Together we can replenish the Earth

The Mosaic of Nature

Earth Restoration in Schools

Natural England’s recent report Lost Life: England’s Lost and Threatened Species tells how we are turning the UK into an “ecological desert”.

Creeping habitat loss is taking place due to a variety of factors – including expansing urbanisation – that seem beyond our control. So, what can ordinary people do to restore landscapes and bring back the wildcat, the black poplar, the whitebeam and hundreds of other species and habitats that are disappearing needlessly? What is the most effective way of doing this, and how can we engage millions of people in this work? The answer is through schools, because they are at the heart of the community and at the heart of education: the epicentre for environmental awareness and sowing seeds of hope for the future.

The School Tree Nursery Programme and the School Flutter Flower Programme support the creation of wildflower meadows and tree nurseries inside the school grounds. Children maintain and care for the trees and wildflowers, the trees are used later for outplantings into the wider community. Our project aims to have 1000 active tree nurseries and hundreds of hectares of new wild flower meadows habitats. We have already involved 150 schools and engaged 20,000 children in this effort.

Brining this programme into schools, particularly in deprived areas, can create a very positive change for pupils and the wider community, and children who do not normally get to interact with nature have the chance to leave their own legacy in helping to replenish their locales for future generations.

If the 1,000 schools in the UK that are committed to Earth Restoration through our programmes twin with schools world-wide to replicate the project, then biodiversity and habitat loss could be considerably reduced and Nature-Deficit Disorder could be addressed.

With such positive “handprints” instead of negative “footprints”, we can begin to restore the damage that has been done to the ancient landscapes. We can learn to work with the natural world and become inspired gardeners within the mosaics of nature.

Andreas Kornevall
Director of Operations
ERS

This article was published in the Resurgence Magazine, for more information go to: http://www.resurgence.org