Standing on a quiet coastal path, I watch as gannets plunge into the sea ahead of me. Beyond them lies an islet, dotted with puffin burrows. To my left, heathland alive with butterflies and the calls of Dartford warblers. To my right, a formidable Victorian fort, concealing a WWII German bunker within. A black rabbit darts across the path as I walk past a white sand beach and, just as dusk settles, a blonde hedgehog ambles into view.
Where could I be? Nowhere but Alderney.
On a recent visit to this northernmost of the Channel Islands, I was struck by how much potential this small island holds for meaningful environmental impact. Despite its rich biodiversity and unique habitats, environmental work on Alderney has received only minimal support from a UK trust or foundation. Since returning, I have been wondering whether this should change, and so I wanted to share what I learned with our EFN network.
The geography
Alderney is just 3.5 square miles in size, with under 2,000 residents, located off the coast of Normandy. As part of the British Isles and a Crown Dependency of the UK (along with the other Channel Islands and the Isle of Man), it has its own government, but its citizens are British, and the UK is responsible for its defence and foreign affairs. Travel from the UK involves a (tiny!) plane from Southampton which takes 40 minutes, or a ferry via Guernsey.
The history
Once a Roman settlement (with a Neolithic burial site evidencing human presence long before), and later part of Normandy, Alderney has remained in English (and then British) hands since the conquest of 1066. In the 19th century, it emerged as a strategic British defensive outpost, ringed with imposing Victorian forts. During World War II, German forces occupied the island, repurposing those same forts to conceal their own concrete bunkers. Alderney was the only part of the British Isles to host a Nazi concentration camp.
The environment
Alderney is a sanctuary for wildlife, known for its diverse habitats and rich marine life. It hosts a 1500-hectare Ramsar site, made-up of rocky shorelines, tide-swept habitats, kelp forest and coastal grassland. The island supports around more than 1% of the world’s gannet population and is a stopover for migratory birds like golden orioles, hoopoes, and turtle doves. Puffins, peregrine falcons, ringed plovers, razorbills, fulmars, bottlenose dolphins, basking sharks, and critically endangered European eels are also among the species that can be found here. In addition, Alderney is home to 13 species of bats, several rare moths and butterflies, and iconic leucistic hedgehogs.
The threats
Just like anywhere else, Alderney’s wildlife is facing mounting pressures. Climate-driven changes have brought invasive species such as yellow-legged hornets. Gannets are lining their nests with plastic fishing waste, leading to dozens of chick and adult deaths each year from entanglement. This same plastic pollution, along with boat disturbance, is also threatening the Balearic shearwater, Europe’s only critically endangered seabird. Puffins have seen recent drops in productivity and lesser black-backed gulls have declined by 70% in a decade, with the cause of these declines needing urgent research. Alderney also has limited environmental protection laws (and actually not many laws at all), making community engagement vital to avoid harm to local species and habitats.
The possibilities
Alderney offers a unique range of conservation opportunities with high potential impact. Its seagrass beds – vital for blue carbon storage and marine biodiversity – are in better condition than the UK average but are now being degraded by mooring damage, warming seas, pollution and freshwater run-off from storm events. Targeted restoration could be paired with the recovery of native European oyster populations to boost local water quality. The island’s deforested landscape, stripped during WWII, offers strong potential for rewilding through strategic management and native broadleaf planting. Meanwhile, collaboration with local fishers could help reduce plastic entanglement in seabird colonies. As a frontline for climate change and invasive species, Alderney also offers a strategic site for research and monitoring, serving as an early warning system for UK biodiversity.
The finances
While the Channel Islands are often associated with wealth, Alderney is a small, rural island with limited funding and no finance sector like Jersey or Guernsey. Some funding has come from Guernsey (a wildlife-focused project was granted £137k by Guernsey’s Social Investment Fund in 2023) but there is a significant funding gap for conservation, research, and restoration. External support is therefore essential for environmental work, yet Alderney’s unique constitutional status makes it ineligible for most UK government environmental funding and many international schemes as well. (The situation is similar for the UK Overseas Territories – find out more here.)
The opportunity
Alderney therefore presents a rare chance for environmental funders to drive high-impact, scalable work with modest investment. Funding can help to protect globally important species and build climate resilience, above and below water. There is a clear need for support across a wide range of areas: from habitat restoration and species monitoring to marine research, invasive species management, and environmental education, all of which offer the opportunity of measurable and tangible results. The island’s scale and location also make it an ideal setting for testing and refining conservation strategies applicable to the wider British Isles.
So, if you’re looking for a place where your support could have a rapid and visible impact, Alderney is worth considering. Research and conservation projects on Alderney are low-hanging fruit, and I personally think that some among our network might just enjoy picking them. With the right backing, I believe this small island could become a big success story for nature.
A final note
During my trip I was welcomed by the Alderney Wildlife Trust, a small but phenomenal team of people working tirelessly to protect the island’s wildlife with very limited resources. If you choose to visit the island, I recommend popping into their shop to learn more about their work (and to book a boat trip to see the puffins!). If you would like to find out more about supporting their work, you can contact their CEO, Roland Gauvain (who set up AWT in 2002) at manager@alderneywildlife.org.
