Frequently Asked Questions
What is Save Our Wild Isles?
Save Our Wild Isles is an urgent call to action for everyone. In their first major campaign together, WWF, the RSPB and the National Trust are calling for an immediate halt to the destruction of UK nature and urgent action for its recovery. Nature is amazing. It’s also our life support system. And everyone must get involved to reverse the harm we’ve seen done to nature over two centuries.
Is the BBC involved in the Save Our Wild Isles campaign?
The BBC are not involved in the charities campaign, though it coincides with the BBC’s latest nature series, Wild Isles, and draws inspiration from the incredible footage and wildlife spectacles that feature. As the TV series shows, the UK is home to some of the most incredible species on earth, but our nature is increasingly fragile and vulnerable. That’s why WWF, the RSPB and the National Trust are calling for everyone, from all walks of life, to take action and help bring our wild isles back to life.
What are the charities calling for?
WWF, the RSPB and the National Trust are asking people to show they love nature, by acting now, because we know that we must all be part of the change every day, if we’re going to turn this crisis around. Creating wilder spaces, making nature part of our lives and speaking up on its behalf is what everyone should be doing.
People can help Save Our Wild Isles by taking simple but meaningful steps to help protect it, fix it and pass it on to the next generation, like planting wildflower seeds in a window box, or eating less meat. People can even go wild, and help nature recover by making our communities and shared spaces wilder - getting together and planting a community orchard in local allotments, wilding part of a park or volunteering to plant trees.
And it’s important too, that people speak up for nature. If we’re going to save our wild isles, we must let our governments know that we need immediate and ambitious action. Our leaders must come together and implement a crisis response plan for all four nations. They must deliver on the promises they’ve already made with more urgency. If enough of us demonstrate a love for nature that can’t be ignored, we can demand more action from our leaders. If we don’t use our voices in this way to use the power of our own action to influence change at scale, then our own actions won’t be enough to save our wild isles.
Why are you launching Save Our Wild Isles now?
Science makes clear that nature is in crisis and we’re running out of time to bring it back to life. But there is still hope, if we all act now. That’s why WWF, the RSPB and the National Trust have teamed up to launch the Save Our Wild Isles campaign to inspire people from across the UK, from all walks of life, to act now for nature. Everyone can play their part. Find out more at SaveOurWildIsles.org.uk.
Is David Attenborough signed up to this? Why/why not?
Sir David Attenborough is not directly involved in Save Our Wild Isles. The campaign coincides with the launch of a new BBC TV series, ‘Wild Isles’, which Sir David Attenborough narrates. The series is co-produced by WWF and the RSPB. You can find out more information here.
You’ve raised concern with the public about the UK nature crisis but what are you doing as organisations to help?
WWF, the RSPB, and The National Trust believe the UK nature crisis requires an urgent response across all nations, where every person plays their part. We’re calling for an immediate stop to the destruction of nature, and urgent restoration of it as a priority. To help harness its power in the fight against climate change, our leaders in politics and business will have to act now and keep the promises they’ve made.
The charities through their separate campaign will offer people ways to help bring nature back, and they will both help convene a national coalition of nature-active people. They will use this evidence of public action to call for change from decision makers. It is important to note that the Save Our Wild Isles campaign is an initiative that is separate from our relationship with the BBC and is not delivered in partnership with BBC, who play no part in calling for action.
The BBC are separately sharing ways people can reconnect with nature by offering further information on the Wild Isles programme page, which will allow viewers to engage with opportunities provided by a wide range of organisations. The URL of the programme page forms part of the call to action delivered by Sir David Attenborough at the end of each episode.
What can I do as an individual?
If you love nature, act now and Go Wild Once a Week! We must all be part of the change: creating wilder spaces, making nature part of our everyday lives and speaking up on its behalf. If enough of us demonstrate a love for nature with a weekly action, that can’t be ignored. We can demand more action from our leaders, and together we can Save Our Wild Isles. Going wild can mean lots of things, check out the Take Action section of this site to decide how you can Go Wild.
What can I do as a business?
