In a nutshell...
Funding: £87,500 pa (scalable project)*
Length: 3-5 years
Location: Chilterns National Landscape.
Aim: Building on 5+ years of Citizen Science recording and mapping species with volunteers to identify long-term changes in wildlife to guide future land management strategies and projects. Roll out successful blueprint to other landscapes.
Opportunities: Corporate visit days and volunteering.
*subject to additional management fees.
Volunteers surveying species
Tracking the Impact: A Smart Investment in Nature and Community
Tracking the Impact is a pioneering, landscape-scale wildlife monitoring initiative in the Chilterns National Landscape. It’s not just a conservation project - this is a dynamic partnership between science, community and nature recovery.
Why It Stands Out: One of the UK’s most comprehensive citizen science programmes, with over 25,000 species records collected to date.
Robust Data for Real Change: Surveys across 72 x 1km squares so far provide vital insights into biodiversity trends, informing habitat restoration for birds, butterflies, and plants.
Community-Powered: More than 275 trained volunteers to date contribute to national schemes like the Breeding Bird Survey, Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey and National Plant Monitoring Scheme.
Scalable & Strategic: Already expanding into new areas like the Chess catchment, acting as a blueprint to support broader regional nature recovery strategies.
Tangible Environmental Impact: Your support will help track and reverse biodiversity loss, backed by data and measurable outcomes, plus engage and develop the skills of a large and growing volunteer workforce.
Brand Alignment with Sustainability: Align your CSR goals with a project that’s restoring iconic chalk landscapes and protecting red-listed species like the Yellowhammer.
Farm Engagement: This project links to the Central Chilterns Farmer cluster work - informing and helping to shape practical habitat creation projects on the ground (e.g. hedgerows, wildflower margins, specific species projects (grey partridge, Chalk-hill Blue butterfly and Chiltern Gentian). In addition to supporting the work of farmers, it invests in them personally to help them understand the wildlife on their farms.
Community Engagement: Be part of a grassroots movement that empowers local people and builds ecological stewardship through developing skills and supporting their engagement with the Chilterns.
Visibility & Recognition: Funders are acknowledged as key partners in a high-profile, nationally integrated conservation effort.
Be part of something bigger: This project can act as a blueprint and is scalable across other landscapes. The Chilterns National Landscape also sits within the vast Big Chalk partnership, covering 1/5th of England to strategically protect and restore these globally rare chalk and limestone landscapes. Find out more here: Big Chalk
Supporting Tracking the Impact means investing in a healthier, more resilient future - for nature, for people and for the legacy your business leaves behind.
I have learnt a lot through training and meeting people with lots of peer-to-peer learning and support, and connection between the volunteers and the farmers and land managers.
Volunteer, Tracking the Impact
Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella
The project
Tracking the Impact is an award-winning citizen science project monitoring birds, butterflies, and plants across the Chilterns National Landscape. Launched in 2020, the initiative currently spans 72 randomly selected 1km squares and engages over 275 trained volunteers to collect robust, systematic data that informs conservation efforts and habitat management by local farmer clusters. Need more detail? See the website here: Tracking the Impact
Designed in partnership with a diverse steering group, the project replicates national surveys to benchmark local biodiversity trends against national datasets. With over 25,000 records and 600+ species documented so far, early analysis reveals promising signs, such as a 40% increase in Yellowhammer populations, defying national declines.
Beyond monitoring, volunteers participate in a wide range of ecological surveys, including hedgehogs, earthworms, amphibians, and chalk stream health assessments. All data is shared with national recording schemes and local environmental partners, helping shape the future of the Chilterns’ iconic chalk landscape.
This project provides wellbeing and development opportunities for both volunteers and farmers personally, through frequent engagement, support and skill-sharing sessions.
This project is scalable across other landscapes and can act as a blueprint. Your support will enable this project to expand and recruit, enthuse and train further volunteers, helping unlock data to forge future decisions in this precious landscape and beyond. As this landscape sits within the Big Chalk partnership area, you will become part of something much bigger - helping 20% of the UK's precious chalk and limestone habitats!
I’m impressed that over 5 years, the engagement not just of volunteers but also of the farmers.
Partner, Tracking the Impact
Volunteers recording data
I feel like I am part of something bigger and something that matters to me and I learn things and I have learnt a lot through training and meeting people.
Volunteer, Tracking the Impact
The Yellowhammer is one of our most threatened farmland species. Recent Tracking the Impact project bird survey data shows a statistically significant increase in the local population.
Steering Group Members:
- British Trust for Ornithology
- Butterfly Conservation
- Plantlife
- UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
- Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust
- Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Environmental Records Centre
- Joint Nature Conservation Council
Farmer clusters:
- Central Chilterns Farmer Cluster CIC
- Chess Valley Farmer Cluster
Partners & Collaborators:
- Big Chalk Partnership
Interested in hearing more?
Get in touch with the team today.