After 33 years of dedicated service and amazing achievement for the wildlife and people of Wiltshire, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s Chief Executive Dr Gary Mantle MBE announces his plans to retire this summer.
At the helm of the Trust for more than half the time since its formation in 1962, Gary has worked tirelessly for the benefit of the communities, landscape and nature of Wiltshire to create a more sustainable future for wildlife and people. He has also made a tremendous contribution to conservation nationally and internationally, working closely with other Wildlife Trusts and forging strong partnerships with many other charities, public organisations and influential people to magnify the impact of the Trust’s work.
Gary Mantle says:
It has been an honour and a privilege to have led the Trust for so long. Together, we have achieved so much. In 1990, the Trust had under 3,000 members and just 8 staff. Today, we have more than 23,000 members, 26,000 social media followers and nearly 150 staff. We have acquired many nature reserves, building up our land under management for nature to more than 1,200ha across more than 40 reserves.
As Wiltshire Wildlife Trust celebrated its 60th Anniversary in 2022, the Trust has reflected on its many achievements, both in Wiltshire and nationally. The original primary objective set by the founders when the Trust was established, to ensure there is nature left in Wiltshire for everyone to benefit from and enjoy, has been achieved. However many new, tough challenges have emerged. Over the decades, the Trust has risen to the challenges and increased its ambition, repeatedly adapting its strategy and ways of working to tackle the most pressing challenges. For example, the Trust now has a well-established farming operation that helps to manage its reserves for nature; and the Trust’s thriving education and wellbeing teams provide people with the knowledge and understanding to lead more sustainable lives and enable them to benefit from nature.
With the climate and biodiversity crises, and major concerns about the threats to environmental legislation, the challenges have never been greater. Whilst so much has been achieved, the need for the Trust to play a key role in improving the prospects for nature and the environment at a landscape scale is clear and abundant.
Gary will retire leaving the Trust extremely well-positioned to meet this need, having led the preparation of the Trust’s new 2023-2030 strategy, which it is also publishing in full for the first time today.
Read Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s Strategy to 2030
The three key headline goals of the strategy, namely nature will be in recovery, people will be taking action and nature will be valued address enduring conservation and sustainability priorities head on.
Led by Trustees with a wealth of recruitment and leadership experience, the Trust has put in place a process and timetable for recruiting Gary’s successor. The Trust has launched this with an advertisement for the post, and is confident that this prestigious, high profile role will attract outstanding candidates. The new appointee will take up the post in the summer; Gary has kindly offered to provide advice and guidance to ensure a full handover when the new CEO joins.