Award-winning photographer volunteering for Scottish Wildcat Action

Today is the first day of Volunteers’ Week (volunteersweek.org). Over 21 million people volunteer in the UK at least once a year and this contributes an estimated £23.9bn to the UK economy.

Williams said, “Before I became a volunteer, I worked on some exciting projects - producing educational videos for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, writing articles for photography magazines, and snorkelling with Dougie Vipond and Doug Allan for BBC Scotland’s Landward – and I am very excited about what I can do to help Scottish Wildcat Action.”

Barrie joined as a ProjectScotland volunteer in May, and is hosted by one of the partners who have signed up to help deliver Scottish Wildcat Action’s ambitious plan, the National Trust for Scotland. He wanted to use his skills to help the wildlife he loves to photograph and learn how to use social media more effectively.

“Having photographed and filmed wildlife in Scotland for a few years now, I’ve increasingly wanted to do my bit to assist conservation efforts in Britain. Fortunately for me, I have been offered the opportunity to help the biggest conservation effort for the Scottish wildcat. At Scottish Wildcat Action, I am learning about conservation communications: analysing trends on social media and website traffic, identifying popular items, and producing content that encourages engagement. I’ll then use this new knowledge to help raise awareness of the iconic Scottish wildcat, recruiting new volunteers in wildcat priority areas, increasing followers of the project, and encouraging visitors to report sightings of wild-living cats.”

Scottish wildcats are a native species and endangered mainly because of disease and cross-breeding with domestic cats, particularly those feral domestic cats that are living wild in the countryside.

“I’ll also be sharing my filming expertise with the team and producing short videos about their work. I’m very excited about this, as it means I’ll get to visit the RZSS Highland Wildlife Park and meet some Scottish wildcats. I’m also looking forward to getting out on location and meeting the staff and volunteers on the frontline. I’ll be helping to share the fascinating stories about their work to save this species.”

After the three-month ProjectScotland placement, Barrie hopes to return to running his own business.

“Hopefully by the end of my volunteering, I will have made a big difference to conserving the highly endangered Scottish wildcat and picked up some useful tips on using social media for my own photography and filmmaking business.”

Find about more about Scottish wildcats at www.scottishwildcataction.org and to view Barrie’s work go to www.barriewilliams.com