Help the children connect with nature for World Wildlife Day

ITisafact,attimesan inconvenient one, that we share this planet with other species. We’re talking about beasts that bellow, skulk, roar, leap and have terrible table manners.

Undeniably, though, these beasties make our world more interesting. They may even be beautiful, graceful or, you know, awesome – as the kids say. And so, of course, we have made things difficult for the beasts and wiped out not a few. projects that seem equally infused with hope and hopelessness.

Sometimes, surrounded as we are by platoons of domesticated moggies and mutts, we must remind ourselves that handfuls of elephants and tigers are still out there, in the real wild, struggling to get by and sometimes suffering horriblyatthehandsofhumans.

Thus, the value of World Wildlife Day, which strives to raise awareness of the planet’s fauna and flora. This year, the United Nations’ initiative is taking as its theme, Listen to the Young Voices, seeing youth as agents of change, with the potential to tackle major threats to wildlife such as habitat destruction, exploitation and illicit trafficking.

The UN wants young folk to become more aware of the issues but also to enjoy nature, perhaps visiting a safari park, botanical garden or natural history museum. Locally, I’m happy to say that Greenbank House and Garden, in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire, is offering free, family-friendly access to visitors young and old in support of World Wildlife Day.

The house is Georgian, A-listed, and the grounds are billed as “a tranquil celebration of the gardener’s art”. It’s far from wild but nature is here, with every leaf and snatch of birdsong reconnecting visitors to all valuable life on the planet.

Where better to spend a Saturday away from the hustle and bustle than amidst burbling woodland burns, beneath beech trees stretching languidly towards the sky, then heading into the National Trust for Scotland tearoom for cake and a warming beverage? World Wildlife Day is on Friday, March 3, and Greenbank House throws open its gates in support on March 4.