I am a young naturalist, passionate about birds & live near Bristol. I am 1/2 Bangladeshi & set up #Black2Nature. In Jan 2015, age 13 I realised that I never saw anyone who looked like me outdoors - never @ABA @Natures_Voice #BlackBirders #BlackBirdersWeek #BlackLivesMatter 1/ 
The first thing I did was persuade 5 Visible Minority Ethnic (VME) boys to come to my nature camp. They hadn't been to the countryside before & the 1st thing I learnt was that you have to make it relevant. A volunteer did this by comparing the speed of a Peregrine Falcon 2/
dropping before going for the kill with the speed of a formula 1 car. It was something they could relate to & understand. This had them mesmerised & after that they all engaged with nature in a different way. Eg one was scared of holding a bird in ringing but was then ecstatic 3/
Another loved checking the mammal traps desperate to see a shew, another loved wildlife photography whilst another did the most amazing sketch of a bird which he had never done before. This 1st camp made me realise that I needed to get more VME teens out engaging with nature 4/
There are lots of reasons why it's essential to get VME communities engaged with nature. Firstly, VME people experience much worse mental health compared to the national average. The overall number is about 18% whilst 60% of those admitted into mental hospital are VME & 5/
also, VME ppl are far more likely to be diagnosed with a serious mental health issue such as schizophrenia or Bipolar. It is therefore essential that VME children & teens are able to engage with nature, use it to reduce stress & anxiety, & build their mental health resilience /6
Another reason that we should encourage VME ppl to learn to engage with nature is that it would enhance their lives to be able to see and feel the beauty of the natural world. Eg for example noticing a Robin in the park, seeing the beauty of Chew Valley Lake or visiting Exmoor /7
There are also physical health benefits of going outdoors eg reducing obesity and all the illnesses going with this. At the moment, VME ppl have worse physical health than the White population. A reduction of physical & mental health problems of VME ppl will reduce NHS costs 8/
These are all good reasons for working on engaging VME ppl to engage with nature as well as it being the right thing to do because every citizen has the right to access the natural environment in the same as our right to access health or education. It is not sufficient to say 9/
that the outdoors is out there, you can go if you choose. That is because there are lots of barriers that stop or make it almost impossible for VME ppl to get outdoors. After my camp in June 2015, I wrote to the five biggest UK conservation organisations challenging them to 10/
work to make their organisations & reserves open for all. At that time, there were virtually no photos of a VME person on any nature website or in any magazine. The organisations responded saying yes it was an important issue & asking me to visit their offices around the UK 11/
The problem I had was that I had school, so I thought that I would ask them to come to me, which morphed into my Race Equality in Nature Conference in June 2016, which took place shortly after another VME teen camp, which was much bigger than the previous year. We had 100 ppl 12/
Attend the conference with lots of speakers who were VME race experts @Jini_Reddy @MoniraChowdhury or nature experts inc @BillOddie & @StephenMoss_TV @KerryMP @RSBenwell, 50 were from the conservation sector & 50 from who were VME community leaders. We looked at the barriers 13/
how to overcome the barriers & creating VME nature role models. First, we need to understand that others can connect with nature differently. That it is really important for everyone to engage with nature, as you have to care about our planet and everything on it, in order to 14/
want to save it. Governments will only take action to halt climate change or biodiversity loss if everyone is campaigning for it. We will not achieve a sustainable planet without all communities fighting. I had already learnt from my camps that everyone can engage with nature 15/
There is research from UCL that shows that even low levels of negative behaviour or racism from staff can have a huge impact as it re-affirms VME ppl's negative expectations about visiting the countryside. There is a @NaturalEngland 2016 MENE report which finds that 74% of 16/
non BAME children visit a natural space weekly whilst only 56% of BAME children visit weekly. That there are clear social inequalities in how children are accessing natural environments & that both ethnicity & socio-economic issues have a detrimental impact. The barriers are 17/1
General society racism & exclusion; poverty, class & inner-city deprivation; the mono-ethnic White British view of how to engage with nature; the perception that countryside White elitist; nature projects working with inner-city VME teenagers rare; VME children negatively 18/1
streotyped; fear if teens going to park alone that they will be mixing with the wrong sort, get involved with gangs or drug running or labelled by the police as trouble makers; fear of outside influences & poverty preventing being allowed to join @UKScouting or @Girlguiding 19/1
Fear of lack of cultural understanding preventing children being allowed to go on school camp; lack of awareness of health benefits of going into natural spaces; lack of public transport and cost to get to parks, countryside or national parks; cultural fear/dislike of dogs 20/1
Solutions - careers advice in schools for teens to balance lack of parental understanding of the sector; need to link topics taught in schools to a place of ethnic origin eg talk to Bangladeshi teens about the impact of climate change there; use nature by stealth which means 21/
using something the teens are interested in to find a way in eg I organised a workshop with @iconbristol in an inner-city park called "how to make films & YouTube" which was full. The teens used nature as the forum & got engaged with it, with lots then coming to my next camp 22/
Inspire teenagers by showing and talking to them about injustice, which gets most young people fired up. Conservation organisations need to reach out and engage in people's own spaces; listen to what nature means to them; not try to impose their values or the way to connect 23/
The crucial thing is for environmental organisations to make diversity a core value, something that is overriding and more important than everything else. Not one has done this, not one is prioritising fighting racism; practical steps are to adopt an excellent equal 24/1
opportunities police, monitor outcomes to ensure change achieved; training for all staff, trustees & volunteers on racism (not unconscious bias) from race experts who understand & know the sector, media to mirror to our wider society without tokenism or buying in photos; 25/1
In 2016 I set up #Black2Nature & I am now President. We run nature camps, conferences (we had one in Oct 2019 with amazing speakers @CllrAsherCraig @ChrisGPackham @BeccyRSPB @StephenCorrySvl @CleoDanceBaton @ZakiyaMedia @EmmanuelAdukwu) looking at racism in conservation 26/1
In 5 years the racism in birding is worse, Brexit has allowed racists to be more open. The organisations have achieved very little, with rampant tokenism existing. I was planning a conference with @WildscreenFest in June for the wildlife filmmaking sector which is postponed 27/
So, do you want to make a difference? Can you help us, we have big plans but need funding & donations, people with varied skills such as drafting, fundraising, website, social media, research & more. I hope that if organisations are forced to be transparent things will change
