AFON
My Vision For Nature – by Rory Harding
Welcome to our series of blog posts in the run up to the general election (7th May 2015). Over this month AFON members will share their own Visions for Nature: what they want the natural world to look like by 2050 and how they want to get there. We have created a hashtag on Twitter so why not join the conversation? What’s your #VisionforNature?
“A Focus on Nature is filled with young people brimming with passion and talent to communicate about nature and to protect it. But as many of us know, decisions about nature don’t always go our (or nature’s) way. This is because those in power don’t feel enough pressure to decide in our favour. As young people, we’re going to suffer the worst consequences of this. When the politicians in power now are retired or dead, we’ll be living in the natural world built by their decisions. That’s why those decisions have to reflect our ambitions.”
– Matt Williams, A Focus On Nature
The air we breathe, the environment we live in, it’s all influenced, and inextricably linked to natural world. However, with increasing population pressure, the ever growing demands of industry and economy, we are beginning to see the cracks appear in the landscape. With a rapid deterioration of ecosystems our own well being, as a species, is suffering. But what can we do, we need solutions that work for people AND wildlife.
Conservation is a word that in many ways could invoke inaction, but conserving must not be confused with preserving. Action needs to be taken to improve our natural environment, not just to preserve what wild places are left. Life has a knack of clinging on, bringing its vitality to the concrete jungle many of us call home. It’s this that can be encouraged, improved and increased.
So what is my vision for nature? It’s a future where nature is not sidelined. This is not to say I do not believe in building new homes, new schools and businesses, but that this can be done sensitivity and sensibly. There is still so much scope for the nature to be incorporated into our everyday lives. I want to see urban reserves, thriving and connected. Water courses, free from pollution and houses teaming not just with homo sapiens, but also a myriad of other animal life. As well as conserving wild and green areas, we can create new habitats, new build homes can have living opportunities for other animals incorporated into their design, nest boxes for house martins and bat roosts. Rather than the constant displacement that leave so many populations isolated and dwindling.
Wild places teaming with life are not the preserve of the countryside, where often the reality is barren intensive farmland, wild places can be at the heart of the city and in some cases already are. I want to see more of them spring up, and opened up, to be appreciated and enjoyed. This can and needs to be part of the urban development in the 21st Century, trees to cool and clean the air, and nectar rich plants to feed the bees. Modernisation is about learning form the past, not replicating previous mistakes.
So it seems it’s up to us, the next generation, to make our visions a reality. We are calling on all political parties in the run up to the elections to take these issues seriously. The youth have a voice and we want to see real policies on the environment and on climate change, that will safeguard the future of this planet for everyone, of all species.