Scouts Nature Activity Badge
Scouts Nature Activity Badge
Become a great Naturalist and play your part in preserving the natural world as a whole.
How to earn your badge:
Explore and connect with nature by visiting a suitable and safe location. Identify different plants and animals, and record what you find.
You could do this on a day trip, as several visits, or as part of a journey, such as on a hike or expedition.
Plan how you’ll protect, care for and respect the environment during your visit.
Think about how to avoid disturbing wildlife and the local community, and find ways to help protect the area you’re exploring.
Find out more about a plant, animal or another natural thing that you discovered.
You could find out about a plant, bird, insect, fish, other animal, type of habitat, or another natural thing, like soil, rocks or waterfalls.
Share what you’ve discovered and learned with someone else.
You could give a short talk or presentation, lead an activity or nature walk, create some art, record a video or podcast, design a poster or leaflet, write a poem or perform a short play.
Explore how human activity or land management affects wildlife, either at your chosen location or more widely.
You could find out about local projects that aim to protect and regenerate nature, such as wildlife groups or charities. You could also learn about how people’s actions are impacting nature and what can be done to reduce this.
Think about your experience in nature and decide on one thing you'd like to do next.
Take time to reflect on what you thought and felt. You might choose to connect more with nature by growing plants, learning more or spending time outdoors, or join a project to help nature, either on your own or as a group.
Tips
- There are lots of places you could visit, like a nature reserve or gardens, woodlands or forest, park, urban green spaces, moorlands, fields or meadows, beaches, or along a waterway (such as a stream, river or canal).
As part of the Scouts partnership, you can join special days out at Nattergal’s Wildlands, which will continue to grow, and currently include:
- Harold’s Park, Essex
- Boothby, Lincolnshire
- High Fen, Norfolk
During these visits, you can take part in guided walks, wildlife-spotting challenges, hands-on conservation activities and behind-the-scenes looks at how large-scale Nature recovery works. Find out more on the Nattergal website.
Always make sure you have appropriate permission for your visit, follow the Countryside Code or equivalent, and follow appropriate safety guidance for the location, such as being near to water.
- Here's some things you might want to find out:
- It's lifecycle and how long it lives
- What role it plays in the ecosystem
- Where it is in the food chain - what it eats and what it’s eaten by
- Is it a native or invasive species?
- Is it endangered?
- You can find out about different species found in a specific area using the NBN Atlas, the UK’s largest collection of publicly available biodiversity data.
- Here's some things you might want to find out:
We’ve recently worked with volunteers and external subject matter experts to update the requirements for this badge. Troops who are already working towards this badge can continue working towards the older set of requirements on this page until the end of 2026. View the previous Naturalist Activity Badge requirements.
You can buy the Just a moment...Scout Store.
June 2026.
Requirements can be adapted to suit each young persons abilities. See our guidance on flexibility.