From the Royal Welsh to the Eisteddfod, an overview of the amazing events, individuals and organizations we've had the pleasure of speaking at and working with this summer.
It has been a busy summer for Tir Natur! Both publicly and behind the scenes the team has been working hard towards realizing our vision of a wilder Wales. We’ve loved sharing our vision with the public this summer alongside some amazing organizations also dedicated to nurturing and restoring biodiverse habitats in Wales.
In June, members of the team took an exciting trip to the Knepp Estate, a trailblazing rewilding project in West Sussex. The story of the rewilding project at Knepp has been spread wide over Wales this summer with showings of the new film Wilding. Based on Isabella Tree’s 2018 memoir of the same name, the documentary explores Knepp’s rewilding story, spearheaded by Tree and her husband, Charlie Burrell. Tir Natur was delighted to show support for Wilding at screenings across Wales as well as spread the word about our rewilding project! We shared promotional material, held Q&As and had the opportunity to show our short film on the big screen!
Image: Dan Ward taking part in a Q&A after a screening of 'Wilding''. Image Credit: Tir Pontypridd
Later in the month Tir Natur joined 150+ organizations in marching at the Restore Nature Now March in London. Over 60,000 people gathered in the capital on 22nd June to demand from politicians significant action for nature. We’re proud to have taken part in Britain’s biggest demonstration to demand action for nature. The march was permeated by an excellent atmosphere and call to action, along with some brilliant placards and sculptures!
Back in Wales, we had the pleasure of taking part in two events at Ffotogallery in Cardiff. These events, bringing together activists, artists and more, considered how essential creativity is in environmental stewardship and taking a stand against Wales’ nature crisis within the broader context of the current climate emergency.
The first event, held in June, saw Tir Natur’s very own Dan Ward take part in panel discussion Activism in a Climate Emergency, ran in conjunction with the exhibition The World Without Us by Gareth Phillips, Ackroyd & Harvey, Mike Perry, Lauren Pitson, Sophie Gerrard and Yangzi Qiu – a group of artists encouraging us to take deeper insights into our relationship with the natural world. The panel discussed the value of art as an agent of activism in addressing the climate emergency.
July’s event at Ffotogallery was a Climate Emergency Summit that aimed to bring voices together in the journey to developing a sustainable future for Wales. Tir Natur’s David Kilner was part of the discussions that were centred around how arts and culture are essential in this movement.
Also in July, we had the absolute pleasure of filming promotional material with Iolo Williams, who we’re proud to have as an ambassador! It was a wonderful morning filming and chatting about rewilding and Cymru’s desperate need for nature recovery, ending with some delicious cake!
Image: Some of the team with our ambassador, Iolo Williams after a morning of filming.
This busy month ended in Dan taking part in more panel discussions – this time at the Royal Welsh Show! Both panels were hosted by Wildlife Trusts Wales and invited attendees to ‘Look to the Future’ and consider a future of farming in Wales that prioritises supporting biodiversity and rewilding without compromising support for that work the land. The second panel, ‘Beavers & Eagles - What else is missing in Wales?', discussed the many benefits of reintroducing these wild species, envisioning a future where wild Beavers – known as ecosystem engineers for their ability to change the habitat around them to suit their needs – can help to create a multitude of new wetland habitats. This vision was reimagined alongside one of eagles returning to Wales, the landscape of which has been bare of breeding eagles for upwards of 150 years despite a plethora of suitable habitats for them.
We’re proud to have taken part in such valuable discussions, as well as the opportunity to engage with farming communities, politicians and conservationists. We’re already looking forward to next year’s show, where we hope to have even more of a presence and develop our engagement with other organizations in Wales.
Image: Tir Natur taking part in a panel discussion at the Royal Welsh on species reintroductions.
As part of our work to broaden our presence across Wales, we were pleased to have joined Wales Environment Link (WEL) this summer. WEL is a network of environmental, countryside and heritage non-governmental organisations working across the country since 1990. WEL supports its members in engaging with the Welsh Government and Parliament and helps them to work together to develop effective environmental policy and practice.
We had the delight of attending the Stand for Nature Youth Summit organised by fellow WEL member Wildlife Trusts in Wales and including fellow members such as CIEEM, Woodland Trust and Rivers Trusts. The theme of this year’s summit, held last month, was ‘looking to the future’ and we had some brilliant discussions doing exactly that with some very inspiring young people. We hope to continue these conversations in the future and amplify young voices in the fight for a wilder and more biodiverse Wales.
We ended our public presence this summer at the National Eisteddfod, where we had the honour of introducing friend of Tir Natur, Carwyn Graves, as well as presenting our plans as a charity and discussing the significant overlaps between farming and rewilding. Carwyn spoke about his wonderful new book Tir: The Story of the Welsh Landscape, which explores seven key historic elements of the Welsh landscape and its complexity. Carwyn’s vision of rewilding involves humans still working the land but in rich environments teeming with biodiversity, and will be discussed in more detail at our upcoming webinar with Carwyn! Carwyn will be discussing Tir, described by Gillian Clarke as a lesson in ‘how to read our history in every patch of land through the scientific, human and literary language that names it. Join us at 19:30 on the 16th October for an evening with Carwyn – it’s free!
Looking towards autumn, we can’t wait to share more about our current works in progress. Come join us in making our vision of a wilder Wales a reality!
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