Cornwall Wildlife Trust has been chosen as Cornwall Chamber of Commerce’s Charity of the Year from September 2019.

Carolyn Cadman, chief executive of Cornwall Wildlife Trust, said: “We’re delighted to be Charity of the Year and excited about the opportunity to work closely with the Chamber of Commerce, and to make more connections with businesses across Cornwall.

"As well as being good for our well-being, we know how important the environment is for the economy of Cornwall. We want to work with an increasing number of businesses to help them take decisions which secure the recovery of growth of wildlife, alongside the growth of our economy too.

"Now, with increasing public recognition of climate and ecological crises, it is more important than ever to protect and grow our environment, and being selected as Cornwall Chamber’s Charity of the Year will help to put Cornwall’s special wildlife and wild places at the forefront in the minds of our business, trade and community leaders.”

Cornwall Wildlife Trust is part of The Wildlife Trust’s ‘Wilder Future’ campaign, which launched nationally earlier this year, supported by Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows characters.

A film trailer narrated by Sir David Attenborough and featuring the voices of Stephen Fry and Alison Steadman showed Badger, Ratty, Mole and Toad in need of desperate help when the habitats they call home are destroyed by development.

The trust wants to create a 'Wilder Future and a Wilder Cornwall' with people close to nature and land and seas rich in wildlife. Working with the support of Cornwall’s businesses and developers is vital for this to happen, it said.

Kim Conchie, chief executive of Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, said: “Business owners and their colleagues in Cornwall are very proud of the place we live and work in.

"We want to keep it as beautiful, diverse and environmentally sustainable as we can.

"By supporting Cornwall Wildlife Trust as our Charity of the Year 2019-20, Cornwall Chamber of Commerce is demonstrating our aim that Cornwall remains at the cutting edge of clean and green business practices; and the success and pleasure we take from the natural place we operate in.”

Applicants for the Charity of the Year award must be members of the Chamber of Commerce. Cornwall Wildlife Trust is also supported by more than 160 businesses as well as more than 80 local seafood-related businesses through its Cornwall Good Seafood Guide.

The trust has its own category in the Cornwall Tourism Awards with the ‘Wildlife Friendly Business Award’, which encourages tourism businesses to consider wildlife and wild places at the core of their operation.

Additionally, Cornwall Wildlife Trust works in partnership with the University of Exeter, Cornwall Council and Cornwall Development Company on Tevi.