Matt Shardlow

Peterborough

Matt is Chief Executive of Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust, the only organisation in Europe committed to saving all animals without backbones. The charity’s priorities include the sustainable management of brownfield sites; saving endangered Biodiversity Action Plan Priority species; putting bees and flowers back into towns and the countryside; saving key sites for bugs from destruction, and improving the health of freshwater ecosystems. Buglife has twenty five staff members, many volunteers and a growing portfolio of conservation projects, which includes Urban Buzz projects in eight UK cities and coordinating the national B-Lines programme. Buglife has been closely involved in developing the National Pollinator Strategy, sits on the steering group and is closely involved with developing the Scottish pollinator strategy and promoting an EU pollinator strategy. Matt is chair of the Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL) Legal Strategy Group, a Country Diary columnist in the Guardian newspaper and a member of the BBC Rural Affairs Committee.