Event: Wildlife Gardening Virtual Symposium 2026

This event is aimed at those who manage gardens for wildlife, or advise the public on wildlife gardening techniques - so join us regardless of if you are a conservation professional or simply a gardener who enjoys helping wildlife thrive.

The UK, like most other countries worldwide, has seen significant loss of its plants, animals and fungi. The State of Nature reports that the UK is now one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth, with species declining by an average of 19% over the past 50 years. This makes nature-friendly gardening more important than ever as our gardens can provide a haven for the wildlife that visit or reside within them.

Wildlife gardening is now a popular approach, with members of the British public trying to do what they can to give our wildlife a helping hand. This also makes it a business opportunity, with pollinator seed mixes, insect hotels and bird feeders commonly stocked throughout garden centres and online retailers.

But how do we know that our wildlife gardening practices are actually beneficial for nature? The management of habitats that aren’t informed by scientific evidence is at best a matter of hearsay, and at worst, can be misinformed and counter-productive. Our annual Wildlife Gardening Virtual Symposium provides a platform for scientists researching wildlife gardening to share their work and help us all take an evidence-based approach to how we manage our gardens for wildlife.

Speaker Programme

The Wildlife Gardening Virtual Symposium will be hosted by Hafsah Hafeji (Wildlife Gardening Forum) and will feature 4 presentations on research relevant to wildlife gardening, as well as a round-up of other wildlife gardening research, policy and initiatives from the Wildlife Gardening Forum:

• Fragments of Paradise: Garden Ponds as Wildlife Habitat with Dr Mike Jeffries (Northumbria University)
• Gardening for Pollinators: It's About More Than Just Flowers! with Prof Jeff Ollerton (University of Northampton and Kunming Institute of Botany)
• How Fungi Make Gardens Flourish with Dr Jassy Drakulic (Royal Horticultural Society)
• Recording Wild Mammals in Urban Spaces: A Multidecadal Study with David Wembridge (Peoples Trust for Endangered Species)

The presentations will be recorded and shared with those who booked alongside Q&A transcripts and lists of useful links via a password-protected website following the event.

eTicket Fees

This event is unfunded and we rely on ticket fees to cover the costs of running the event. However, we did not want cost to be a barrier to attendance so we are letting you decide what you can afford to pay to attend.

1. Professional Ticket - Ticket price is £30. Ticket option for those attending in a professional capacity as part of their work or for their career professional development.
2. Non-professional Ticket - Pay what you can afford (minimum fee of £1, recommended donation £10). VAT at 20% will be added to your ticket fee at checkout. Ticket option for non-professionals such as volunteer biological recorders, conservation volunteers and amateur naturalists.
3. Barnet Resident/Volunteer Ticket - Ticket price is £12. These tickets can be claimed for free using the discount code provided by Barnet Council. Contact us at [email protected] for instructions on how to claim your discount code from Barnet Council. Only individuals who reside or volunteer at green spaces within the London Borough of Barnet are eligible for these tickets.

Missed the 2025 Wildlife Gardening Virtual Symposium?

Not to worry. You can catch up with the presentations listed below and the news round-up from the Wildlife Gardening Forum on the Biological Recording Company website.

1. How To Optimise Our Gardens As Habitats For Hedgehogs with Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen (University of Oxford)
2. The Impact of Wildlife-friendly Gardening on Butterflies with Dr Richard Fox (Butterfly Conservation)
3. Garden Bird Feeding: Impacts, Challenges and Trade-offs with Dr Hugh Hanmer (British Trust for Ornithology)
4. Gardening for Bats and People with Jo Ferguson (Bat Conservation Trust)