Equivalent of volunteers and conservationists getting a rise (10)
I believe the answer is:
tantamount
'equivalent' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'volunteers and conservationists getting a rise' is the wordplay.
'volunteers' becomes 'ta' (abbreviation for Territorial Army).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'conservationists' becomes 'nt' (abbreviation for National Trust).
'getting' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'rise' becomes 'mount' (mount is a kind of rise**).
'ta'+'nt'+'a'+'mount'='TANTAMOUNT'
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for tantamount that I've seen before include "Equivalent in value (to)" , "Virtually equivalent (to)" , "Equivalent in seriousness (to)" , "Equal in value" .)