The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire (WTBCN) is a registered charity which manages 126 nature reserves covering 3,945 hectares (15.23 square miles).

[4] In 1912 Charles Rothschild formed the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves to protect sites considered "worthy of preservation".

The society worked to secure statutory protection, and this began with the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949.

In 1959 the society took on a coordinating role for local wildlife trusts, which covered the whole of Britain and Northern Ireland by 1978.

The largest site is Ouse Washes at 186 hectares (460 acres), which is internationally significant for wintering and breeding wildfowl and waders.