This document sets out the policy of World Land Trust covering all forms of financial misconduct, corruption, bribery and other forms of dishonesty.

Read WLT’s Anti-Fraud/Bribery and Corruption Policy, here.

Code of conduct for WLT staff and all those who work on behalf of WLT

Read WLT’s Code of Conduct Policy, here.

Read WLT’s Disciplinary Procedure, here.

World Land Trust aims to be a friendly, efficient organisation that communicates openly in a welcoming, responsive manner with its supporters, other members of the public and the media.

Every year we handle thousands of enquiries and requests. We try to ensure that every one of these interactions meets the expectations of the person concerned. However, we recognise that this may not always be the case.  We welcome feedback, whether positive or negative, as a way of monitoring our service and improving our standards, and we will do our best to address any issues that are raised, whether they are expressions of concern or formal complaints.

In order that any queries or complaints are dealt with as quickly and fairly as possible, we have a complaints procedure that is open for all to read. The principles that underpin our procedure are as follows:

• We will take any complaint seriously.  We will do our best to fix problems, correct mistakes and address concerns to your satisfaction.
• All complaints will be treated confidentially, and with courtesy and respect.
• We will follow our published complaints procedure. We will aim to resolve the complaint within 30 working days, but if this is not possible we will keep you informed about progress: in exceptional circumstances, more than 30 working days may be needed to gather all the information (for example, if a key member of staff is on annual leave or sick), or to exhaust all stages of the complaints procedure.
• If your complaint concerns one of our associates or programme partners, we will refer the complaint to the organisation concerned.  We will, however, maintain contact with the organisation in relation to the complaint and do our best to ensure that your concerns are addressed.
• There may be occasions when we decline to take a complaint forward or cease communication with the complainant; for example:

• • if the complaint is not related to our operations;
  • if the complainant is abusive, prejudiced or offensive in their manner, or is considered to be harassing a member of staff;
  • where a person persists with a complaint after the complaints procedure has been exhausted and no further remedies can be offered.

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

Step 1:

Misunderstandings or minor errors should, where possible, be sorted out on an informal basis. As a first step we suggest that you contact the member of staff concerned to see if the issue can be resolved. Our staff will do everything they can to put things right.

Step 2:

If you are not happy with the response, or you do not wish to approach the member of staff directly, you may wish to make a formal complaint. This can be by telephone, letter or e-mail.  If possible, you should contact the Head of Department affected.

Please be sure to include your contact details, to enable us to contact you in connection with your complaint.

Your complaint will be acknowledged in writing within 7 working days, including a summary of any telephone or email conversation, and confirming the expected timetable for resolving the complaint.  During this period, the person handling the complaint will gather the facts and consult the relevant staff; they may also contact you for more details or to discuss the matter.

Details of the complaint will be kept on file, together with all correspondence (whether by letter or email) and records of any telephone conversations.

We will write to you within 30 days of receiving your complaint advising you of our findings, summarising the situation to confirm that we have understood the circumstances, and if the complaint is found to be justified explaining what action we propose to take.  The staff concerned will be made fully aware of the case, and if necessary further staff training will be given and procedures revised, as appropriate.  If the complaint is not found to be justified, the reasons will be explained.

Step 3:

If you are not happy with the response you receive, or you feel the seriousness of the concern warrants it, you can address your complaint directly to the Chief Executive, who will review all the circumstances and the decision.  He will write to you within 30 working days to advise you whether the original decision is upheld or amended, and any alternative action proposed.

Step 4:

If on receipt of the Chief Executive’s decision, you remain dissatisfied, you can within 10 working days ask the Chief Executive to refer the matter to the Board of Trustees.  The Chair of Trustees may need to contact you for further details.  Having reviewed the case, he/she will write to you within 30 working days advising you of the Trustees’ decision. The Trustees’ decision will be final.

How to contact us

Details of our staff and departments can be found on our “about us” pages

You can write to us at:

World Land Trust
Blyth House
3 Bridge Street
Halesworth
Suffolk
IP19 8AB

tel: +44 (0)1986 874422
email: info@worldlandtrust.org

Other sources of advice and information

The Charity Commission: regulates charities in England and Wales.  It will investigate complaints only in cases where there is a risk of significant harm to the charity or its assets; it does not get involved in issues concerning the services the charity provides, employment issues, fundraising methods, internal disputes or policy matters.

Fundraising Regulator: The Fundraising Regulator is the independent regulator of charitable fundraising.

Institute of Fundraising has a detailed list of bodies involved in the regulation of charitable activity and fundraising in the UK.

This document sets out World Land Trust’s policy and approaches on managing conflicts of interest.

Read WLT’s Conflicts of Interest Policy, here.

