🦅 Help Ospreys Return to Cornwall

Aim

We’re building nesting platforms to give ospreys the best chance to return and breed in Cornwall 🦅

🦅 Helping Ospreys Return to Cornwall – Building More Nesting Platforms 

💚 Why It Matters

🦅 Ospreys were once widespread in the UK but were lost as a breeding bird in England for over 150 years due to persecution.

🌍 They are now making a comeback, and Cornwall is perfectly placed to link up growing populations to the north, east and south 

🌅  Each new platform increases the chance of attracting a breeding pair and kickstart the return of the osprey as a breeding bird for the first time since the 1600s.

📖  Our Story So Far

In 2023, thanks to your incredible support, we successfully crowdfunded to kickstart our osprey nest platform project. Together, we mapped suitable areas for nesting sites, worked with landowners and other partners, and have installed 8 osprey platforms around Cornish estuaries, each complete with a remote monitoring camera. This was a huge step forward in creating safe spaces for these magnificent birds of prey to return and breed in Cornwall.  We also purchased 14 further telegraph poles that are stored, ready to be transported and installed at new sites.

📘 The Next Chapter

To keep momentum going, we urgently need your help to raise the money to install and equip these next platforms before the next osprey migration season.

Permissions are already in place with landowners for some of these platforms across the county and we need time to visit and assess potential sites and obtain permissions from landowners for the remainder.

💷  What Your Donation Will Do

Your support will help us:

🚜 Transport and install platforms across Cornwall.

🎥 Equip sites with solar-powered remote cameras so we can monitor osprey activity and share updates with the public.

🌍 Work with local landowners and communities, creating long-term stewardship for these special birds.

💼 Grant writing and other fundraising activities to secure further funding for the maintenance of existing platforms, annual data plans for remote cameras, finding further suitable sites and securing agreements with landowners, and producing social media content related to the project.

Each and every pound brings us closer to seeing ospreys soar over Cornwall’s rivers and estuaries once more.

🪶 Be Part of Cornwall’s Osprey Story

By supporting this crowdfunder, you’ll help write the next chapter in the osprey’s return. With your help, we can install more platforms, inspire more people, and give these incredible birds the best chance to call Cornwall home again.

 Please donate today, doubling your donation with match-funding (up to £250) – and share this campaign widely to help us bring ospreys back to Cornwall for good.

  Want to support as a Business Member? – join today, and your membership joining fee will be match-funding up to £250 per donation to support Ospreys in Cornwall!

Testimonials from some of our Wild Kernow Business Members

“It is going to take passion to conserve our countryside for future generations. As a business trying to achieve Net Zero, the global challenge can feel overwhelming which makes our efforts feel trivial by comparison. Then you find organisations like Kernow Conservation who need your support. Their commitment to our wildlife shines out in their work with landowners and restoring biodiversity. If everyone did that, then achieving a sustainable future will become more of a possibility.

”No business should be an island. We all have a responsibility to be part of our wider community. We cannot ignore the pressing need for us all to take action to ensure global security. It is important to clients and staff so why would you not make it part of your business strategy? What we like about Kernow Conservation is that we can see the difference they are making. In a world of increasingly grim news, doing something visibly positive is just what every business needs.”

— Hannah Rowe - Director, Rowe IT

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“We owe everything we have to our natural world. As humans, we dramatically affect every aspect of the natural world, and we have an incumbent responsibility to protect that which was given. Over the coming years, all businesses will seek more sustainable ways to operate. At Richfords, we strongly believe that supporting and nurturing biodiversity is critical to sustainability. Our support of Kernow Conservation and their fantastic work enables us to have a direct and tangible effect on improving biodiversity.

”Just one of the many things you will love about supporting Kernow Conservation is the direct and tangible benefits your support will enable. Our team at Richfords was pleased and proud that the company sponsored Kernow Conservation, but when our team members had the opportunity to be directly involved, the sense of pride and well-being right across the team rocketed. ”

— Michael Cooper Business Development Director, Richfords Fire & Flood

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“To witness the reintroduction of a species that was previously extinct across the county, and to know that our hard work and success as a company has contributed towards this program was a great privilege and something we can hopefully all be proud of.”

— Sam Culley, Richfords Technician

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“We are so delighted to support the great work Kernow Conservation are doing. As a registered B-Corp, being able to work in partnership with KC is part of the commitment that we, as a business, have to being a force for good. In addition to our own efforts to have positive impacts in all that we do, part of this commitment is to donate to charities and projects that are doing the same. We wanted to concentrate on charities and projects local to us, and we feel strongly about nature conservation. Kernow Conservation fits these objectives perfectly. It is a relatively small organisation, with a very hands-on focus on using smart and targeted actions to make big impacts on biodiversity and nature conservation in our own locality.

We are not a large business and want our limited resources that we are able to donate to go a long way. Kernow Conservation are a small organisation and the support of businesses like ours is of vital importance to them. Their ecological expertise means that they target their programs to have a big ecosystem impact with small and targeted interventions, and partnering with them makes us feel like we are making an important contribution to nature in Cornwall. ”

— Prune and Collin, Directors, Prune Harris Ltd.

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“All of us at Cornish Tin are proud to support the valuable work being done by Kernow Conservation.

It has always been, right from our earliest days, an essential aim of Cornish Tin to benefit our natural environment. As well as our tree-planting programmes, we know that our support to Kernow Conservation makes a direct contribution to environmental diversity and protection in Cornwall.

Some of our geologists participated in a recent water vole release into the wild, and said how great it was to be part of a hands-on effort to support the natural wildlife of Cornwall.

As a local company we think it’s important to support Kernow Conservation’s valuable work and I am sure that it would appeal to many other businesses looking for an effective way to help protect Cornwall’s natural environment.”

— Sally Norcross-Webb, Founder and CEO of Cornish Tin

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“Sustainability and community are two main pillars of Brooks Estates and Kernow Conservation aligns with both these factors and only supports and furthers us towards our goals. Brooks Estates are proud to support and be a part of the growing community of partnerships that also support Kernow Conservation. Kernow Conservation also provide an opportunity for individuals to reconnect with nature and aware and be involved in local environmental projects.

”Brooks Estates are advocates for supporting local communities and organisations, especially when the environment is at the helm. For Brooks Estates Ltd, this partnership has been an investment in time, knowledge and awareness of local environmental projects. Kernow Conservation is creating a growing community of likeminded businesses, and we are proud of this partnership.”

— Flora Tswei Assistant Ecologist, Brooks Estates

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Thank you to our Ambassador Andy Wilson for the Osprey Photos. Photos used with permission and thanks © Andy Wilson.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made