Media Centre

For media enquiries related to the project, please contact any of the four partner organisations at the emails / addresses below:

WWT

Mark Simpson, WWT National PR Manager for Conservation
T: 01453 891138

M: 07825 890590
E: mark.simpson@wwt.org.uk

RSPB SOUTH WEST

Tony Whitehead, RSPB Press Officer
T: 01392 453754
M: 07872 414365
E: tony.whitehead@rspb.org.uk 

RSPB NATIONAL

Grahame Madge, RSPB Media Officer
T: 01767 693221.  
M: 07702 196902 (out of hours)
E: grahame.madge@rspb.org.uk   

PENSTHORPE CONSERVATION TRUST

Mark Noble
T: 01328 851465
E: mark.noble@pensthorpe.com  

VIRIDOR CREDITS

Catherine Reid
T: 01962 893893
E: catherine.reid@remarkablegroup.co.uk  

Notes to Editors:

The Great Crane Project is a partnership between the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, RSPB and Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, with major funding from Viridor Credits Environmental Company. Our aim is to restore healthy populations of wild cranes throughout the UK, so that people can once again experience these beautiful birds.

• WWT is a leading UK conservation organisation saving wetlands for wildlife and people across the world. With over 60 years experience of wetland conservation, WWT is committed to the protection of wetlands and all that depend on them for survival.  WWT operates nine wetland visitor centres in the UK and manages over 2,000 hectares, including seven Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), one Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI), six Special Protection Areas (SPA), Part of one Marine Nature Reserve and six Ramsar sites, supporting over 200,000 waterbirds. WWT aviculturalists’ extensive hand-rearing expertise is a vital part of the Great Crane Project.

• The RSPB is the largest wildlife conservation charity in Europe. The Society manages over 200 nature reserves in the UK and has been involved with the reintroduction of red kites, white-tailed eagles, corncrakes and cirl buntings, with other partners, to parts of the UK. The RSPB owns and manages 3 major nature reserves in Somerset covering over 900 hectares, at West Sedgemoor, Greylake and Ham Wall.

• The Pensthorpe Conservation Trust is a Norfolk-based conservation charity which has been working with Eurasian cranes for over a decade and has a small population of wild cranes already using its 500 acre reserve in the Wensum Valley.  It’s avicultural and satellite tracking expertise form an essential part of the Great Crane Project.

• Viridor Credits Environmental Company distributes funding through the Landfill Communities Fund. Funding is available for community and environmental projects within 10 miles (priority to projects within five miles) of an active Viridor Waste Management Landfill site. Since 1996 Viridor Credits has allocated over £60m to over a thousand projects across the UK.