This Defra quote, “Britain is a proud nation of nature lovers, and this government is committed to turning the tide on its decline after years of neglect. We are progressing plans to designate nine new national river walks, one in each region of England.” (see here) might win a prize for stupidity if only the field weren’t so strong.
Just explain to me how the lack of access to river walks has harmed British wildlife (in such a way that creating more river walks would save wildlife).
Well, here is a challenge for you.
Write a guest blog which begins “Britain is a proud nation of nature lovers, and this government is committed to turning the tide on its decline after years of neglect.” and ends “We are progressing plans to designate nine new national river walks, one in each region of England.”, with up to 500 words of your own inserted between the opening and closing sentence to make the case for Defra.
I will donate £100 to a charity of your choice for the entry judged by me to be the most convincing (even if not very convincing). Send your entry as a Word file attached to an email to mark@markavery.info by midnight on 31 August and good and/or convincing and/or funny entries and the winner will be published in the latter half of September.
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It’s genuinely so sad to see your heel turn towards embracing conservative narratives around stewardship and the exclusion of the public.
Joe – untrue. But do have a go at filling in the gap between those two sentences with 500 words that join them together with an argument. It is completely possible but at the moment there is a chasm that needs filling.
I can be in favour of windfarms without being in favour of them everywhere – and that is my position.
Likewise, I can be in favour of increased access without being in favour of it everywhere. And without pretending that increased access is just what nature needs to prosper. That latter idea is quite clearly bonkers.
I’ve been following you a long time, but is it not self evident from the quote that they’re talking about building a love for nature through connection and familiarity?
In the same way that e.g. visitors to nature reserves build a relationship that ultimately leads to stewardship (even if it’s just in the form of RSPB membership or donations)?
The River Wye seems like an obvious example where better access than elsewhere has led to real action being taken to protect the river?