Restore Nature Now!

Tens of thousands march in London to be a voice for nature

The Restore Nature Now march in London on 22 June brought together over 350 organisations and an estimated 80,000 - 100,000 people onto the streets of London. The organisations included the Woodland Trust, the National Trust, the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts as well as many smaller organisations, ranging across the four themed areas of the march - Woods, Water, Land and Air.

We walked through Piccadilly Circus and the contrast between the ‘Restore Nature Now’ banners and the advertising billboards was stark. How about if we changed the focus of the advertising slogans to relate to tackling the nature and climate crisis? ‘Whatever your goals, let’s get going’. ‘Believe’. And surely the ‘Real Magic’ lies in nature.

The march passed the end of the Downing Street where members of the Red Rebel Brigade had gathered to protest silently and peaceful. I found it moving to see their performance in person, made more poignant by the location.

The march finished in Parliament Square where a range of speakers highlighted the severe decline in nature in the UK, including woodland, and the urgency to take action.

Dale Vince, the founder of Ecotricity, was one of the speakers who called out ‘the cow in the room’ and the impact that animal agriculture has on nature. ‘We can choose what we chew’ and ‘we can help to restore nature one plate at a time’.

Nemonte Nenquimo, a member of the Waorani nation from the Amazonian region of Ecuador spoke about the power of people to take action. You can hear her in the clip below along with a translator.

In the shadow of Parliament, and with the upcoming elections looming, we were reminded about the importance of using our vote to bring about change by speakers including Feargal Sharkey.

An interlude of birdsong reminded us of what we are losing. And three peregrine falcons circled above our heads during the speeches. You can listen to the birdsong in the video below.

Chris Packham laid out the situation. ‘It’s a nightmare’. 1 in 6 species are now in danger. Over 1 billion animals are in factory farms in the UK. ‘And now is the time to stand up and start fighting’. ‘You can make the difference and will make a difference.’ We need radical change to make a liveable earth a reality - and to love life ‘harder, madder and faster, to love life with every last beat of our beautiful hearts. Nature can’t act, but we can. Nature doesn’t have a voice but we do. Restore nature now.’ You can hear Chris Packham speaking in the clip below.

I don’t agree that nature doesn’t have a voice, one only has to listen to birdsong to hear some of the voices of nature. It is more that we don’t listen to the voices of nature. And as some of the signs on the march pointed out, ‘We are nature’. But the sentiment remains true, that it is up to us to act and to use our voice. I certainly left feeling inspired to take more action and to use my voice.

I may have missed some poetry at the start of the proceedings in the square, when our section of the march hadn’t yet arrived, but it would have been welcome to hear poetry among the passionate speakers and the facts, to engage another aspect of us as human beings.

On the march, we wondered whether it would be covered by the press. It was covered in the Guardian and on Channel 4 News among others - but I couldn’t see any coverage from the BBC. Was this because it was a peaceful protest, and therefore not ‘newswothy’? It was interesting to see the list of most read headlines for the day in the Guardian that evening, with two other headlines in the top 10 relating to the climate crisis - numbers 5 and 10, with the march coming in at number 9.

I took away from the march a strong sense of community and solidarity between the groups, advocating for a common cause - and wish that we could bring that sense of collaboration to politics as well to make sure that we actually take the action that is needed.

Two ways to take action

• Chris Packham’s new organisation is ‘Love and Rage’, and you can sign up to get updates on what they are planning.

• If you are in the UK, you can see if the candidates in your constituency in the upcoming General Election are supporting the Climate and Nature Bill and urge them to do so, via the Zero Hour website.