Discovering, Recording & Conserving Your Local Flora & Fauna
More About this Movement
Ecological Surveying for Citizen Scientists and Local Communities
If you're looking to protect precious habitats or safeguard endangered species in your area, we’ll show you how to start. By learning to observe and document the wildlife and plants around you, you’re helping to build a vital treasure trove of data. These records are used by ecologists, scientists, planners, and conservationists to inform research, protect habitats, and guide decisions about land activities.
You don't need a formal ecological survey to start collecting records of plants and animals that count. By joining the Movement, you’ll gain the knowledge to find, map, and protect animals, plants and other living things, regardless of your experience, contributing to the conservation of species and habitats for future generations. You could be an individual eager to learn, a community group with big ideas to save a pocket of land, a school aiming to inspire young people about the incredible nature on our doorstep, or a business looking to make a difference - whatever your need there’s a place for you here.
The Community Ecology Movement believes there’s never been a greater need to document what’s living among us. Together, we can hold onto, restore, and celebrate the amazing nature we have in our local areas. From the rustle of hedgerow birds to the hidden waxcaps in a forgotten corner of land, every sighting counts. By working together - one observation, one species, one habitat at a time - we can restore and protect our treasured environment.
Meet the Founder
Behind the Community Ecology Movement is Janine Finlay, a New Zealand/British nature lover living in the wilds of Scotland. Janine has a PDA in Ecological Surveying from the SRUC, works as a freelance dusk bat surveyor, and is wrapping up her Level 1 Badger Surveying training (she has an eagle eye for burrows and is a fascinating person to go surveying with)!
What really sets Janine apart is her hands-on experience in community-based amateur ecology. As co-facilitator of her local Eco Working Group, she’s helped record hundreds of species, including protected otters, badgers, water voles, and red squirrels - records that have played a key role in supporting a formal ecological survey of a cherished biodiverse area. She’s also partnered with conservation and wildlife organisations like Buglife, Froglife, and the Loch Lomond Bat Group to offer training and outreach for the Eco group. For seven years, Janine also served on the board of a community organisation working to bring land into local ownership for the purposes of community resilience and natural restoration.
She’s also a BAFTA and RTS award-winning science and natural history producer and director - and camera person (credited with BBC4 'Inside the Bat Cave' and Channel5 'Secret Life of the Forest'). As a producer and director she has worked with scientists and universities all over the world to deliver onscreen studies about the natural world and people, and she had the privilege of setting up the film unit for the World Wildlife Fund, where she made critical campaign films to lobby politicians on issues such as the Common Fisheries Policy. Now she records high quality 4K wildlife footage around Scotland - check out her instagram link in contacts.
Janine also had the incredible opportunity to be the John Muir Trust Ranger at Britain's remotest beach - Sandwood Bay - where she learned seabird and marine life surveying, and ran natural engagement events.
Over many years, Janine has trained in a wide range of areas, including Mindfulness Facilitation, Eco-psychology, Active Hope Facilitation, Walking Leadership, and Natural Sciences.
Nature is at the heart of everything Janine does, and all of these diverse skills and experiences form a rich toolkit that help Janine share the wonders of the natural world with everyone.