It was a soggy Saturday. The People marched, quietly, fiercely, joyfully, through the West End of London. Many played the magical sound of a dawn chorus from their phones. A remarkable human squid walked alongside Sussex University’s Professor Dave Goulson in a Bee-suit.
Running repairs were made to a giant stag-beetle, which had lost its structural integrity after several hours of soaking rain. A remarkable giant bat, whose wings flapped slowly, like a manta ray, moved gracefully through the streets. Sadly, neither Princes Charles nor William appeared at a window of St. James’ Palace to give us a wave (or the thumbs-up), as we turned the corner from St James’ Street into Pall Mall.
Yes, of course, I’m talking about the People’s Walk for Wildlife. The people came from all across the UK (someone even came from Uganda), mostly with their waterproofs (having seen the forecast) and a wonderful variety of umbrellas – many of them wildlife-themed.
Welsh wildlife legend, Iolo Williams, stood behind the stage in a tee-shirt. I asked him if he had forgotten his waterproofs? “This isn’t rain!” he said. “I’m from Wales.” And that summed up the mood of the day. Positive, defiant.
Billy Bragg and Chris Packham had re-worked some of Bragg’s most famous songs and Chris joined Billy in a duet. It’s not something any of us will forget. Billy then sang alongside Grace Petrie and Saskia Eng.
This wasn’t just a one-off. Earlier last week Chris had launched the People’s Manifesto for Wildlife – produced at an unprecedented speed, and looking fantastic.
I must admit that, as one of the contributors, I may be biased: The Manifesto calls for action to halt the destruction that has brought Nature in the UK to its knees. Chris has appointed Ministers to his Nature Cabinet which includes young conservationists like Bella Lack and Mya-Rose Craig; writers Robert MacFarlane and Amy Jane-Beer, legal expert Carol Day, urban Nature guru Kate Bradbury, pesticides expert Dave Goulson, journalist and environmentalist, George Monbiot, Mark Avery, Ruth Tingay, Lush film-maker Ruth Peacey, Mark Carwardine and many more. No-one represents any organisation – we are representing ourselves – and Nature. I felt humbled to have been asked to join such a group (as Minister of Farming and Food.)
Some of us lucky Ministers had been singled out to speak for a couple of minutes about our topic. And others – Beaver nut, Derek Gow, Martin Lines from the Nature Friendly Farming Network, and Findlay Pringle from Ullapool who has been sacked as Ambassador for the Shark Trust for speaking out against Bear Grylls’ plans to have captive sharks as part of a “dive experience”. Young Fermanagh naturalist Dara McAnulty recited his own poem on Nature’s crisis. It was an amazing moment.
Despite everyone’s best efforts the speeches and singing over-ran. The walk had to start at 1pm sharp, as a series of rolling road-closures parted the traffic on some extremely busy West End streets. The last set of speeches were abandoned. I found myself at the front being herded forward, straining to listen to Billy Bragg singing Where Have All the Flowers Gone, wanting to run back to hear that incredible song. I looked at the crowd behind me as the rain eased off, thinking that maybe a couple of thousand had braved the elements, and that would be impressive. But as the March entered Piccadilly I realised that I could not see its end and that far more people must have arrived to join in. By the time we reached Whitehall it was clear that the police had underestimated how many people were there – and as we were squashed onto the pavement, they re-opened the road where people spilled out to form a substantial crowd.
As we waited for the end of the March to arrive, speakers who had missed out earlier – Kate Bradbury, Mark Carwardine, Mark Avery and George Monbiot, had their chance to talk. It worked out exceptionally well with George giving a very rousing speech to conclude the day.
Number 10’s conservation adviser John (Baron) Randall, was there to welcome us, perhaps on behalf of an absent Environment Secretary, Michael Gove. Chris and a group of young conservationists duly delivered the Lush petition and a copy of the Manifesto, which Mr Gove has promised to read carefully, once he’s worked out that it is not a report on the Bioblitz. Later I heard the police had estimated the March as 10,000 strong. For a soggy Saturday in September that is really impressive.
People will realise that if we don’t act now, it will be all too late
Producing the Manifesto at break-neck speed, organising a major outdoor event, including a stage with sound-system; getting everyone together on the day, working with the police to get 10,000 people from Hyde Park to Ten Downing Street – it was a herculean effort, led by Chris Packham with a great team working with him. What does it mean though?
