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Our charity
Nature for People and People for Nature
Every charitable cause we run — species conservation, habitat restoration, the Liverpool social charity arm, and Odukwe FC (men's mental health through grassroots football) — sits under the charitable arm of Evolutionary Ecology, Nature for People and People for Nature. Each project below has its own donation page with set amounts of £5, £10, £15, £25, £50, £100 or a custom amount.
Flagship species
Species conservation projects
Striped Hyena Conservation
Securing prey base, reducing persecution and mapping dispersal corridors for one of the region's most mis-understood predators.
Montagu's Harrier Recovery
Farmer-led nest protection, satellite tracking and arable field-margin management for the UK's rarest breeding raptor.
House Sparrow Urban Recovery
Restoring nesting cavities, garden food resources and invertebrate abundance for a species in steep urban decline.
Hoopoe Urban Conservation
Creating urban nest-box networks and chemical-free lawn sites in the UAE and KSA to support Hoopoe breeding success.
Ecosystem restoration
Habitat projects
UK Chalk Grasslands
One of Europe's most species-rich habitats — we fund reseeding, scrub control and orchid protection across the South Downs and Wessex.
Peatlands
Rewetting and sphagnum re-establishment on degraded peat, locking carbon and bringing back curlew, dunlin and large heath butterflies.
Mangroves
Replanting and protecting mangrove nurseries along the UAE coast — natural flood defence, carbon storage and fisheries habitat.
KSA Woodland Restoration
Juniper and acacia regeneration in the Asir and Hejaz mountains — supporting highland biodiversity and groundwater recharge.
Flexible giving
General conservation funds
General Fund
Give us the flexibility to direct your gift to the project that needs it most this month.
Species Conservation Fund
Split across all active species projects — hyena, harrier, sparrow, hoopoe and future recovery programmes.
Habitat Restoration Fund
Split across all active habitat projects — chalk grassland, peatland, mangrove and KSA woodland restoration.
Social charity · Liverpool
Company, a cuppa & nature — for lonely older Liverpudlians
Our social charity arm is rooted in Liverpool. It is designed to pair trained, DBS-checked volunteers with older people who live alone across the city and surrounding boroughs — Everton, Anfield, Toxteth, Walton, Kirkdale, Wavertree, Dingle, Kensington, Aigburth, Speke and beyond — for a regular home visit, a cup of tea, a proper conversation, and, where they want it, a gentle reconnection to the natural world. It is a charity programme, not a paid service: donations go into volunteer travel, DBS checks, training and nature materials for the people visited. The programme is being stood up now — we are actively doing outreach in the community to find the first pairings.
A weekly cuppa & a chat
A matched volunteer visits the same older person every week for an hour — putting the kettle on, catching up on the week, and simply being there. Consistency matters: the same face, the same day, the same hour. For many of the Liverpudlians we aim to visit, this could be the only non-professional company they have all week.
Birds at the window
Where the person wants it, we bring nature to them. A window-mounted bird feeder and a simple ID chart; a small tray of wildflowers on the sill; a trip with the volunteer to Sefton Park, Calderstones, Otterspool Prom or the Mersey foreshore for a short walk and a look at what is flying past. Liverpool has remarkable urban wildlife — goldfinches, long-tailed tits, herons on the Mersey, overwintering waders at Seaforth — and we help people notice it again.
Gardens, pots & food
For those with a back yard, a balcony or even just a window box, volunteers help set up a small grow-your-own: herbs, salad leaves, tomatoes, runner beans, strawberries. Homes without outdoor space get windowsill kits. Produce is shared at the visit — a small act with a big lift for wellbeing, appetite and routine.
Group trips out in Merseyside & beyond
We are planning a monthly minibus trip — six to eight older people, two volunteers — to somewhere green or coastal within an hour of the city: candidates include RSPB Burton Mere, Martin Mere, Formby's red squirrels and pinewoods, the Wirral coast, Rivington, or one of the city's own heritage parks. A pub lunch, a gentle walk, and home before dark. Coming soon — we will launch this strand as volunteer numbers and minibus hire funds allow.
Outreach, referrals & matching
For now we do direct outreach and work with the local community to identify older Liverpudlians who would benefit. In future, referrals could also come from Liverpool GP surgeries, Age UK Liverpool & Sefton, social prescribers, Mersey Care, parish & community groups, and direct self-referral by older people or their families as we build those relationships. Every volunteer is DBS-checked, trained in safeguarding and lone-working, and matched on shared interests — football (both sides of Stanley Park welcome), music, gardening, the docks, Liverpool history.
