‘There are kids in Britain who’ve never seen a real sheep before.’
Conservationist, equal rights campaigner and devoted birdwatcher: Mya-Rose Craig is on a mission to bring nature to everyone…
‘I realised I was enjoying something that other people couldn’t, and I thought that was unfair.’
MYA-ROSE CRAIG is many things. Avid walker. Acclaimed podcaster. Dedicated conservationist. Respected equal rights campaigner. Youth mentor. Doctor of science. Average teenager.
But underlying all that is one particular passion: birdwatching.
“I always say I didn’t have any choice but to become a birder,” she says with a grin.
“My parents took me birdwatching when I was nine days old. It was like ‘life’ and ‘listening to birds’ were pretty much the same thing.”
Now 18, Mya-Rose has become a globally respected voice in birdwatching, via her online nom de plume of Birdgirl. She has travelled the globe, seen half the world’s bird species, and shared magic moments with birdwatchers of all ages.
But her latest project is much closer to home: an acclaimed podcast with the primary aim of “making birdwatching easy and accessible for everyone”.
Get Birding makes it clear you don’t need any prior knowledge to listen in and enjoy the same things as Mya-Rose does: the simple bliss of hearing birdsong and, once you’ve got into it, the joy of discovering more about who’s singing it. She’s helped by a stellar range of guests including presenter Chris Packham, comedian Susan Calman (who discusses how her obsession with her garden feeder changed her life), GP Dr Amir Khan, actor Samuel West and ‘nature beatboxer’ Jason Singh.
She says the podcast is partly a response to the world of lockdown.
“I think a lot of people who wouldn’t really call themselves nature lovers have found themselves missing a connection to nature. It has made people think about how important nature is to their mental health,” she explains.
“The podcast began as a way to help people access nature even if they couldn’t travel miles to open spaces. It’s about nature near you, especially in urban areas where people might not realise that nature is as active and thriving as it is.”
She is especially passionate about bringing the natural world to people who statistically are less likely to be able to access it, particularly black and Asian youth communities within cities.
Growing up in the picturesque Chew Valley in Somerset, Mya-Rose quickly became aware that not everyone was able to enjoy the kind of green spaces she treasured.
“I’m half Bangladeshi, and I couldn’t see a lot of people who looked like me,” she explains.
“I realised I was enjoying something that a lot of people couldn’t, and I thought that was unfair.”
In 2015 – aged 14 – she founded Black2Nature, a non-profit organisation which campaigns for equal access to nature and runs Nature Camps for black and Asian teens, led by Mya-Rose herself.
“The first time we did it I was pretty scared,” she admits.
“People told me there was no point. Young people from the city wouldn’t want to come on something like that. But my parents were massively supportive, and we just went for it. We set up a camp by a nature reserve in the Somerset Levels, got some kids from Bristol, and took them for walks.
“And it worked. Anyone who thinks teenagers can’t fall in love with nature should take a look at what happens when you give them the chance.”
Such has been the acclaim for Black2Nature’s work that last year, the University of Bristol awarded Mya-Rose an honorary doctorate in science. She is believed to be the youngest Briton ever to receive such an award. She is also a committed conservationist, and has shared platforms with Greta Thunberg, Sir David Attenborough and other voices in the fight against climate change.
And when it comes to the inequality of access to nature, she speaks bluntly.
“We have to recognise it has become a privilege for those who have the time and money,” she says.
“And in most urban VME communities, that leisure time and disposable money may not be there. Genuinely, a lot of the kids we work with have never seen a cow or a sheep or a horse in real life before. The countryside can feel like a place they aren’t meant to be. Those are the barriers we need to break down.”
Walking, she adds, is one of the ways those barriers can be dismantled, because it’s a joy anyone can share, regardless of culture or ethnicity. An avid walker herself, she says she will go for a walk anywhere, but her favourite places include the Scilly Isles (“especially in the autumn, for all the storms”), the Lake District and the Shetlands.
“I’ve walked in pretty much every part of the UK but there is something super-special about the Scottish Islands that makes me fall in love with them every time,” she says. “But I also love walking in cities. Some people think nature is only found deep in the countryside and the city somehow doesn’t count, but it’s not like that.
“If lockdown taught us anything, it’s how to reassess our view of what engaging with nature means. Nature isn’t just ‘over there’ or ‘somewhere else’. It’s right where you are, right now.”
You can download Get Birding from podcast platforms now. And check out Mya-Rose’s blog at birdgirluk.com