The traditional media took little interest in the event. There was a snippet on Radio 4’s lunchtime news; Sky news covered it well (apparently) – and there were small pieces in the Observer and Independent, plus a couple of mentions on other newspaper websites. Social media was a-buzz on the day – with #peopleswalkforwildlife getting to number one UK trending on twitter.
Most of UK Nature NGOs turned up to support the March – at least lots of their staff did. Had they all put out a big call for their members to come, perhaps the March would have been bigger. But it was organised entirely independently of the Nature charities, and so there was no expectation that they would promote it. A few politicians turned up – I saw Labour’s Kerry McCarthy in the crowd, and I understand there was a good turnout from green politicians.
For me, this feels like a marker has been put down. It feels like it could become something significant. That people will realise that if we don’t act now, it will be all too late. Perhaps it already is too late, but we have to believe that things can change.
Please read the Manifesto. Take action – we can all do things in our own lives which make a difference. And badger you politicians – your councillors, your MPs. Challenge them on what they are doing for Nature.
And if there’s another people’s walk for wildlife, please come along. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
this post first appeared on Lush Times
a new nature blog 
Wasn’t a “marker put down” with the Bill that was proposed by wildlife NGOs a few years ago? It was a better thought through, more cohesive, less hurried more collaborative piece of work perhaps? I think it was called the Nature and Wellbeing Bill. I thought there was a march in London for that, but maybe I’m mis-remembering?
thanks Wendy. The Nature and Wellbeing Act was a very different document, produced by the NGOs. There was no march, it was a lobby of Parliament. On the surface there are similarities, but underneath they are very different beasts.
The NGOs also promoted “Making Space for Nature” back in 2010 I think it was but, what has come from it? Perhaps it’s the regular State of Nature reports delivered at annual PR launches?
Maybe the Manifesto, March/Walk, Bioblitz were hurried but they are a start, a marker and let’s hope such independent endeavours continue unconstrained by membership politics. The larger membership NGOs do wonderful things, but the gagging act put paid to serious lobbying in my opinion.
Let’s also embrace the ethos behind these events, we need more not less focus on issues which have the potential to impact on the natural environment, on wildlife / biodiversity etc. Take back control, tell politicians that enough is enough #wildlifecrime #plasticpollution #agri-industrialisation #labeling etc. etc. The mainstream media have also failed, so we must spread the word (evidence based, robust science and truthfully) by whatever means we can, they will eventually catch up (just like the NGOs when they realised they might miss a PR opportunity).
Making Space for Nature was produced by a group mainly comprised of academics, organised by Natural England, in response to a request from Defra. A couple of NGOs reps were included on the steering group, but it wasn’t an NGO report. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/making-space-for-nature-a-review-of-englands-wildlife-sites-published-today
Politicians respond to the voting public. I feel that the attendees at the walk (though I wasn’t there) were all people who are already aware of the issues and are doing their best to protect biodiversity in the UK. We need everyone, not just wildlife enthusiasts to care about biodiversity loss, so that they will lobby MPs. Lots of people watch Chris Packham on the TV, and that’s great, but most of them don’t contact their MP about wildlife loss, or choose who to vote for on environmental issues. My MP hasn’t even bothered to acknowledge or reply to my two letters to her on wildlife issues ( Hen Harriers and badger cull). She’s only been my MP for a year as Ive recently moved. I don’t feel particularly inclined to bother to write to her again. It seems to me that the non-wildlife-enthusiast public get temporary obsessions with environmental issues (the latest being plastics perhaps); companies change their ways to respond to this (which is good), but then carry on selling alternatives, which in turn may cause problems. Many of these knee jerk actions are based on what will actually clean up our environment (eg replacing plastic with bamboo products which also, it seems, can have detrimental consequences). I try m best to alert my friends and family about biodiversity loss, but most don’t have much time to devote to acting on the issues; they are tied up in their own busy lives which mostly seem to be about earning money to buy more stuff that ultimately is causing the problems!. And, I’m in the Labour party, but poverty and equality come much higher on the agenda of local meetings that does biodiversity (though i have has some success with highlighting the issues of flytipping and littering). As for wildlife NGOs not being a prominent part of the walk or manifesto. It may be that they didn’t really know what it was in detail until a week or so beforehand as the manifesto wasn’t published until then. I was following its (the walk idea) progress from its first mention, and it was simply a walk for wildlife from most of the run up. It wasn’t promoted by wildilife NGOs until towards the end, and then only via email and FB – it was probably too late to include in paper magazines. I don’t know it wildlife NGOs were invited to contribute and declined. Still, in spite of my lack of optimism, Ill keep plodding on with my private efforts.