Joanna Richards

Background

About Joanna Richards

Over a decade of experience working in environmental charity communications, currently with The Wildlife Trusts as Head of Communications & Marketing managing a team of professionals looking after digital communications and marketing (covering web, social and email), publications, internal communications, graphic design, virtual/hybrid events and ambassador management. I also oversee The Wildlife Trusts’ major annual engagement campaign, 30 Days Wild, which engages over half a million participants a year and acts as a gateway campaign to help the UK public foster a connection to the natural world. Prior to this I managed national advocacy campaigns for The Wildlife Trusts movement, and as Communications Officer for Yorkshire Wildlife Trust was editor of Wildlife Yorkshire (their membership magazine) amongst other duties. In between Wildlife Trust positions, I have also worked as a key part of the IUCN UK Peatland Programme’s small strategic team - bringing together academics, eNGOs and government bodies to advance peatland policy to ensure their long time protection as important carbon stores and wildlife habitats. During this time I was part of the team that developed the UK Peatland Strategy adopted by all four countries and produced a number of engagement/educational briefings and documents. I also co-ordinated the programme’s annual conference, which moved around the UK and had a varied programme of lectures, workshops and field trips. Finally, I contributed to re-publication of ‘Conserving Bogs: The Management Handbook’ and co-authored ‘Smoke on Water: Countering Global Threats from Peatland Loss and Degradation’ with the Global Peatlands Initiative.