Anchored to the UN SDGs
This programme contributes explicitly to SDG 3 (Good Health & Well-being), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities & Communities) and SDG 15 (Life on Land). Outcomes — visits delivered, UCLA loneliness scale changes, nature-time minutes, produce grown — are captured anonymously and reported transparently each year.
Why Liverpool, and why now
Liverpool consistently ranks among the English cities with the highest rates of older people living alone, the deepest pockets of deprivation, and the fewest green-space minutes for those without a car. It is also a city with an exceptional community tradition and a remarkable patchwork of urban nature — parks, docks, riverfront, and the reed beds and salt marsh a short bus ride away. The fit is obvious: people who need company, a city that knows how to provide it, and a natural world close at hand that most of the people who need it most have quietly lost access to.
What your donation funds
Donations to this charity arm pay for DBS checks (£23.50 each), safeguarding & lone-working training, bus fare and travel expenses for volunteers, window bird feeders and seed, grow-your-own kits, the monthly minibus day out, and a part-time Liverpool coordinator to run matching, safeguarding and referrals. 100% goes to the programme — no overhead is taken.
Registration note: the social charity arm is currently operated as a ring-fenced, transparently accounted programme within Evolutionary Ecology Limited. We are preparing a separate UK charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) registration with the Charity Commission — once registered, all social-charity donations will flow through the CIO.
Volunteer in Liverpool
One hour a week, same person, same day. Over-18s, DBS & safeguarding training provided by us. Register interest on the apply form — mark the note as "Liverpool social charity".
Know a Liverpudlian who'd benefit?
For now the programme relies on community outreach rather than formal referral routes. If you know an older Liverpudlian who would benefit, you can get in touch via the contact page — choose "Liverpool social charity" as the subject and we will follow up. As the programme grows we plan to add formal referral partners (GP surgeries, social prescribers, Age UK Liverpool & Sefton, Mersey Care).
Fund a year of visits
£15 covers one DBS check. £40 covers one volunteer for a month of bus fares. £120 pays for one matched pair's bird-feeder, seed and grow-kit. £1,500 funds a minibus day-out for eight older people, including lunch.
Donate to the social arm ›Social charity · Merseyside Sunday league
Odukwe FC — men's mental health, meet-ups & sustainable football
Odukwe FC is a Sunday league football club run as part of the charitable arm of Evolutionary Ecology, Nature for People and People for Nature. Its purpose is to give men a reason to meet up, get out of the house, stay fit and talk openly while battling mental health challenges — with a second purpose of setting the gold standard for running a football club sustainably.
Why the club exists — in memory of Olisa Odukwe
The club is named in memory of Olisa Odukwe, a friend whose life was lost to suicide. Suicide remains the single largest cause of death for men under 50 in the UK, and the men around Olisa — like many men — found it hard to talk about how they were doing until the very worst had happened. Odukwe FC exists so that fewer families have to live through what his did: a standing weekly reason to show up, kick a ball around, have a pint or a brew afterwards, and actually talk. Nothing heavy, nothing clinical — just the steady, quiet, evidence-based benefit of a regular meet-up with other men who are doing the same.
We treat this seriously. Training includes signposting to Samaritans (116 123), CALM, and local Mersey Care NHS services; any player or volunteer who wants a quieter conversation can get one after training with someone who has been trained to listen, not to diagnose. No-one is asked to share anything they do not want to share.
Anchored to the UN SDGs
The programme is anchored explicitly to SDG 3 (Good Health & Well-being), SDG 5 (Gender Equality — including men's mental health outcomes), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities & Communities), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption & Production — kit, pitches, travel), SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 15 (Life on Land — pitch ecology & grounds). Outcomes (training attendance, self-reported wellbeing scales, player retention, kit & travel footprint) are captured anonymously and reported transparently each year.
The gold standard for sustainable football
Alongside the mental-health mission, Odukwe FC aims to be the model for how a grassroots club can be run sustainably. That means: kit in recycled polyester from ethical suppliers with a repair-first policy; car-share rotas and public-transport-first away travel; a pitch-ecology plan (reduced cutting regimes outside the playing area, pollinator margins, no synthetic pesticides); a plastic-free matchday kit for supporters; local, sourced-nearby post-match food; transparent published accounts; and a commitment to keep match fees low so that affordability is never the reason someone does not come.
Instagram — Sunday league team
Match reports, training nights and fixtures for the Sunday league side are posted on Instagram. Give the page a follow for fixtures, photos and the occasional nudge to turn up.
Get involved
Players, coaches, pitch-side listeners and volunteers are welcome. Register interest on the apply form — mark the note as "Odukwe FC".
Donate to Odukwe FC
Help give men a standing reason to meet up, get out and stay fit while battling mental health challenges. Donations cover pitch hire, match fees, kit, mental-health-first-aid training and sustainable travel support.
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