Europe’s largest wildlife conservation charity is giving free access to all of its reserves for those aged 16-24 years old as it attempts a “youth revolution” to better engage young people with nature.
The two-year pilot programme will be rolled out across the UK from 6 November, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said in a document sent out to volunteers.
Young children are known for being hands-on and curious about wildlife, but research shows that levels of nature connectedness dip in the early teenage years. “Our organisational reach within the 16-24-year-old audience is currently very low,” the document says.
The RSPB has about 200 reserves, making it among the UK’s top landowners. Entrance fees apply for non-members at the 21 most frequently visited sites, which account for about 50% of all reserve visits. Currently, those over 18 are charged an average of about £6, but this fee will be dropped for anyone between 16 and 24 years old.
“This is just the first step of our internal ‘youth revolution’ as we begin to transform how the RSPB works with young people,” the document says.
Among the most popular sites are Rainham Marshes in Essex, Minsmere in Suffolk and Pulborough in West Sussex.
For adults with children between six and 15 years old, the first child goes free. Subsequent children are generally half price. Children under six are always free.
Other efforts include getting members of the charity’s youth council to attend board of trustee meetings as well as holding a Youth in Nature summit in February next year.
The RSPB started its youth groups 80 years ago – the first was a teenagers’ birdwatching club – yet a stereotype remains that most birdwatchers are older white men. Young people are now better at identifying Pokémon characters than real animals and plants, research suggests, with half of children no longer able to identify a stinging nettle or a bluebell.
Research commissioned by the UK government shows that the number of children visiting green spaces has halved in a generation. The cost of activities and the difficulty of getting to remote locations such as national parks and forests on poor public transport were the most significant barriers.
Dozens of scientific reviews commissioned by the Wellcome Trust found walking in a forest or park reduced anxiety for young people, but that they also tended to underestimate the health benefits of being in green spaces, and did not turn to them to improve their mood.
“We really want to remove the barriers they are facing on a daily basis,” said Emma Marsh, the RSPB’s executive director of digital technology and communications.
“Taking away entry fees is a first step,” she added. “It’s worth taking the hit.”
The RSPB does not collect data on the age of visitors, so it is not known exactly how much income it will forgo.
Marsh said: “For all of us across the environmental sector, it’s an age group that we’re all wanting to make sure it’s easier for them to engage.”
Nikki Williams, the director of campaigning and communities at the Wildlife Trusts, said the school strikes started by Greta Thunberg in 2018 were a wake-up call for wildlife and nature organisations.
“They’ve given us a shove really, and we needed it,” she said. “It actually helped us realise young people were looking for a space to have a voice and take action and make a difference. And we were probably not providing it. We had a good look to ourselves and worked out what we needed to do, and listened to that demographic.”
Research conducted by the Wildlife Trusts suggested there were a lot of family-based activities, and school-based activities for children, but that the next opportunity was volunteering, which is dominated by retirees. “We weren’t providing something that was seen to be relevant [to young adults],” she said.
Williams said the problem of young people being disengaged from nature has probably been going on far longer than five years, but people “probably just haven’t noticed”.
It is this lack of engagement that made campaigners push the UK government to create a new GCSE in natural history to give pupils a “deeper understanding” of the environment. Other nature charities are also doing their bit.
The Woodland Trust has more than 1,000 woods across the UK, which are free to visit. In 2019 the charity created the country’s first Young People’s Forest, where children came together to plant 250,000 trees. The trust’s youth forum decides what activities take place in the woodland.
A number of trusts now have youth forums, councils and programmes for young rangers. Nottingham Wildlife Trust has appointed youth trustees so they can have a say in how the charity is run.
“I believe this generation are the ones that can really help us to protect nature,” Marsh said. “We are truly in a nature emergency, but the world isn’t operating as if it is, so we need every single generation to be acting with passion, out there, doing stuff to save nature.”
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This article has been updated to clarify that entry will not be free to all under-24s: families with children between six and 15 years old will receive free entry for one child, then have to pay half price at some reserves for additional children.
