My Article in Resurgence and Ecologist Magazine

This is an article I have written for Resurgence and Ecologist Magazine, about the racism within the nature conservation and environmental sector and the need for the sectors to become ethnically diverse.

https://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article5422-calling-out-racisms-to-save-our-planet.html

"If the environmental sector fails to become ethnically diverse, it fails to bring on board an increasingly large section of our society. It will not have the widespread support it needs to stop climate breakdown, create sustainable cities or save the million species that are predicted to become extinct. We have to engage everyone in our society if we are to succeed in turning the tide of the environmental crisis."

The photograph was taken by Oliver Edwards for Scouts Magazine

A selection of articles (and accompanying images) from each issue from Resurgence and Ecologist are available as ‘free to read’ online and help to generate greater awareness about ecological issues and share new ideas, analysis and inspiration with both new and existing readers. You can find my article in the November/December 2019 Magazine.


About the Author

Young environmentalist and birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig 

Copyright Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 17-year-old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, race activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes posts about birding, nature conservation,  environmental issues and racism from around the world. 

Mya-Rose has been organising nature camps for teenagers since 2015, Camp Avalon, and nature camps for children, Camp Chew, since 2017. She has organised nine camps since then and is organising more for 2020. She also wrote to five of the biggest NGO's in 2015, after her first camp, asking them what steps they were taking to make their organisations ethnically diverse. 

Her first camp led to her organise a conference in 2016, Race Equality in Nature, aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature by looking at the barriers to Visual Minority Ethnic (VME) people going out into nature, what can be done to overcome these barriers and how we can create VME role models. She had speakers Bill Oddie and Kerry McCarthy MP. She also organised a second conference, Race Equality in Nature: The Next Generation 13-30 in October 2019 with Speakers Chris Packham, Bristol Deputy Mayor, Councillor Asher Craig, and RSPB CEO Beccy Speight.

She has also set up Black2Nature with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of VME people and is President. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. 

She was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King and Miranda Krestovnikoff. She has also been listed with the singer-songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. 

She has been involved in the UK organisation of the Youth Strikes encouraging young people from around the world to not go to school once a month and protest instead demanding immediate action to prevent climate breakdown.   She is involved with Extinction Rebellion, setting up a local group. This is an interview in New Statesman. She has written articles for Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine, New Internationalist, The Big Issue and was listed as a local hero in The Guardian.

She has given over 50 talks, speaking at conferences such as being on a panel with George Monbiot and Caroline Lucas on Sustainability and the Future of Cities. She is a Minister in Chris Packham's Manifesto for Nature in 2018 and spoke in front of 10,000 people at the Walk for Nature. She has also appeared on TV and radio and is particularly proud of being in Silent Roars, a short film which was part of Listen to Britain 2017 https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-silent-roars-2017-online. She has also appeared on Channel 4 News, local BBC News and BBC2's Hugh's Wild West.

She has been awarded the Bath and West Show Environmental Youth Award 2017 for Bristol for her Black2Nature work EYA 2017. She was also listed as one of Bristol's BME top 100 powerlist and was nominated in the Birders' Choice Awards 2019 as Conservation Hero of the Year with Sir David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot.


She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent. She became the youngest person to see half the birds of the world, 5369 birds in Brazil in August  2019 age 17. Please also like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter. If you would like to contact Mya-Rose about her work, please e-mail helenabcraig@hotmail.co.uk.

Silent Roars - A short film on BBCFour

Copyright BBCFour

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-silent-roars-2017-online

Watch me tonight in this amazing short film, talking about the Islamaphobic bullying I get on social media. Fantastic to be in the film with Munroe Bergdorf, the Black transgender model recently sacked by L'Oreal for her honest views on racism and white priviledge, following the white supremacist attacks in Charlottsville. Completely agree with her view that you either stand up against racism or you are with it. Watch and find out what it feels like. It was strange watching the preview of the film on a big screen at the British Film Institute at Southbank, London. Will be on BBC I-Player afterwards.

Silent Roars' airing at 10.25pm on BBC Four Sunday 24th Oct, as part of 'Listen to Britain'.

Four of the internet's biggest female stars reveal how their followers are shaping them. Starring Mya-Rose Craig, Ella Grace Denton, Munroe Bergdorf, Elizabeth Farrell. 

Produced by Maia Krall Fry, BBC, BFI, Wingspan Productions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b096s1q8

Copyright BBCFour

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 15-year-old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent.

Mya-Rose was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer-songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. She is an Ambassador for World Shorebirds Day, See It Her Way and a Charter Champion for The Charter for Woods, Trees and People. She organised a conference, Race Equality in Nature, in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature and plans to run her third Camp Avalon camp in 2017. She has also set up Black2Nature with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of Black Asian Minority Ethnic people. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. She has been awarded the Bath and West Show Environmental Youth Award 2017 for Bristol for her Black2Nature work EYA 2017. Please also like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter.

Women March and sexism in birding

Today we saw millions of people march in the USA, London and across the world in #WomensMarch to protest again Donald Trump bring the 45th President of the USA due to his disgusting, derogatory and dehumanising comments against women and his racism. 

This is a day that shows that women will fight back against sexism and I felt it was a good day to re-post my two blog posts about sexism in birding, nature and conservation. 

The posts are from Nov 2015 and Jan 2016, but nothing has really changed since the time I wrote the blog posts, except I have organised another Camp Avalon for young birders and Minority ethnic teenagers, a conference about getting Minority Ethnic people into nature called Race Equality and set up Black2Nature.