WLT treats all personal data in our care with respect and in compliance with all relevant regulations.  We are committed to ensuring that your personal data is:

• processed lawfully, fairly and transparently;
• collected and processed for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes;
• adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the purposes for which it is processed;
• accurate and kept as far as is possible up to date;
• kept only as long as is required, according to WLT’s Retention of Data Policy;
• kept securely and safeguarded against unauthorised or unlawful processing, and accidental loss, destruction or damage.

Our Data Protection and Privacy Policies have been reviewed and updated in line with new data protection regulations (GDPR).  See our full Data Protection Policy ».

For more information about how we collect and use your personal information, how we keep it safe, who we share it with, and how you can access the personal information we have about you, please see our Privacy Policy statement.

If at any time you wish to change the way we contact you, or decide that you do not want any further contact from us, please let us know by contacting the donations team via telephone, email or by completing the contact preference form that is available on the website.  If you have registered for an online account, you can confirm your contact preferences at the time of registration, and these can be amended at any time by logging onto your account.  All email updates will provide you with the opportunity to update your preferences, or to unsubscribe from all future emails.

Read WLT’s Data Protection and Privacy Policy, here.

World Land Trust recognises that some of our activities (such as international air travel) have adverse effects on the environment, but we are committed to minimising our impacts as far as possible while continuing our work of preserving threatened habitats.

Read WLT’s Environmental Policy, here.

At World Land Trust we are committed to inclusion and respect to our employees, those who support us, and those whom we support.   

We treat everyone with respect and have particular regard for the ‘protected characteristics’ under the Equality Act 2010: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.   

We have a zero-tolerance policy towards discriminatory language or actions that could create a hostile environment and we do not accept behaviour that amounts to harassment or exclusion of any individual.  

This policy confirms World Land Trust’s commitment to safeguarding the welfare and interests of all children and vulnerable persons with whom it interacts in any capacity. The policy applies to all staff, volunteers, members of WLT’s governing structures, ambassadors, and any others who work on behalf of WLT.

Read WLT’s Safeguarding Policy, here.

INTERNATIONAL SAFEGUARDING POLICY

The activities that WLT funds with our international partners would, in general, not give rise to safeguarding concerns. We are, however, aware that our international partners do undertake programmes of work such as community engagement and educational activities with children, using either WLT funding or resources from other donors. In order to follow the requirements of the Charity Commission and the enhanced guidance of DFID we must ensure that we observe our legal safeguarding responsibilities in the UK and in those countries where we are working, and that we have a duty of care to ensure that our partners are working towards and implementing best practice in undertaking these activities.

Read WLT’s International Safeguarding Policy, here.

From time to time, it is necessary for WLT to provide food and drink to staff,
governors, programme partners, supporters and other stakeholders attending
WLT meetings or events. This catering policy is applicable to all such occasions
and aims to establish WLT’s stance regarding food sustainability and to influence
other stakeholders own catering decisions.

Read WLT’s Catering Policy, here.

WLT recognises that its financial providers should align with our organisational purpose and values. The Trustees have made a decision to cease banking with Barclays due to the scale of their investments in fossil fuels. WLT will start the review to move to a more suitable banking provider during 2024.

We recognise the 30×30 principles, but believe these can only be adopted and delivered if we endorse an approach that is participatory, inclusive, and which recognises local and indigenous power structures and elevates local and indigenous knowledge.

Our approach must also work towards multi-species justice; enhance and commit to equitable benefit sharing and ensure that our actions move beyond a ‘do no harm’ approach which is outdated. Moreover, no decision about people will be taken without people. This involves participatory planning processes.

It is also important to note that colonialism is having ongoing effects worldwide, particularly in areas we work as WLT. Recognising this is the first step to taking action to change things.

Since producing this statement, WLT has signed up to the United Nations “Core Human Rights Principles for Private Conservation Organizations and Funders” which were launched at the end of 2024. WLT is aligned to these principles and in ensuring that partners and projects we support follow these same standards

World Land Trust (WLT) is concerned with the deforestation, biodiversity loss, social and climatic impacts which result from the unsustainable production of palm oil.

However, we recognise the importance of the role of the palm oil industry to the economies of developing countries and acknowledge that, as the cheapest-to-produce, highest-yielding, and most versatile vegetable oil on the market, transforming the market to a sustainable and traceable supply of palm oil is the most responsible path. We believe boycotting palm oil would increase demand for other, less efficient edible oils and therefore may have an even greater environmental impact. Therefore, WLT supports the use of Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) via accredited schemes administered by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

Through our local in-country partners, WLT supports organisations working in landscapes impacted by palm oil production. As well as supporting them to prevent the loss of any further natural habitats to oil palm plantations, we also support their initiatives to find joint solutions with palm oil producers for the conservation of wildlife and sustainable production of palm oil. These solutions include the restoration of former oil palm areas to natural habitat, the establishment of wildlife corridors through plantations and the reduction of wildlife-plantation conflicts. We consider that any new areas of oil palm should be prioritised onto areas of degraded land or other land of low conservation value.

Download WLT’s Palm Oil statement