The RSPB’s Connecting with nature report, which is concerned with finding out how connected to nature the UK’s children are, is a startling read – especially for those of us who live in Wales. The damning conclusion is that only 1 in 8 children in Wales have a ‘realistic and achievable’ level of connection to nature (the UK average is 1 in 5). Put another way that is over 85% of children in Wales of who do not have a realistic connection with nature!
Why is this important? Well I could fill several pages of this blog on that – a disconnection from nature is shown to be detrimental to a young person’s health and well being, education, and social and personal skills. For those of us who love nature, we have to be worried about the future- where will tomorrow’s conservationists, campaigners and champions of wildlife come from if today’s young people don’t care about nature?
The RSPB can help to change this trend. We have a rich tradition of providing opportunities for children to connect to nature through the outstanding* work done on the reserves by the best field teachers in the World**, through the work carried out by Community Engagement Officers and the like, and the hours put in by volunteers in all sorts of capacity.
I think that those of us who work in youth and education are lucky because connecting children with nature happens to be a lot of fun. I was involved with the latest RSPB Girl Guiding event, this time at Kenfig Nature Reserve. Over 200 Guides, Brownies and Rainbows ‘connected’ with nature on an awesome day. Thanks to the brilliant team of RSPB staff and volunteers we offered up a host of activities including pond dipping, bird watching, arts and crafts, sand dune adventures and an epic mud run*** that made nature inspiring, interesting and most importantly fun!
Below image: Girl guides at Kenfig Nature Reserve (credit Miranda Curwood)
Who knows what those 200+ Guides / Brownies / Rainbows will grow up to be, but if they enjoy nature now, hopefully they will care about it when they are older - that can only be good thing for the RSPB. However with 7 out of 8 children disconnected from nature in Wales, we have got a lot of work to do...
Below image: Girl guides taking part in the mud run at Kenfig Nature Reserve (credit Miranda Curwood)
To see the full press release go to www.rspb.org.uk/wales or to see the full report and methodological report from the University of Essex, go to rspb.org.uk/connectionmeasure
* Not just my opinion – also the view of the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom
** This is just my opinion- but I am pretty sure it’s right!
*** Well done to RSPB volunteer Martha Okon for winning the RSPB mud race