Businesses must put nature at the heart of every plan and every boardroom decision. Our economy depends on nature to survive but our business and finance sectors currently have a huge negative impact on our natural world. Businesses must:
- Stop the Destruction: Measure your impact and set targets for change. Businesses must measure their impact on nature and climate – and commit to science-based targets to stop its destruction. They must track, reduce and report their impact on the natural world.
- Bring nature back: Commit to setting out a transition plan that includes nature. All businesses must be transparent and by the end of 2023 should have committed to setting out a plan to outline the actions they will take to support nature and climate’s recovery.
- Harness the power of nature: working with it, not against it. Businesses must invest in restoring our peatlands, wetlands, woodlands, seagrass meadows and the rest of our natural world, through accredited restoration schemes.
Make it your business and start your nature-positive journey here.
What are you expecting government to do?
Our leaders must come together and implement a crisis response plan for all four nations. They must deliver on the promises they’ve already made with more urgency. Specifically:
- Stop the destruction: Act now to strengthen and enforce environmental protections. Our leaders must strengthen – not scrap – environmental protections, and help businesses clean up their supply chains and practices.
- Bring nature back: Act now to make space for nature and safeguard our food security. Our governments made a promise at the global biodiversity summit (COP15) to reverse the loss of nature this decade. They need to deliver this by making far more space for nature on land and in our oceans, while supporting farmers to protect and restore nature both at home and overseas.
- Harness nature’s power: Act now by investing in the power of nature to fight climate change. By restoring our peatlands, wetlands, woodlands and seagrass meadows, we can lock up huge amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, tackling the causes and impacts of climate change.
All three charities partner with businesses linked to environmental damage – how do you justify this?
WWF, the RSPB and the National Trust seek to work with companies that are committed to positive environmental action. We only partner with organisations who meet our due diligence criteria, in line with each charity’s processes and structures of governance.
The private sector has a huge impact on the natural world and businesses are highly influential, both here in the UK and across the globe - so, we need to collaborate with them to address the big environmental issues facing our world. Through strategic partnerships with companies, we seek to collaborate to reduce their - and our - environmental impact; act and advocate to move both individual businesses and whole sectors towards better ways of doing business; raise money to support our conservation programmes; or to help us engage and inspire more people in creating a positive future for nature.
More information about WWF’s commercial partnerships can be found here.
More information about the National Trust’s commercial partnerships can be found here.
More information about RSPB’s commercial partnerships can be found here.
Why are you asking people to write to their MP?
One of the most important actions that people can take for nature is using their power as a constituent to raise awareness of issues that are important to them with their representative in Parliament.
By writing to their MP, people will be helping MPs understand that the nature crisis is a priority for them, and their MP will be encouraged to act accordingly, working with their colleagues to take action for nature at a local and national level.
What are you asking MPs to do?
We’re asking MPs to put nature at the heart of decision making by putting pressure on their party leaders to respond to the People’s Plan for Nature and attend the Save Our Wild Isles Reception on 3rd July. More specifically, we’re asking for MPs to:
- Strengthen legal protection for nature and make sure it’s properly enforced
- Make it mandatory for businesses to do no harm to nature. This means they will have to develop a transition plan that will reduce their impact on nature in their operations, supply chain and products. The plan will show how the company will stop harming and help restore nature within a given timeframe.
- Double financial support for nature-friendly farming
I’m in Scotland/Wales - what can I do that will have impact in my nation?
This action is just focused on writing to MPs in England, but we cannot guarantee that people outside of England won’t come across the action.
Find out more about how you can take action if you’re based on Scotland or Wales:
- Wales - Support nature positive calls: https://climate.cymru/campaigns/nature-positive/
- Scotland - Write to Scottish MPs on the same asks as the MPs in England as they apply across the UK.
If you are a business, NGO or other organisation and want to support the Save Our Wild Isles campaign you can get in touch via: saveourwildisles@rspb.org.uk.
Not answered your question? You can get in contact with us via:
https://www.wwf.org.uk/contact-us
https://www.rspb.org.uk/about-the-rspb/get-in-touch/contact-us/
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/get-in-touch/contact-us/contact-our-head-office