A conservation charity has put out an appeal to businesses to back a project aimed at boosting visitor numbers to the some of the county's most beautiful nature reserves.

The Oxfordshire Nature Conservation Forum (ONCF) needs to raise £2,000 of funding for a project to print and distribute free of charge 30,000 maps of Oxfordshire showing the location of the county's 50 main wildlife sites.

The charity, based at The Manor House, Little Wittenham, has already won £4,000 from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Countryside Services arm of Oxfordshire County Council.

But the money will only be released when it is matched by industry. So a £2,000 donation would be worth £6,000 to ONCF.

Executive officer Clare Mowbray said: "We want the general public to be able to use the natural resources of the county for free but no map of them actually exists.

"It is a good project for companies to be associated with and if people get out and enjoy these places, they may be able to help conserve them for the future."

The 150 Oxfordshire wildlife sites open to the public range from the tiny Vale Wood of just 0.27 hectares in Filkins to the huge National Nature Reserve at Aston Rowant of 163 hectares.

The ONCF is a partnership of 59 conservation organisations in the county including farming organisations, environmental and recreational interests and local authorities.

The charity provides free information on relevant grant schemes to owners of county wildlife sites and has already produced the Truly Useful Nature Conservation Directory which lists the county's main conservation groups.