'Birdgirl' marks decade of making nature accessible

An environmental campaigner who founded a charity to help children from ethnic minorities access nature says the cultural landscape has "shifted" since she began her work a decade ago.

Dr Mya-Rose Craig, 23, nicknamed 'Birdgirl', set up Black2Nature at the age of 13 to connect more children from Visible Minority Ethnic (VME) communities with the outdoors.

Reflecting on the charity's 10th anniversary, she said the current environment feels "very different"; although there is still "a lot of progress to be made".

"It's amazing to look back over the past decade of all the hundreds of kids that we've worked with," she said. "All the different activities, the lives we've changed."

Dr Craig said that when she first began speaking about the lack of diversity in nature spaces, the reaction was markedly different.

"I remember when I first started having these conversations, people didn't want to have them with me," she said.

"It made them very uncomfortable. I think they didn't want to acknowledge that there was exclusion and racism. So much has shifted in the past decade.

"For me, that is really exciting, because I think that is how you build a more sustainable environment, by getting everyone on board."

Black2Nature runs camps, day trips and outdoor adventures designed to increase access for VME children, young people and families.

The organisation also campaigns for greater racial diversity in the environmental sector and for equal access to green spaces.

Dr Craig, who is from the Chew Valley in Somerset, said the idea to set up the charity came from a "very deep love of nature and the environment."

"I strongly felt that nature was a very important resource for other kids to have access to in terms of mental and physical health," she said.

"A lot of these kids have never been to the countryside, so it's about breaking down those assumptions.

"For a lot of kids that we work with, they feel like the countryside is not a space for them."

Research from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) shows that people from ethnic minorities have an average of 11 times less access to green space than others in society.

For parents such as Kumar Sultana, 42, from Bristol, Black2Nature has provided opportunities her family would have otherwise missed.

"I'm a low-income parent and I can't afford things like camping," she explained.

She added the activities have helped her children connect with the natural world and learn about sustainability.

Ms Sultana, who has a Pakistani background, said she did not have those experiences growing up.

"We don't have camping in our culture and money is also a barrier to accessing it," she said.

"Some of the places we've been, I couldn't afford to take my kids."

To mark its 10th anniversary, the charity will host a conference at the University of the West of England (UWE) on Wednesday, focusing on race equity, education and career pathways in the environmental sector.

Looking ahead, Dr Craig said she hopes to see environmental organisations engage more meaningfully with diverse communities and for young people to be made aware of career prospects in that sector.

She also wants wider access to nature across the UK.

"I'd love to see better quality of green spaces in cities. There's very often a class divide in terms of green spaces, where nicer neighbourhoods have nicer parks."