Privacy Policy

The IUCN UK Peatland Programme was set up in 2009 to promote peatland restoration in the UK and advocates the multiple benefits of peatlands through partnerships, strong science, sound policy and effective practice. 

Our long-term vision is that peatlands in the UK function to their full potential and that there is no further loss of peatland ecosystems, which will help mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss. Investment in peatland restoration is needed now, securing the benefits they provide and avoiding the costly consequences of their deterioration. 

The work of the IUCN UK Peatland Programme is overseen by a coalition of partner bodies. The Programme is currently hosted by the The Wildlife Trusts. It operates across the UK, as well as engaging with international peatland work through IUCN. 

We are committed to keeping your personal details safe. This policy explains how and why we use your personal data, to ensure that you remain informed and in control of your information. 

Any references to the IUCN UK Peatland Programme, IUCN UK PP, the Peatland Programme or to ‘we’ or ‘us’ refer to: 

• The IUCN UK Peatland Programme. We are a programme hosted by The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, a registered charity in England and Wales, with the charity number 207238. 

We use three key definitions to describe people mentioned in this policy. These are definitions used by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent body set up to uphold information rights (www.ico.org.uk): 

• ‘Data subject’: this is you. As the data subject, we respect your right to control your data. 

• ‘Data controller’: this is us, the IUCN UK Peatland Programme. With your permission, we determine why and how your personal data is used (as outlined in this policy). 

• ‘Data processor’: this is an organisation, who processes your data on our behalf, with your permission. For example, this might be an events company, who send out conference booking details on our behalf (sometimes it’s more cost-effective to outsource ad-hoc and large-scale tasks like this). 

When we work with other organisations or individuals in this way, we always set up a written contract with them to protect your data. The third parties we work with at no point ‘own’ your data, so you will never hear from them independently and they will always delete your data from their systems when they have completed the task in hand. We always send your data to partner organisations securely, to minimise the risk of it being intercepted by unknown individuals and/or organisations. 

We will never sell your personal data. 

Should you wish to find out more about the information we hold about you, or about our privacy policy, please contact us at: info@iucn.org.uk. Our office hours are Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm. 

We use your personal data to keep in touch with you. 

We will only ever collect, store and use your personal data when we have an identified purpose and reason to do so. The ICO refers to this as a ‘lawful basis’. Further information about why we collect your personal data is outlined below. 

a) To send you information about the work of the UK peatland community and ask for your opinion 

We collect your personal data so that we can send you information about our work and that of our partners that we feel will be of interest to you. This includes a quarterly newsletter, event information, services, products, feedback, competitions and other activities, as well as information about other carefully selected organisations that we work in partnership with. From time to time, we may also use your personal data to ask for your opinion about our work. 

This information is defined as ‘direct marketing’ by the ICO. 

Your personal data also helps us to get to know you better and to develop a ‘profile’ of you on our secure contact database. This ‘profile’ enables us to send you the information listed above in a timely and relevant way, to suit you. For example, keeping track of e-communications you have engaged with allows us to provide you with more relevant information in future mailings. 

As defined by the ICO, we use two different lawful bases for processing your data for ‘direct marketing’ purposes: 

i) Legitimate interest

This is where we have identified a genuine and legitimate reason for contacting you, which crucially does not override your rights or interests. 

We use legitimate interest to send you the information listed above by post, email or telephone (if you are not registered with the Telephone Preference Service, and you have given us your telephone number). 

ii) Opt-in consent 

This is where you have given us express permission to contact you by particular communication channels. 

We use opt-in consent to send you the information listed above by email or telephone (if you are registered with the Telephone Preference Service). 

We respect your right to update the way we get in touch with you about our work at any time. 

b) To send you confirmation of event bookings and ticket purchases 

We collect your personal data to send you information about events you have booked onto. The ICO define the lawful basis for processing your data for these purposes as ‘contractual’. 

c) To enable you to volunteer with us 

If you are an IUCN UK Peatland Programme volunteer, we collect your personal data so that we can keep in touch with you about, for example: 

• changes to planned volunteer work programmes that you may be taking part in 

• the positive impact you have on our work, by sending you our newsletter 

• dedicated volunteer thank-yous 

As defined by the ICO, the lawful basis for processing your data for these purposes is ‘contractual’ (where administering your volunteer record) and ‘legitimate interest’ (when sending you information about our work). 

a) Basic information 

We will usually collect basic information about you, including your name and email address. In some cases, we will also collect your postal address and telephone number, for example when taking payment for a conference ticket. 

