Wildlife and Climate Camp 2023

Our first ever Wildlife and Climate Camp, ran in partnership with Radnorshire Wildlife Trust this summer, was a huge success!

Stand for Nature Wales is a national youth project that aims to tackle climate change and ecological crises by empowering and inspiring young people to take action for nature and wildlife in their local area. The project is a partnership between the six Wildlife Trusts in Wales. Over 4 years, the project will seek to inspire young people to become leading voices for nature and climate change through practical conservation, spreading the word through film and online social media, and a little engineering.

Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire Wildlife Trust partnered up this summer to provide the first ever Wildlife and Climate Camp. This was a fully funded camp, open to 13–17-year-olds, that provided all equipment needed so that anyone could access it whether they had camped before or not. Over the 5 days the young people took part in wildlife sessions such as botanical surveying, butterfly and moth identification and camera trapping. As well as climate focused workshops such as campaigning, climate cafes and placard making. Additionally, they worked with a local director to create a portfolio of written work and performances centred around the climate and ecological crisis. At the end of camp, they exhibited these works to parents and local councillors. You can watch the final performance here

The camp gave me a sense of community and a group of friends with shared interests and passions

In the evenings the participants took part in Campfire Conversations. Here young local professionals where interviewed, by the fire, about their pathway into the sector as well as their passions and concerns for the future of our wildlife and climate. We heard from wildlife photographers, ecologists, chefs and politicians. Our young people had lots of good questions to ask them! These conversations were recorded and have been made into a podcast that hopes to inspire and connect people at the start of their wildlife and climate journey. You can listen to it here

I learnt how to identify moths, butterflies, and plants in the UK. I learnt about campaigning and enjoyed listening to speakers at the campfire conversations. I also made lots of new friends with interests in wildlife, as well as learning how I can have an impact

Running the John Muir award throughout this camp was a huge benefit to our young people! It encouraged them to keep field diaries and develop their artistic abilities by sketching and painting the species that they found. They thoroughly enjoyed learning about John Muir, and his activism, in our climate café sessions. These were so successful that we have continued to run them online, once a month, in order to stay connected and share our inspiration and appreciation for the natural world.