Hello there!
If you’ve just found us, we are Native to Earth and we have just produced a short series called The Wildbelt Series.
Here at Native to Earth, we make documentaries that direct people’s energy to places, projects, initiatives and campaigns contributing to a healthy future in a world where the wild is thriving.
As a team we have been noticing a lack of insects in our gardens, a lot more litter on the roads, and we have all been overwhelmed by constant mentions of a need to change to secure our futures. We have also noticed that much of the rhetoric in the media related to the Climate Crisis and the Biodiversity Crisis is frightening and vague, many of the issues affecting us aren’t caused directly by us, and it’s difficult to understand what it is we can all do individually to make things better, or how much of an impact this could have.
Lucky for us, we’ve got a range of experiences amongst us that have shown us that communities are powerful, and there is always someone doing something practical and impactful, even if you don’t know about them.
As it turns out, much of the incredible conservation work going on in individual communities in the UK is outside of the special sites for conservation currently recognised by local authorities and protected by the government. Countless precious and vulnerable habitats are being cared for and managed by a whole host of groups, charities and organisations across the UK that can see it feasible to allocate 30% of the land here for the wild. These entities are communicating with one another, working together to expand and connect important habitats, and they’re dedicating time and resources to make sure that the UK’s overlooked habitats are recognised and protected properly for a wilder future.
In addition, the UK’s Wildlife Trusts are spearheading two initiatives: 30by30, and the Wildbelt initiative. Both of these initiatives exist so that efforts can be combined to ensure that 30% of land and sea across the UK is restored and ready to support nature’s recovery by the year 2030, all in a bid to prevent nature’s decline. The Wildbelt initiative aims to instate a new land designation across the nation so that patches of land hosting important, yet overlooked habitats can be allocated as wildbelt land, managed especially to host designated habitat types well into the future.
Most people think of wild land as land left to its own devices, however there is a lot of work required to manage some habitat types, such as heathlands and sand dunes - both habitats that have suffered incredible losses in the last century.
The people working towards the 30% by 2030 cannot succeed alone. You can help!
Episode 1 is just the beginning, so watch The Wildbelt Series, check out the Wildbelt initiative, and follow us to see all the ways you can contribute to the 30by30 initiative being a success here in the UK.