2025 Free

Bat Conservation Trust Annual Report 2024/2025

The Bat Conservation Trust's Annual Report 2024/2025 covers its work to secure the future of bats and their habitats. The National Bat Helpline handled 11,509 enquiries and the Volunteer Bat Care Helpline answered 5,492, membership grew by 3% to nearly 5,300, and the website had 1,128,958 visitors, a 12.9% increase on the previous year.

Report snapshot
7 Views

About

The Bat Conservation Trust is the UK charity working to secure the future of bats and their habitats, through the National Bat Monitoring Programme, helplines, bat care, training for professionals and farmers, and engagement programmes such as NightWatch in London. Its Annual Report 2024/2025 records 11,509 enquiries handled by the National Bat Helpline, 5,492 enquiries answered by the Volunteer Bat Care Helpline, membership growth of 3% to nearly 5,300 individuals, 1,128,958 website visitors (up 12.9% from 1,000,201), and in one quarter nine training events and 79 wider engagement activities working with more than 240 people. NightWatch brought new voices into conservation, with 40% of participants from minority ethnic backgrounds and 29% disabled. National Bat Monitoring Programme data assessed over a five-year window showed brown long-eared bats decreased by 11.2% across Great Britain.

Key Metrics

11,509 enquiries handled by the National Bat Helpline
5,492 enquiries answered by the Volunteer Bat Care Helpline
1,128,958 website visitors in 2024-25, a 12.9% increase on the year before

Key Outcomes

  • Membership grew by 3%, with nearly 5,300 individuals now part of the BCT community
  • NightWatch in London brought diverse new voices into conservation: 40% of participants from minority ethnic backgrounds and 29% disabled
  • Nine training events and 79 wider engagement activities in one quarter, working with more than 240 people

Geography

UK-Wide

Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
5,999 active volunteers contributed 776,242 hours in 2025/26
Key Metric 2
137 winter maintenance projects across 45 canals; 109 lock gates replaced
Key Metric 3
101,640 children participated in Explorers/STEM outdoor learning, including 67,896 water-safety participants
Over 80% of the network kept fully open despite drought.
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
The Eco-Schools programme reached over 1.4 million pupils, with 2,162 schools awarded the Eco-Schools Green Flag in 2024/25
Key Metric 2
326,000 volunteers pledged to the Great British Spring Clean, picking up 425,626 bags of rubbish, supported by 288 local authorities and parish councils
Key Metric 3
2,227 Green Flag Awards given to parks and green spaces in the UK; 151 beaches given a Blue Flag and/or Seaside Award
98.3% of educators felt the Eco-Schools programme significantly supports young people's development of 'green skills'
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
First known breeding success of spoonbills in the Norfolk Broads in around 400 years, recorded at Hickling Broads and Marshes
Key Metric 2
Over 60 nature reserves managed across Norfolk, with land owned or managed for wildlife exceeding 5,000 hectares
Key Metric 3
1,500 volunteers helped protect wildlife across the county during the year
New urban nature reserve co-designed with the local community, expanding accessible green space in Norfolk
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
61,819 native oysters deployed across UK restoration projects in 2024/25
Key Metric 2
15,064 people participated in the Beachwatch beach clean programme, submitting 1,256 litter surveys — the highest in the programme's 31-year history
Key Metric 3
17,613 young people engaged through in-person or online youth programme sessions
£11.5 billion Ofwat investment package secured for storm overflow cuts in England and Wales following sustained MCS advocacy