Most of the time, we collect this data from you directly. Sometimes this is in person; other times, it is over the telephone, in writing or through an email. Occasionally we obtain information, such as your telephone number or other contact details, from external sources (only where you have given permission for such information to be shared). 

b) Getting to know you better 

We also collect information about you that helps us to get to know you better. This may include: 

• information about your views on aspects of our work through surveys 

• your preferences of how you would like us to contact you 

• ways you’ve helped us through volunteering your time 

• records of events you’ve attended, or campaigns or activities that you’ve been involved in 

Once again, most of the time we collect this data from you directly. Occasionally we also obtain data from external sources. For example, we may check against Royal Mail’s National Change of Address database to ensure that the address we have listed for you is up to date. We know moving to a new house can be a busy time and appreciate that you don’t always have the chance to send us your new address. By undertaking this exercise, we can update your record without you needing to get in touch. 

Other ways in which we collect personal data to get to know you better include via our website. 

• Our website uses ‘cookies’ to help provide you with the best experience we can. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile phone when you browse websites. 

Our cookies help us: 

• Make our website work as you'd expect 

• Remember your settings during and between visits 

• Improve the speed/security of the site 

• Allow you to share pages with social networks like LinkedIn and X 

• Continuously improve our website for you 

To find out more about cookies, see section 8 of this webpage.

c) Sensitive personal data 

We do not normally collect or store sensitive personal data (such as information relating to health, beliefs or political affiliation) about our stakeholders. However, there are some situations where this will occur. 

When we do so, we will be very clear as to why we are collecting such information, and we will only do so with your specific consent and permission. In these situations, we collect the data from you directly. 

If you are a volunteer then we may collect extra information about you, for example: 

• references 

• criminal records checks 

• details of emergency contacts 

• medical conditions 

We may also collect sensitive personal data if you are attending one of our events. This information will be retained for legal reasons, for safeguarding purposes and to protect us (including in the event of an insurance or legal claim). If this does occur, we’ll take extra care to ensure your privacy rights are protected. 

d) Children and young people 

In line with data protection law, if we receive any information through any data collection channel that indicates an individual is under 13 years old age, we will not store or process that individual’s personal details, unless we have the express permission from your parent or guardian to do so.   

a) Security 

All of the personal data we process is processed by our staff in the UK. However, for the purposes of IT hosting and maintenance your information may be situated outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). This will be done in accordance with guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office. 

Electronic data and databases are stored on secure computer systems and we control who has access to information (using both physical and electronic means). Our staff receive data protection training and we have a set of detailed data protection procedures which personnel are required to follow when handling personal data. 

b) Payment security 

All electronic IUCN UK Peatland Programme forms that request financial data will use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to encrypt the data between your browser and our servers. 

All payments are processed by our host organisation The Wildlife Trusts. The Wildlife Trusts complies with the payment card industry data security standard (PCI-DSS) published by the PCI Security Standards Council, and will never store card details. You can see their privacy policy here.  

Of course, we cannot guarantee the security of your home computer or the internet, and any online communications (e.g. information provided by email or our website) are at the user’s own risk. 

c) Data retention policy 

We will only use and store information for as long as it required for the purposes it was collected for. We continually review what information we hold, and delete what is no longer required. 

We would also like to state that only those who have authorisation within the IUCN UK Peatland Programme have access to your personal data and all staff are trained in data protection and are compliant in making sure that this is used in the correct manner. Those who have access to personal data will only do so for the necessary tasks and will make sure to handle this data in the safest way possible. We will never use your data for anything other than what is stated within our privacy policy.   

We respect your right to control your data. Your rights include: 

• The right to be informed: This privacy notice outlines how we capture, store and use your data. If you have any questions about any elements of this policy, please contact us. 

• The right of access: If you wish to obtain a record of the personal data we hold about you, through a Subject Access Request, we will respond within one month. 

• The right to rectification: If we have captured information about you that is inaccurate or incomplete, we will update it. 

