The status of the water vole is now monitored annually by the PTES through the National Water Vole Monitoring programme and is based on those sites originally surveyed by the trust.
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