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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing at Scouts. Read more

Discover what this means

Under new management

Find out more about conservation projects, then have your say. What would you do if you were in charge?

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You’ll need

  • Pens or pencils
  • Big pieces of paper

Before you begin

  • In this activity, people will need to find out more about conservation projects. If you don’t have internet access, you could download or print off some information in advance. We’ve included some short explanations and links.
  • If you’re aware of other similar projects, add them in – especially if they’re nearby.

Find out more

  1. Everyone should split into teams.
  2. The person leading the activity should tell everyone a bit about the conservation projects they’ll be exploring.
  3. Each team should find out more about the projects. They should start by finding out what the land was used for before the project, and how human activity had affected the site before the project.
  4. The person leading the activity should explain that some people think the projects ‘waste’ land that could be farmed or used for housing. Each team should decide whether they agree that the projects waste land, and come up with a few reasons for their decision.
  5. Each team should decide if they’d do anything differently if they were taking part in the projects.
  6. Each team should explore whether there are parts of the projects they could get involved with where they are. Even if they can’t be officially involved, could they be inspired, for example, to plant trees or encourage birds to nest in the area?

Agree to disagree

  1. Everyone should gather together as one group.
  2. Each team should share what they found out. Did anyone find unique information?
  3. Each team should explain why they thought the projects did or didn’t waste land. Everyone should try to come to an agreement if they can.

This is a great chance to change things up so people aren’t sitting still for too long. Why not ask people to put themselves on a scale across the room, where one end is ‘a huge waste’ and the other is ‘not a waste at all’. Will they move as they hear other people’s thoughts? 

  1. Everyone should chat about what they’d do differently if they were in charge, and what they could do in their area.

Coed Tregib, Llandeilo Carmarthenshire, Wales

Coed Tregib is a regeneration project of a forest area that was completely cleared of trees during the First World War. The long-term goal is to create a large, undisturbed woodland with mature trees, lots of standing and fallen deadwood, and a good selection of ground plants. Deer will be encouraged into the forest, but the numbers will be managed to stop them from eating everything.

Coed Tregib is home to loads of wildlife including wrens, dormice, and butterflies, as well as over one hundred species of plant. The site is freely open to the public, so they have the chance to see nature at work. This raises awareness of the project – the Woodland Trust hope it’ll get more people interested in conserving woodland.

Unfortunately, the success of Coed Tregib is also one of the things threatening it. Even if they follow the Countryside Code, the thousands of visitors damage the ground just by walking about – this harms plant life and can disrupt the animals living there. Of course, not every visitor is respectful: there have been issues with visitors not cleaning up after their dogs go to the toilet.


Daws Hall Centre for Environmental Education, Essex-Suffolk border

Daws Hall is a private nature reserve opened in the late 1980s. The 25 acre site is home to wide variety of wildlife – including many minibeasts, bats, rare russian red breasted geese and even some otters –, and focuses on teaching school children about different habitats such as forests, meadows and rivers. The site also has restricted number of public openings throughout the year.

By restricting the footfall over the site, the typical damage done by wear and tear of visitors on larger sites is reduced. However, by allowing fewer people to visit the site the reserve is also limiting how effectively they can spread the word about the fantastic work they do.


Glenfeshie Estate, Cairngorms, Scotland

The 45,000 acre Scottish estate was bought by a billionaire. He’s culled hundreds of deer to encourage the woodland to regrow – some of the Glenfeshie culls were especially controversial because of how they did it.

The owner has plenty of money to invest and a 200-year plan that means the process won’t be rushed. The environment is also rich with other flora and fauna now – in many parts of Scotland, the deer overwhelm the ecosystem because they eat so much.

On the other hand, the estate is privately owned so there’s not a lot that can be done if people disagree with the owner’s approach. The culling of deer upset lots of the neighbouring estates as they rely on the deer hunting industry. It also upset people campaigning for animal rights.


Knepp Castle, West Sussex

The land at Knepp was a failing farm – the soil couldn’t handle modern intensive farming. The project involved stopping growing crops, selling farm machinery, and letting weeds and trees to grow, ‘rewilding’ the land. They’ve also reintroduced free-roaming grazing animals like wild pigs, cows, horses, and deer, because without animals the scrub would soon become woodland.

There isn’t one ‘goal’ for the project. They say that their approach offers solutions to problems like soil restoration, flood mitigation, and water and air purification. They’ve also seen lots of rare species of wildlife return to the area.

On the other hand, the farm doesn’t produce a lot of food now. It does sell meat from the free-grazing animals that live there, though. 


The RSPB’s curlews in the Brecks project

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is supporting the population of stone-curlews, a ground nesting bird that comes to Norfolk in the summer. Changes in farming (such as pressure to use the entire farm for crops) means wildlife can struggle as they don’t have enough food from insects or have space to nest.

The RSPB are working across the region, supporting farmers to create and maintain habitats on their farms to support the stone-curlew population. Rather than make the habitats themselves, the RSPB rely on local farmers to take part in the scheme – the RSPB offer the expertise and advice the farmers need.

One benefit of this approach is that (if it succeeds) it’ll lead to a wider spread of stone-curlews, rather than creating a dense population in a smaller area. It’s also possible that it’ll be more sustainable as farmers may continue their new habits even after the project (and even pass them on to others) – the RSPB say that a ‘substantial number of farmers’ are ‘interested in wildlife on their farms’.

However, these sorts of schemes rely on lots of different people and volunteers spread across an area. The RSPB can’t monitor it as closely as projects they do on their own.

Reflection

This activity was all about valuing the outdoors. Part of valuing the outdoors is benefitting from it and understanding why it’s so important. Do people think they have a responsibility to protect and support it too? This activity showed that people can have a positive effect on the natural world – it’s not all negative. Can anyone remember an example of how people worked together in a conservation project? Were all of the projects a total success, or was it more complicated than that? Did the projects inspire anyone to take action? The next step would be to try it out. People could get in touch with the RSPB, Natural England, Woodland Trust, or another nature charity for help and advice.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Online safety

Supervise young people when they’re online and give them advice about staying safe. Take a look at our online safety or bullying guidance. The NSPCC offers more advice and guidance, too. If you want to know more about specific social networks and games, Childnet has information and safety tips for apps. You can also report anything that’s worried you online to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection CommandAs always, if you’ve got concerns about a young person’s welfare, including their online experiences, follow the Yellow Card to make a report.

  • If anyone finds reading difficult, one person in their team (or an adult) could be in charge of reading the information for everyone to listen to.
  • If anyone finds it tricky to move across the room, use another way of voting such as hand signals.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

If you’re near a conservation project, why not arrange a visit or get in touch to see if you can help?