2022 was one of the biggest years for nature in some time. Internationally, the UN held its global nature conference, putting in place a new 2030 deal to save nature. But for UK Youth for Nature too, 2022 was the most important year in our 3-year history.
In October 2022, Matt and Talia handed over their Co-Director roles to Ellen and Roisin – a momentous occasion for both of them. For some context on who on Earth we are and why we’re writing this, well:
Matt founded UK Youth for Nature in April 2019. There were plenty of youth-led climate campaigning organisations. But no organisation existed empowering the UK’s young people to raise their voices to governments and politicians about the loss of nature. So, as little more than a humble WhatsApp group to start with, UK Youth for Nature (UKY4N) was born.
Talia then came along in March 2020 looking for something (anything!) that wasn’t totally pandemic-related and entirely about nature. It took one 4-hour strategy call to sink her teeth in and never let go.
Handing over the leadership to Ellen and Roisin was an incredibly exciting moment – if a little heartbreaking. Heartbreaking because it’s always sad to say goodbye to something you love, even if you choose it. We’ve been through a lot together over the 3 years leading and working with UKY4N. Exciting because finding two new Co-Directors, as well as a Head of Communications and Head of Campaigns, to hand over to, means that there is so much more to come; a clear signal that we’re here to stay and here to have impact.
Of course we’d say it – but there is huge potential for UKY4N. Movement building can take time, but the dedication of the young people who are joining UKY4N and staying shows that our expectations aren’t unrealistic. UKY4N is filling a gaping hole in the youth nature space calling for political action to address the nature crisis.
Our goal has always been to build a movement that reaches beyond the confines of a tweet. That’s why creative forms of campaigning have always been essential to anything that we do. We knew that we needed to find different ways for politicians and the general public alike to engage with our campaigns – that worked actively and passively with people’s imaginations to help them to engage. UKY4N has shown time and time again that we’re a creative powerhouse – one that multiple NGOs and other organisations have supported as a result (and taken on our ideas). Be that through our social media assets and digital guides to working with your local council, rewilding, or even building your own bug hotel – to our UK-wide mural campaign Natural Kingdom: Wild Walls, our giant sand drawing Lines in the Sand. This is a huge, ongoing area for potential as UKY4N moves forward.
Looking to the future of UKY4N there is so much that excites us. The possibility for real-world policy change is embedded into an upcoming water campaign. And the team remains as creative-minded as ever.
One of Talia’s proudest moments was the completion of the final wildlife mural we painted in Glasgow right before COP26. This was the 8th mural that we brought to reality as part of our Natural Kingdom: Wild Walls campaign. It was the culmination of nearly a year’s work and demonstrated the unbelievable dedication and pure skill of our organising team. No one in the team had done anything like this before and yet… We managed to source the funding for every wall through a variety of means, worked with multiple organisations, individuals, and councils on the ground, co-designed the mural with local, mostly young, artists, and managed all the logistics of their creation – all whilst in full time employment or education. It’s such a point of pride because it started as an idea to paint 1 mural and transformed into 8 – all at the will and drive of the team. And this led to an additional 8 created in partnership with the Grantham Institute for Climate Change Research and Octopus Energy. We still get emails asking for our help creating new murals.
It’s impossible not to just write an endless list of things that UKY4N achieved since launching in 2019 and becoming Co-Directors in 2020. We’ve also had some tough times together – failed applications to the Arts Council, long nights in the early days where Aura, Joe, Bred and the of two of us were dealing with unexpected obstacles and working out new strategies for campaigning and everything in between.
But even where it’s been hard, the good has been overwhelming.
Since Matt founded UKY4N in 2019, we have gone from a few organising team members, a WhatsApp group, and a small mailing list, to over 4000 followers on social media with a thriving organising team, a growing network, and a huge internal overhaul where we moved over to Slack.
Whilst we had initial support from WWF and RSPB when Matt founded UKY4N, we’re now well-known amongst multiple organisations, individuals, councils, and political representatives. We have had media coverage in the UK and the EU, including in major publications such as The Guardian centrefold and global pictures of the day for The Guardian and The Times with our sand drawing. We’ve spoken on the radio, sat on multiple panels with national and European organisations, run events, and participated in the creation of the YOUNGOs COY16 at COP26. We took the next step forward in creating a movement that lasts by officially incorporating, winning an important grant from the European Climate Foundation to continue our work over the next year, going through a whole rebrand run by our own team members, and establishing our first Board.
UKY4N has achieved so much already that we’ve been incredibly proud to be a part of – but this was only just the beginning. This is no doubt a movement at the cusp of creating real, long-lasting change. The energy, enthusiasm, intelligence, and sheer determination of our organising team and wider network will be testament to that.
Thank you to everyone, past and present, who we worked with – to those who gave 10 hours week and 10 minutes, to the late night planning and early conversations, to the meetings squeezed into work days and weekends, to the ceaseless creativity and inability to say ‘no’ to ideas, to the barrages of WhatsApps and Zooms that always ran over, to the disagreements and eurekas.
Now over to you, Ellen, Roisin, Joe, Hannah, and the rest of this brilliant team to help the UK’s nature thrive once more.
If you’re a young person in the UK who is passionate about nature and the environment and want to join a community of like-minded people to save the planet with, please get in touch!
