Ecoanxiety… the chronic fear of environmental breakdown. Sounds horrible, doesn’t it? It’s a word that’s been bandied around a lot recently, as the “strong” men (and it is largely men) of the world tear down the policies that science and reason that the human race needs to survive. What we’re really talking about here is fear… of the environmental apocalypse, of societal breakdown.
Are we right to live in so much fear? Or is the spreading of fear actually part of the dictators playbook? There is evidence that living in a constant state of fear of your imminent demise leads to increased nationalism, selfishness and intolerance.
Scary stuff indeed. But is there an alternative? How do we find positivity in an increasingly unstable world?
“Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear.”
So says the fictional President Snow in The Hunger Games. And evidence says he is right. Throughout history, when fear is used to oppress people and communities, then those selling hope bring about change needed. It might take years or even decades… but there seems to be an unwritten rule of the universe that the oppressors fail and are removed. The pendulum swings back, society improves.
So I’d like to tell you a story about hope. I joined the RSPB in 1997 as the regional PR lead for the South West. And I joined at a time when there was hope in the air. New Labour had just ridden into power, with a manifesto that promised, amongst other things, stronger protection for nature. Over the coming years that stronger protection was delivered – the CRoW Act (Countryside and Rights of Way) brought in custodial sentencing for serious wildlife crimes. Crucially, it gave much greater protection to our most precious wildlife places (SSSIs), and tangible targets for their recovery. This landmark Act came about because of concerted pressure from a coalition of organisations and hundreds of thousands of campaigners. True people power.
Having spent the last nearly three decades working in environmental activism, I’ve become somewhat jaded. Subsequent Governments eroded the policies and emasculated the departments charged with enforcing them, acts of environmental vandalism unparalleled in recent history. As the warnings become louder, the consequences more damaging, it seems the powerful become more ignorant and arrogant.
So where is the hope?
Well, today there are species you couldn’t see here in the westcountry in 1997, and habitats in better shape than before. That summer, little egrets (a delightful small white heron) bred for the first time on Brownsea Island in Dorset. Now you can find them almost everywhere across the UK.
Red-billed choughs recolonised the Cornish coastline in 2001, the first pair protected round the clock by local volunteers against ruthless egg-collectors. A bird rooted in Cornish folklore and mythology – it’s recovery is said to presage the return of King Arthur, and you can see it atop the county crest – today there are more than 200 choughs, with signs of population spread into Devon and beyond.
In Somerset, two projects I worked on have brought about remarkable success. The Avalon Marshes, to the west of Glastonbury, is a network of over 3,300 hectares of wetland nature reserves. Thirty years ago, these were just holes in the ground, left by decades of industrial peat removal for horticulture. Leading a tour group there last week, we witnessed birds once extinct or on the brink. In 1997, there were just 11 calling male bitterns (a cryptically plumaged brown heron) in the whole of the UK. In 2024, there were 15 alone on the RSPB’s Ham Wall reserve with over 50 across the Avalon Marshes… and in the UK as a whole, 283 booming bitterns. The news was even better for marsh harriers, a raptor that was shot to extinction by the Victorians, but can now be found across the South West. Multiple pairs are breeding here and elsewhere – our group watched as six harriers quartered the reedbeds, a sight not seen for over a century. Meanwhile, great crested grebes performed ritual dances with beaks full of water weed, another bird hunted to the brink of extinction that is now widespread again.
As well as the return of bitterns, harriers and grebes, new species have started colonising – little bitterns, great white egrets and exotic glossy ibises returned here first, before spreading out to other counties. Provide the space and protection, and nature will return.
But one bird needed a helping hand. Standing surveying the floodwaters on West Sedgemoor, our group was serenaded by several pairs of common cranes flying over, their loud bugling calls echoing around the Moor. They are there thanks to a remarkable project to reintroduce them by bringing live eggs back from a donor population north of Berlin, raising them at Slimbridge, and releasing them on the Somerset Levels. For over 400 years, our landscape had been silent to the evocative call of the cranes. Today the UK crane population is thriving: over 80 breeding pairs and 250 individual birds, and in Somerset, they are a major attraction for wildlife enthusiasts, boosting the county tourist economy, eager wildlife watchers filling hotel rooms and café tables.
