5th Australasian Ornithological Conference 2009 Armidale, NSW Birds and People Symposium Plenary Talk The Value of Volunteers: the experience of the British Trust for Ornithology Jeremy J. D. Greenwood, Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling, The Observatory, Buchanan Gardens, University of St Andrews, Fife KY16 9LZ, Scotland,
[email protected] The BTO is an independent voluntary body that conducts research in field ornithology, using a partnership between amateurs and professionals, the former making up the overwhelming majority of its c13,500 members. The Trust undertakes the majority of the bird census work in Britain and it runs the national banding and the nest records schemes. The resultant data are used in a program of monitoring Britain's birds and for demographic analyses. It runs special programs on the birds of wetlands and of gardens and has undertaken a series of distribution atlases and many projects on particular topics. While independent of conservation bodies, both voluntary and statutory, much of its work involves the provision of scientific evidence and advice on priority issues in bird conservation. Particular recent foci have been climate change, farmland birds (most of which have declined) and woodland birds (many declining); work on species that winter in Africa (many also declining) is now under way. In my talk I shall describe not only the science undertaken by the Trust but also how the fruitful collaboration of amateurs and professionals works, based on their complementary roles in a true partnership, with the members being the "owners" of the Trust and the staff being responsible for managing the work.