Please read if you haven't already bit.ly/2jCGf13 and http://bit.ly/2kdjI9X. Person by person, let's change this world of objectification and misogyny. Thank you.

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 14 year old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent.

Mya-Rose was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. She organised a conference, Race Equality in Nature, in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature. She has also set up Black2Nature with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of BAME people. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter

Race Equality in Nature Conference - Black2Nature

Bill Oddie and Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

On 3 June 2016 I organised a conference at Bristol Zoo called Race Equality in Nature which was sponsored by Bristol Zoo Gardens, The Wildlife Trusts, WWT, Swarovski Optik, Opticron, AFON, Bristol Multi Faith Forum (BMFF), Imayla, CASS and Brian Eversham. I am very grateful to all the sponsors and those who helped, without whom I could not have arranged the conference.

Stephen Moss

Panel

The speakers were myself opening, Bill Oddie, Kerry McCarthy (Environment Secretary at the time), Stephen Moss (broadcaster), Dr Richard Benwell (WWT), Jini Reddy (naturalist) & Experts in Race Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Monira Ahmed Chowdhury (CASS), Lily Khandker (BMFF), & Rachel De Garang. The speakers had a wide range of expertise to contribute.

The conference considered why there is in equality in access to nature by Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people by first identifying the barriers to BAME people accessing nature and secondly identifying who these barriers can be overcome, with a special additional focus on role models. 

85 people attended the conference from a diverse range of backgrounds including many of the nature charities, BBC NHU, Media, Universities, National Trust, Heritage Lottery Fund, BAME people and those working with BAME communities such as housing, education and mental and physical health. It was the first time that so many people from such varied backgrounds and professions had got together to talk through the issues, with BAME led lively and honest discussions in workshops.

Introduction 

The conference came from the starting point that there is an inequality of access by BAME people to nature and that this was in addition to the effects of inner city deprivation, as concluded in the February 2016 Natural England Report. 

It then considered why and how there is this inequality by identifying the barriers to BAME people accessing nature, how these barriers can be overcome, with a special additional focus on role models. 

Action

The biggest challenge following the conference is how to make change? 

It was agreed, amongst other things:

• To set up a group, which has been set up in LinkedIn, Race Equality in Nature 
• Ask universities, AFON/NGB etc to identify BAME people studying nature subjects and members 
• To set up a Whatsapp group of BAME naturalists, for mentoring & support 
• To chose a snazzy project name (Black2Nature) and obtain funding 
• To recruit an employee with expertise in race equality, diversity and inclusion and ideally nature to collaborate with nature charities & media, schools and universities etc 
• Where possible, initiatives are BAME led 
• To promote the project with BAME led articles and workshops 
• Nature TV needs to meet commissioners quotas (see Linkedin Group “The ‘D’ Word”) 
• Nature NGO’s to priortise recruiting BAME people for HR, Marketing & Finance roles 

Objectives 

Seeking equal access to nature for BAME people is a valid and justifiable aim. 

Due to nature organisations being almost all white, there was an ingrained lack of understanding of BAME communities and at times arrogance about this missing knowledge which acts as a hindrance. For this reason projects need to be BAME led where possible, which can happen through collaboration. 

Many barriers are within the BAME communities with those working within them having a lack of expertise in engaging people with nature. Hence, the need for collaboration with nature NGO’s. 

Nature charities/media need to engage in the project from highest levels, so that all staff can be trained and bought-in. For examples, to stop staff stating unhelpful things such as that the organisation is colourblind (we all see colour and so playing field needs to be leveled to compensate for stereotypes). 

It is important to involve political policymakers to highlight local/central funding needed 

Role Models 

In terms of role models for BAME people, we agreed that it was important to nurture young BAME naturalists as soon they show interest because support is needed from the earliest opportunity to help them overcome barriers. 

BAME mentors and champions are needed, be trained on the issues, to give a tailored scheme. Those from other professions can help support with general careers advice, internships/volunteering, isolation, lack of family understanding, racism and prejudice. 

Schools/universities need to encourage and educate BAME teenagers and their parents to choose degrees in biological sciences gain interest in careers in nature and conservation. 

Documents 

Conference Documents - 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AlHI1zymOkP6lFciU1tQX0r56Nmn

Conference Documents Appendix 1.1 -

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AlHI1zymOkP6lFUbVyvJ1OfT1c5r

Conference Documents Appendix 1.2 -

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AlHI1zymOkP6lHO2pVQbVZxh3mn3

The Natural Environment White Paper (2011) sets out the Government’s ambition to strengthen connections between people and nature, and in particular ‘for every child to be able to experience and learn in the natural environment’. The White Paper acknowledges that the “opportunities to benefit from spending time in natural environments are currently not open to everyone”, which can contribute to health and other inequalities. 

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Select Committee inquiry into the Natural Environment White Paper called for DEFRA to set a target to increase public engagement with nature and for the Department for Health (DoH) and the Department for Education (DoE) to define measurements which demonstrate how greater public engagement with nature delivers gains in public health and education. 

So Natural England in partnership with DEFRA, Public Health England, Historic England (previously English Heritage) and King’s College London launched a 2 year pilot to develop a national indicator for children’s access to the natural environment. This led to the February 2016 report, confirming with statistics what was concluded before. The results highlighted “clear social inequalities in how children are accessing natural environments, with both their ethnicity and socio-economic status having a detrimental impact”. 

Mya-Rose Craig - 30 Days Wild for BAME people

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 14 year old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent.

Mya-Rose was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. She organised a conference in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter