Partnerships

Government

The BTO has specific relationships with Government Departments (Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy).

We also have good relationships with the country nature conservation delivery Agencies: Natural England (NE), Natural Resources Wales (NRW), Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).

These partnerships are set in the context of the BTO - Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) Partnership Agreement, and enable BTO to be a Government contractor.

Academia

We have strong relationships with a number of Universities and research institutes, enabling collaborative scientific research programmes. These include the University of East Anglia, Birmingham University and Cambridge University where we are a founder member of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) along with a range of other global and national conservation organisations based in and around Cambridge.

Third Sector NGOs

As a Third Sector environment organisation we have strong partnerships with many other nature NGOs, including close associations with RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts and other taxa organisations including Plantlife and Butterfly Conservation. We undertake collaborative monitoring programmes, and together seek to raise the standard of wildlife monitoring to that we have achieved for birds.

• We are also a member of the National Biodiversity Network (NBN).

Working with business

Our relationships with business include a strong Corporate Membership scheme across a range of sectors.

We regularly undertake contracts for environmental consultancies, and provide advice to developers, currently most notably in the renewable energy and marine sectors,  providing a comprehensive range of commercial services.

The BTO is active in the information, publishing and media sectors with particularly strong and productive relationships with Birdguides and the BBC. We work with a number of key environment journalists, and a range of publishing houses.

Working internationally

Internationally the BTO has two key partnerships across Europe - the European Bird Census Council (EBCC) and EURING. In addition we work with individual country partners in Europe and elsewhere and, increasingly, collaborate with international institutions and global conservation organisations, including Birdlife International and the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).