• The right to erase: You can ask us to remove your personal details from our records. 

• The right to restrict processing: You can ask us to stop using your personal data. 

• The right to data portability: You can ask to obtain your personal data from us for your own purposes. 

• The right to object: You can ask to be excluded from marketing activity. 

• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling: We respect your right not to be subject to a decision that is based on automated processing. 

For more information on your individual rights, please see the Information Commissioner’s Office. 

The IUCN UK Peatland Programme wants to exceed your expectation in everything we do. However, we know that there may be times when we do not meet our own high standards. When this happens, we want to hear about it, in order to deal with the situation as quickly as possible and put measures in place to stop it happening again. 

We take complaints very seriously and we treat them as an opportunity to develop our approach. This is why we are always very grateful to hear from people who are willing to take the time to help us improve. 

Our policy is: 

• To provide a fair complaints procedure that is clear and easy to use for anyone wishing to make a complaint. 

• To publicise the existence of our complaints procedure so that people know how to contact us to make a complaint. 

• To make sure everyone in our organisation knows what to do if a complaint is received. 

• To make sure all complaints are investigated fairly and in a timely way. 

• To make sure that complaints are, wherever possible, resolved and that relationships are repaired. 

• To learn from complaints and feedback to help us to improve what we do. 

For further information on how to make a complaint, please contact info@iucn.org.uk. 

Confidentiality 

All complaint information will be handled sensitively, in line with relevant data protection requirements. 

Responsibility 

Overall responsibility for this policy and its implementation lies with the IUCN UK Peatland Programme Director, Emma Hinchliffe.  

Information Commissioner’s Office 

For further assistance with complaints regarding your data, please contact the Information Commissioner’s Office, whose remit covers the UK. 

Information Commissioner’s Office 

Wycliffe Housecoo 

Water Lane 

Wilmslow 

SK9 5AF 

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 

Email: casework@ico.org.uk 

Our website uses cookies, as almost all websites do, to help provide you with the best experience we can. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile phone when you browse websites.

We use cookies which are issued by third party service providers that we continuously assess to make sure the data is secure. We collect these cookies in order to ensure that anything we do in our online activities are cost effective and relevant. 

Our cookies help us:

• Make our website work as you'd expect
• Remember your settings during and between visits
• Improve the speed/security of the site
• Allow you to share pages with social networks like LinkedIn
• Continuously improve our website for you

We do NOT use cookies to:

• Collect any personally identifiable information (without your express permission)
• Collect any sensitive information (without your express permission)
• Pass personally identifiable data to third parties
• Pay sales commissions

You can learn more about all the cookies we use below.

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Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

We also use data such as email for tracking purposes. Hashed data is used to create targeted advertising for our fundraising and campaigning activities on social media and web platforms.  

Hashing means that data such as email addresses are turned into unreadable codes for security and privacy during data transfer. We delete the hashed data after a short period of time and it's not used for any other purpose. 

This helps us reach and inspire new people to take meaningful action for nature and to create an inclusive society where nature matters. It's both cost-effective and helps us grow support for wildlife. 

If you opt into Marketing Cookies when using our website, we will employ Google Analytics a web analysis service provided by Google LLC. We also employ Google Ads conversion tracking, Google remarketing and Google Signals, all of which are services offered by Google.

We implement Google Analytics to track, monitor and report on websiite traffic. Google Analytics uses cookies and similar technologies to analyse and enhance our website based on how people use it and their behaviour on the website.

Google Signals, integrated with Google Analytics, creates data reports from multiple platforms or devices from people who are signed into their Google accounts, but only if they have enabled personalised advertising within their account. This information may include a person’s location, search history, YouTube history and data from sites that partner with Google. It is used to provide aggregated and anonymous insights into behaviours across more than one device.

You can opt out of Google Analytics Advertising Features through various settings and tools provided by Google including from within your Google account settings, ad settings for mobile apps, Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on and NAI’s consumer opt-out. For more information, please refer to Google Privacy Controls. https://safety.google/privacy/privacy-controls/

We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of any other websites linked to our website. If you have followed a link from this website to another website you may be supplying information to a third party. 

Should you wish to find out more about the information we hold about you, or about our privacy policy, please contact us: info@iucn.org.uk.