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Communicate 2010 - Connecting with Nature

Firebird re-connects with nature at annual conservation conference

In November members of the Firebird team attended Communicate 2010 – an annual conference, organised by The Bristol Natural History Consortium – a partnership made up of the Avon Wildlife Trust, BBC Natural History Unit, Bristol City Council, Bristol Zoo Gardens, Environment Agency, Natural England, University of Bristol, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and Wildscreen and supported by Defra.

Now its 9th year, the event was attended by 146 communication professionals representing over 87 organisations from public relations agencies like Firebird, to charities, NGOs, businesses and local authorities – in fact anyone with an interest in wildlife and countryside issues. Firebird was there in part to represent one of our long-standing clients the Peoples Trust for Endangered Species. We even managed to lobby Julian Hector from the BBC Natural History Unit about PTES major campaign in 2011 to safeguard the future of British hedgehogs, as he is responsible for programmes like Springwatch, the BBC One Show and Saving Species on Radio 4.

The two day programme provided the opportunity to hear from a wide range of impressive speakers from across the environmental sector, as well as time for reflection, inspiration and of course networking with the other delegates!

Some highlights on the speakers’ platform:

The indomitable octogenarian Sir David Attenborough talking about his new TV series First Life which celebrates his boyhood passion for fossils
Fiona Reynolds the Director General of the National Trust who presented Outdoor Nation - a new initiative to encourage the nation out into the countryside
Dr Simon Stuart who gave a round-up of the outcomes from the Nagoya Biodiversity Summit in Japan in October
Satish Kumar, a former Jain monk who left this wandering monastic order to become a campaigner for land reform, working to turn Ghandi’ vision of a peaceful world into reality, which included a peace pilgrimage walking 8,000 miles from India to America with no money!

Some interesting facts:

20% of UK children have never visited the countryside
Two out of three children play outside only once a week
50% of the world's population is urbanised
The world’s population has tripled in the last 60 years
In the next 30 years we will have to face up to the challenges of a global shortage of water, food and energy supplies, which calls for a radical rethink in the way the world economy is managed for a sustainable future
1 in 4 adults experience mental health problems and yet as little as 10 minutes a day spent outdoors has measurable benefits to health and well-being
Global subsidies for agriculture, fisheries, energy and transport amount to a staggering US$13 trillion – could this money be better invested in the environment?
The word biological diversity has become shortened to biodiversity - in so doing we have taken away the ‘logic’ - maybe that’s why people do not really understand what its means!