Beaver Reintroduction Manager

Beaver Reintroduction Manager 

Salary: up to £38,000 per annum  

Location: Flexible home working with office facilities in Newark, Nottinghamshire (Tues
– Thurs), some UK travel will be required  

Full time (35 hours per week)  

2 year fixed term contract (with potential to extend) 

Closing date for applications: 31st March 2024  

First interview: Provisionally 11th April 2024  

Second interview: Provisionally 22nd April 2024 

About Us  

The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT) is the central charity which supports the
federation of 46 independent Wildlife Trusts working for nature’s recovery across the UK,
Alderney and the Isle of Man. The Wildlife Trusts’ vision is of a thriving natural world, with
abundant wildlife and healthy natural habitats playing a valued role in addressing the climate
and ecological emergencies, and everyone inspired to take action for nature’s recovery. 

Collectively, The Wildlife Trusts have more than 900,000 members, employ 3,500 staff, look
after over 2,300 nature reserves, operate 123 visitor and education centres and own 29 working
farms. The role of RSWT is to ensure a strong voice for wildlife at a UK level and to provide
strategic leadership, support and development for The Wildlife Trusts. We provide shared
expertise in areas such as climate change, digital fundraising, nature-based solutions, policy
and safeguarding. We facilitate UK-wide communities of practice to share learning and replicate
successful approaches so that together we are more than the sum of our parts. We support the
individual Wildlife Trusts to be a strong force for nature in their local areas and to work
together to achieve even greater impact as a collective. 

The Wildlife Trusts are on a mission to bring about a people-powered nature and climate
recovery by empowering people to take meaningful action for nature, and to create an inclusive
society where nature matters to everyone, everywhere. We are ambitious in our desire not just
to slow, but to reverse the declines in nature. Together we have developed a bold, new
collective strategy which outlines our vision and the actions we will take to restore nature
over the next eight years. 

Central to our strategy are our three goals which set out what we are striving to achieve by
2030 in pursuit of our vision of a thriving natural world. Goal 1 is to put nature into
recovery with abundant, diverse wildlife and natural processes creating wilder land and
seascapes where people and nature thrive. Goal 2 is to inspire people to take action for nature
and climate, resulting in better decision-making for the environment at both local level and
across the four UK nations. And Goal 3 is to enable nature to play a central and valued role in
helping to address local and global problems, such as by helping tackle climate change and
supporting wellbeing and education. 

Achieving these ambitious objectives means that we must develop new ways of working which
increase the scale and impact of our work. Therefore, we have embarked on a programme of
strategic transformations that are essential to achieving our goals, and which will result in a
stronger and more effective Wildlife Trust movement for the long term. RSWT is leading the
transformation programme across The Wildlife Trusts including in community organising,
equality, diversity and inclusion, and funding nature’s recovery. The Wildlife Trusts have
existed for over 100 years thanks to a strong membership base and traditional fundraising
activities. 

The Wildlife Trusts are committed to applying for licences in England and Wales for wild beaver
releases, at scale, alongside community consultation, so that beavers can be successfully
returned to all major river catchments. To lead this new exciting and ambitious project, we are
seeking a dedicated individual to turn this vision into reality by working with Wildlife Trusts
to identify opportunities for wild release across England and Wales, coordinate and directly
support participating Wildlife Trusts and others to submit licence applications and support
community and stakeholder engagement. 

With the nature and climate crisis intensifying, wildlife recovery is essential and for this we
need to see the return of some of Britain’s lost keystone species. For rivers and wetlands, the
most important of these are beavers. Beavers are critical to restoring the natural function of
rivers and wetlands with numerous benefits to society – not least natural flood management. By
working in partnership, we want to support communities to live alongside these industrious
mammals, which will play a crucial role in wetland wildlife recovery. 

The Wildlife Trusts have been at the forefront of piloting the release of beavers in enclosures
to understand their ecological impacts. We have also led licensed wild beaver releases at
Knapdale in Scotland and in Devon. The benefits and impacts of beavers are now well understood
and we now need to see beavers return fully to our freshwater systems. Our aspiration is for
beavers to return to all the main rivers systems of England and Wales, as part of a bigger
vision for unpolluted freshwaters with wildlife restored. In turn, this recovery of nature will
lead to lower water treatment costs and reduced flooding. 

About You 

You will be an enthusiastic individual with great relationship management skills, excellent
communication skills and possess an in-depth knowledge of species reintroduction programmes and
beaver ecology. 

You will be highly organised, collaborative, assertive and experienced project manager adept at
keeping projects and budgets on track delivering against expectations. You will be a diplomatic
communicator, able to facilitate and build relationships with a range of stakeholders. 

You will understand the needs of the Wildlife Trusts and the context in which they operate. 

The Wildlife Trusts value passion, respect, trust, integrity, pragmatic activism and strength
in diversity. Whilst we are passionate in promoting our aims, we are not judgemental and are
inclusive. We particularly encourage applications from people who are underrepresented within
our sector, including people from minority backgrounds and people with disabilities. We are
committed to creating a movement that recognises and truly values individual differences and
identities. 

RSWT take our Safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously. Please look at the website to
read our commitment statement. 

As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to offering an interview to anyone with a
disability that meets all the essential criteria for the post. Please let us know if you
require any adjustments to make our recruitment process more accessible. 

This role maybe subject to a DBS check.