Young People in Nature and Conservation

I don’t know how old you are, dear reader, and society tells me it would be rude of me to ask. But I’d like you to spend a moment taking a nostalgic trip to the past you, no matter your age today…

Are you there yet? You’re about fifteen years old, perhaps full of confidence and the exuberance of youth and hope for the future or you might be a bundle of nervous angst and anger, petrified as you stand at the edge of an adult world which makes no sense. Can you recall your interests? How far do they reflect what motivates you today: what fires you up, what fills up your spare time now that you’re supposedly a grown up?

I recently asked this question of my colleagues and here’s hotchpotch jumble of their interests way back when: football, cricket, Playstation, World of Warcraft, fashion, protesting against meat eaters, collecting novelty soaps, and Rick Astley were some of the highlights.

As you can see, very few of us said with any real conviction that our number one reason for getting up each day was conservation or nature or the planet or global warming or the ozone layer, let alone a love of one particular species (although my friend Rachael did love pandas). And sure, I have fond memories of the schoolwide elections at Holmer Green Middle School when Keith, Laura and I formed the Ocean Waves Party to fervently defend sea creatures, presenting our impassioned policies at hustings to the electorate. We suffered a crushing and humiliating defeat to the Tories (it was Holmer Green after all) and perhaps the humiliation came from the fact that we, like only 9 year olds can, chose to rap our manifesto to the astonished crowd.

But ultimately, it was something we had to do as part of school, not an extracurricular pursuit to make any significant difference to this earth. My point is this: we, as adults, become consumed with the idea that young people must put down their tech and head en masse to Nature, and they must do it now, this very minute. Within the conservation sector great emphasis is made on ‘getting young people engaged with nature’ and this is absolutely right and absolutely what we should be doing.

Yet the ‘how’ is not so simple.

It is probably no surprise that the real studies show that there is a distinct pattern in our behaviour. We tend to love nature as children, then there’s a clear drop in connection to the natural world through our teens and as young adults, returning to our interest and love of wildlife and the environment by our 30s. There are loads of reasons for the drop-off. Teenagedom can be a horrible time with all those societal expectations, exams, hormones, fitting in, pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure… Are we the same adults who are unwittingly piling on the pressure and at the same time bemoaning the fact that young people don’t show enough interest in nature? Possibly, possibly not at all.

One thing is clear. Without opportunity there is no chance to bridge the gap of connection and it is up to us as adults to not only provide the opportunities but to champion them. Time after time, the young people who show the most interest in the work we do at Chiltern Rangers have one thing in common and that is the support from adults, whether that is at home or at school. It takes the nod of encouragement to open doors and make things possible, to seize the opportunities we offer.

I recently went to the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) Youth in Nature Summit. It was great and the sort of day that left me asking myself more questions than I had answered, in a good way. I got to hear adults talking about young people but also from young people talking about themselves and their experiences, and the contrast was curious.

There is no doubt that some of our leading conservation organisations do brilliant work with and for young people and I listened to

inspirational young speakers sharing how they are involved in nature and conservation. However, one young participant shared with me that they felt like a commodity or property ‘owned’ by an organisation and used to boast about how well they’re doing at youth engagement with no real substance; just lip service. They spoke about how they would like to see organisations give real power and decision-making to young people who want to make a difference.

And it made me think. It made me think about how we do things at Chiltern Rangers, a company who I love working for because of the difference we make to the lives of young people, something I really believe we do and do well. But is it enough and can we do better? The answer is yes, always.

Our aim is to make conservation-based volunteering accessible and enjoyable for young people and we currently ‘offer’:

Forest Ranger School: ages 4 to 11

Out of School Conservation Days: ages 4 to 18

Uniform Groups (Brownies, Guides, Beavers,

Cubs, Scouts, Cadets, etc): ages 6 to 18

Stepping Stones to Work Experience for SEND Children: ages 13-25

Work Experience placements: ages 15 to 18 and over 18 Duke of Edinburgh Volunteering: ages 14 to 25 New Shoots: a one-year programme of monthly meet-ups for 15- to 21-year-olds as an introduction to wildlife surveying and countryside management.

All of our volunteering sessions are open to everyone and young people can come along with an adult if they are under-14 or without an adult if they are in Year 10 and above.

Chiltern Rangers are also proud to be part of the Nature Alliance; supporting young peoples’ wellbeing through nature-based activities.

That’s a pretty good offer and in the last year, under-18s have volunteered 5197 times and have attended over 200 hundred sessions – a pretty impressive statistic! But we can always do more to engage and inspire and instil a love of the natural world. Thinking about how we can do things better is top of my thinking list but without action, words and thoughts are meaningless.

Like never before, we need people of any age to help tackle the climate and biodiversity crises on a local level. News reports and research tells us time and time again that feeling connected with nature has a huge benefit to our well-being whether we are fifteen or fifty – it makes us feel WELL.

What can you do? Encourage, cajole, bribe your young people! Bring them along to a session with you. Talk about nature and our planet together, find out what concerns them and assure them that we can all make a difference.

Finally, I’d like to say thank you to the schools we work with already – working with us instils the message that caring for nature and our environment is important and the responsibility of all of us. See you soon!

If you or anyone you know would like to try volunteering with us please email us info@chilternrangers.co.uk or complete the form on the website: chilternrangers.co.uk/contact-us/