The Duchess of Cambridge, Catherine, seems determined to make sure the next British Generation is a keen nature lover. A thorough and thorough country girl, Catherine has lent her support to Backyard Nature- a UK Wide campaign helping children and grown-ups to make a real difference to the planet.
Speaking about the project, Kensington Palace shared, ” Spending time in nature can play a pivotal role in helping children grow up to become happy, healthy adults. I hope the Backyard Nature campaign inspires children, families and communities to get outside and engage with nature, wherever they live”.
The great outdoors provides an open playground for children to have fun and learn life-long skills – from balance and coordination to empathy and creativity – with their friends, their parents, their carers, or their family members – Duchess remarked.
The campaign, an initiative of Richard Walker, Managing Director of Iceland Foods, provides kids with the tools they need to protect their own patch of nature. The aim is to build a group of young environmentalists across the UK who will protect wildlife and Nature throughout their lives and will promote the cause to the next generation.
From Rebecca English’s report:
The duchess was particularly impressed by the story of the Eco Emeralds, a group of environmentalists aged seven to 11 from All Saints Catholic Primary School in Anfield, Liverpool. The pupils took matters into their own hands nine months ago after being inspired by climate change documentaries such as Our Planet.
The Backyard Nature programme, which is also backed by charities including The Wildlife Trusts and The National Trust, is pledging to help children across the UK spend one million hours outside by inspiring them to protect the wildlife on their doorstep.
Duchess, who has made early year intervention her long term public life focus, has recently co-designed a ‘Back to Nature’ for RHS Chelsea Show that was being displayed at RHS Hampton Court last week.
Duchess took her kids to show the gardens from where we got lovely photos and videos. Check here. Inspired from both of Cambridge residences – Kensington Palace and Anmer Hall, as well as the Duchess’ Childhood and her kid’s life, this woodland garden is a place to retreat from the world, to play, learn and discover as well as create special family memories.
Catherine also appeared in CBBC’s Children’s show Blue Peter on June 13, to encourage kids and families to spend ’10to 15 minutes’ playing outside as often as possible.
Catherine has also collaborated with RHS to create a set of five activity cards designed to inspire children to engage with gardens and nature. These step-by-step guides take inspiration from elements of the Duchess’ RHS Back to Nature Garden. Read More about them here.
From Mirror’s report:
The youngsters aged seven to 11 contacted Iceland’s managing director Richard Walker via Twitter and were invited to the supermarket firm’s head office to present their ideas, leading to the development of the campaign.
Mr Walker said: “The nation is waking up to the immediate challenge facing us – far bigger than any of the other issues being discussed in the media at the moment, the environmental crisis has huge implications for us all.
“The Eco Emeralds share my belief that the next generation needs to connect with nature and become conservation activists, and their commitment to motivating and enabling others to do this is truly inspiring.
“I strongly believe that children need to know nature in order to want to protect it, and this campaign is about supporting them to do just that.
I am really excited to see this journey of outdoor that Catherine has begun. It is a scientifically proven fact that outdoors do wonders to the human mind and health. I do hope people will inspire from this journey and start spending time outdoors to be happy and healthy human beings that our society really need.
As David Attenborough said during World Economic Forum this year, “No-one will protect what they don’t care about and no-one will care about what they have never experienced” – we need to know the nature before we step out to save it. Read more about the Backyard Nature Campaign here on its website to be its part.