Marwell’s mission to save England’s rarest lizard this Big Give week
April 21, 2026
We have launched a campaign to save England’s rarest lizard from localised extinction, and need your help during a bumper ‘double the impact’ fundraising week.
For more than 30 years, Marwell has been at the forefront of breeding sand lizards for release to the wild and we’re now looking for £20,000 to continue this important work.
Once widespread across southern England, sand lizard populations have declined dramatically due to habitat loss, development and environmental pressures. Today, they survive only in a handful of protected heathland sites and rely on conservation efforts for their survival. Marwell runs one of only two conservation breeding programmes for the lizards in the south.
The Big Give’s Earth Raise campaign is the UK’s largest environmental match funding campaign and sees donations made by the public doubled thanks to the generosity of businesses and philanthropists.
From 22-29 April 2026, every penny raised for Marwell through the Big Give website will be matched by the Garfield Weston Foundation and used by our conservation experts to upgrade a vital sand lizard breeding facility to improve welfare, research and long-term survival in the wild.
Marwell Wildlife CEO Laura Read said: “Sand lizards are endangered and without continued conservation breeding for release, local extinctions are likely and opportunities to restore the species could be lost.
“Yearling lizards are known to survive better after release than hatchlings, but we currently lack facilities to separate them by age. So we’re looking to renovate and upgrade our specialist facility, managing lizards by age group and enabling new research through camera technology to monitor behaviour and interactions with the environment.
“With the public’s help during this crucial fundraising week, our project will directly support national efforts to restore sand lizards here in the UK.”
To double your impact and support the survival of this UK species, simply visit Marwell Wildlife’s Big Give webpage.