There are many other species found in the West Country today thanks to determined efforts to increase their populations or reintroduce them. Stone curlews are thriving on restored chalk grassland in Wiltshire. Diminutive cirl buntings are ten times as plentiful today and have spread out from their final desperate toehold in south Devon. The eerie crepuscular churring of nightjars can once again be heard on areas of heathland that have been restored, where Dartford warblers chatter during the day.
Walk down the River Otter just before sunset, and you will find a throng of people eagerly awaiting the appearance of the local family of “celebrity” beavers, and there are now multiple places across the South West where these once-extinct river engineers are thriving again following reintroduction. On Dartmoor, pine martens have recently been reintroduced by Devon Wildlife Trust.
I remember when I heard the news that the large blue butterfly had been declared extinct in the UK. Today, after over 40 years of determined reintroductions and habitat management, there are multiple populations thriving across southern England.
One success story that is particularly close to my heart is the loss of our wildflower meadows. Decades of subsidy-driven agricultural improvement had destroyed 97% of these wonderful flower-rich meadows. When we joined a group who had bought a local field, restoring some of it to hay meadow was a must. But how to do it? Enter Moor Meadows, a truly grassroots organisation of landowners and managers with one common goal – to restore their grass meadows. Set up a decade ago, there are now over 770 meadows being restored, a total of 3,380 acres of land that is now richer in nature. The common thread? Peoples’ desire to restore nature, to learn from others, and to share their achievements. If you walk through our meadow now in midsummer, every step brings an eruption of butterflies, crickets and grasshoppers from the fragrant sward of wild flowers.
What gives me hope is that where once there seemed to be huge barriers, a “them and us” unease between the “greenie tree-huggers” and the “true voice of the countryside”, today there is a much wider alliance of people and organisations with a common aim, a common voice. Where once it was mainly the wildlife charities that were known for restoring land, today more and more major landowners are at the forefront of the movement. Entire farms and estates are being “rewilded”, such as the Knepp Estate in Sussex and Wild Ken Hill, recent hosts of the BBC’s phenomenally popular Springwatch and Winterwatch. In Scotland, the remarkable Cairngorms Connect alliance is restoring over 230 square miles of landscape.
Where once it seemed that the “townies” and countryfolk were at loggerheads, today there seems to be a greater shared common ground amongst many. Whilst unsustainable over-intensive agriculture is still rampant, there is rapid growth in those taking more sustainable and regenerative farming. Early pioneers such as Guy Singh-Watson with Riverford Organic have grown to worker-owned major businesses. There are vibrant growing organisations such as the Nature Friendly Farming Network, and the Oxford Real Farming Conference is now as influential as its big agribusiness competitor, promoting true food security through a focus on sustainability and protecting soils.
My own experience returns to Somerset. In the middle of the disastrous once-in-a-century floods on the Somerset Levels in 2014, feelings ran high, with some blaming the environmentalists for what had happened, rather than the sheer volume of rain falling. In the aftermath, a project was born to look for long-term solutions, linking those farming in the floodplain, the wider catchment, and those advocating using nature to help reduce the impacts of flooding. This winter, with the floods almost as bad, and evidence building that this scale of flooding is becoming the norm as climate change worsens, that early work has evolved into a growing alliance of landowners and managers working together across the floodplain.
The single factor in all these success stories is people – determined individuals, organisations, land managers and communities working together to make a difference. I don’t like bandying the word heroic around, but a journalist friend once said to me that this was how these people should be thought of… the emergency service for nature. Increasingly that fight to protect nature is turning into a fight to give humanity a secure future. No longer them and us
Am I being too optimistic? Maybe. We’re certainly facing a worsening climate and nature emergency. But can one person make a difference?
Everything I’ve described above started with someone saying “let’s do this”. Everyone of you can make a difference too. Start by doing one thing. Rewild your garden, recycle, switch to a green energy supplier. Give your support to those organisations on the frontline, the wildlife and environmental charities, the nature-friendly farms. Influence others, share your actions, campaign for change. Elected officials are public servants… they are there to serve you. Let them know what you want to see happen.
There are 5 million people in the West Country… if everyone did just one positive thing, that’s 5 million actions making our planet a better place – for everyone. Sow the seeds of hope… and defeat fear.
