WoW Project | Guest post on Mark Avery’s blog
“Mark Avery,” (writes Mark Avery) “is a scientist by training and a naturalist by inclination. He writes about and comments on environmental issues.
“Mark worked for the RSPB for 25 years until standing down in April 2011 to go freelance. He was the RSPB’s Conservation Director for nearly 13 years.
“Mark lives in rural Northamptonshire and is a member of Cheltenham Racecourse, the RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts, the BTO, the National Trust for Scotland and the Labour Party. He is a trustee of the World Land Trust (how about giving them a donation, please?).”
He is also a co-founder of Wild Justice, co-organised Hen Harrier Day 2019 at Carsington Water, and runs one of the UK’s most widely-read and influential environment blogs. Guest writers have included politicians, chief-execs of charity organisations, prominent activists and campaigners – and now The War On Wildlife Project.
Mark gave me a great opportunity to talk about how and where the Project originated (down in Poole, Dorset) and what we’re looking to achieve in 2020 (it’s going to be a huge year for The War On Wildlife Project).
Here’s an excerpt:
“We could gather up everything we care so much about and put it all in one place. Open it up to everyone who thinks the way we do. It could become a shared hub for the charities and the organisations that get Charity Pot grants. A no-strings-attached forum to explain what they do to shared audiences. To invite those audiences to get involved too. I’m running way ahead now (I never knowingly under-think anything), but it could be like an online Summit. And it could be somewhere for the hundreds and hundreds of people who love wildlife and who work in the stores or come into the stores or hold events inside the stores to talk about the war on wildlife and what we’re doing to help tackle it. All of us. Build it and – ah, you know how the phrase goes as well as I do.”
Thankyou again to Dr Avery for his interest and support. The full post is at markavery.info/2019/12/30/guest-blog-by-charlie-moores/
Hi Les. Thanks for the thoughtful comment. You’ve absolutely nailed the approach we’re going for here! And I can honestly say that I have never been ‘told’ what to say or write, and certainly never felt constrained (beyond the norms of decency etc) over the last few years. I hope this Project will come to be seen as a more targeted extension of the ‘work so far’. It’ll need to reach some sort of tipping point in terms of audience participation (and there’s a Catch 22 element of needing the audience to attract the audience), but I’ve taken huge encouragement from people like yourself and Mark Avery, Dominic Dyer, Libby Anderson, Alan Cranston, Luke Steele etc who’ve seen a value in the sort of broadcasting and journalism I’ve been doing. 2020 will be an interesting year I’m sure. Thanks again and all the best.
Great stuff! We need a voice for wildlife that comes from someone not constrained by trying to build bridges with ‘stakeholders’ like hill farmers or crofters, but can respond objectively to hysterical rubbish from them or others about lynx or sea eagles for example. If the crofting community goes to the media to complain that no one listens to them that sea eagles eat their lambs, it would be good if an organisation wasn’t afraid to point out that’s wrong – in 2009 a publicly funded SNH study on the Gairloch peninsula showed these claims were rubbish. Likewise when the NFU says there is no scope for more conservation because of food security issues they need to be publicly challenged as to why they aren’t raising the issue a third of our food gets binned. At the moment I don’t believe there is any conservation organisation filling this vital role, politics is getting in the way of conservation and honesty.