Fersiwn Gymraeg ar gael yma.
Due to the recent Covid-19 outbreak our campaigning actions have had to be put on hold, so unfortunately, apart from the wonderful news of the Greenland white-fronted geese shooting ban, we haven’t got much news to share with you for the time being.
Therefore, I thought I would make use of this opportunity to introduce myself, give you a little bit of background and share my goals for the coming months. My name is Eleni Morus, I am the RSPB Cymru Political Campaigns Officer. This is still a relatively new role, the post was created three years ago and was first filled by Natasha York-Edgell who has gone on to become the Head of Campaigns for the entire UK. No pressure! I believe that this only goes to show what an exciting, forward thinking and open-minded environment Wales provides campaigners like us.
Before working for RSPB Cymru, I was involved with Friends of the Earth, a political campaigning ENGO whose speciality is engaging and inspiring its supporters to take wider climate action in their communities.
2019 was the year of global climate and nature demonstrations and the feeling that still resonates in the air is one of action, empowerment and justice. I would like to take this exciting elixir and use it to help RSPB Cymru be innovative the ways it runs campaigns.
While the events of the Covid-19 pandemic unfold we understand that climate campaigning is not at the forefront of people’s minds. Instead people are undertaking the wholly important work of caring for themselves and others, whether that is family, friends, neighbours or the local community.
The RSPB is trying to reflect this and instead of our campaigns communications have been focusing on self-care by promoting activities that focus on the the joy that nature can bring to our lives, such as the Breakfast Birdwatch, and teaming up with other organisation such as The Mental Health Collective to care for our all-important mental well-being in this tough time.
Looking to the future
Despite all of this great work, we don’t want to lose sight of our goals, environment issues are still ongoing, and RSPB Cymru are taking this time to come together with other organisations so that when the clouds do part, we can re-emerge stronger and more focused than ever.
I’m sure you, like many of us here at RSPB Cymru have been grateful for the beauty and reassurance that nature has provided us through these uncertain times. We need to repay that thanks by looking out for any opportunity to protect nature, whether that be, among other things, pushing for all important nature targets, laws on environmental principles and governance or a new Agri-environment payment scheme for farmers.
One important thing that we will be focusing on in the coming months is engaging with you, our campaigner, on a more personal level. As I mentioned earlier in this blog, I believe that to make the most of the current situation we need to support and inspire people to take the initiative and act. That’s why we want to hear from you. Please take our survey and tell us how the RSPB can begin to build a deeper connection with our cmpaigners. When we have the results we can get to work setting up online activities, provide opportunities to network with each other and hopefully work more closely together than we have done in the past. Stay tuned!
If you already have some ideas about ways in which you would like to work with the RSPB on its campaigns or have any questions, feel free to email me directly at campaigns.wales@rspb.org.uk.
The key international climate and biodiversity conferences that were due to take place in the autumn this year have been pushed back to 2021. While this stalls our plans it also pushes these hugely important moments much closer to our Welsh Assembly Elections in May 2021, if we start building and reinforcing connections with each other now by next year we will be a force to be reckoned with and we can ensure it will be a super year for nature.