On Saturday we attended the ‘Restore Nature Now’ march and rally in London. It was a truly inspiring event with hundreds of small and large environmental organisations taking part. It was a privilege to do our bit in this amazing campaign with our colleagues from the central Rivers Trust and other catchments around the UK, to help give nature a voice!!!

Anthony’s Experience

On the morning of the march, I (Project Volunteering Officer Anthony Cox) travelled down to London from Doncaster on the train, with Catchment Partnership Officer Erika Pheonix, where we met Project Assistant Rebecca Ford who had travelled to London on a separate train from Sheffield. We were hoping to walk to the start point of the march, but our train had been slightly delayed, so we hopped on the tube to Green Park and walked to the meeting point from there.

The march had been split into four sections. These were woods, water, land and Air. When we arrived at the March we joined the water block with colleagues from the central Rivers Trust, Trent Rivers Trust and South East Rivers Trust. It was very busy and there was a lot of excitement about taking part in an event to make sure we are heard and make a difference for rivers in our society. Lots of people had creative protest materials. This included a giant octopus, a man with a whale’s head and big blue dragon flies on the end of a stick high above our heads.  At the start off the March Emma Brisdion from the central Rivers Trust did a speech during which we set off on our way to the Houses of Parliament.

It is at this point I feel I should admit that I have never been on this kind of march before. It was a new and strange experience. There was a lot of noise, protest songs, chanting and a drum band which was really cool! I found myself moving along the streets of London in a river of passion, colour and noise with the same message, to restore nature now!

At around half one we were feeling very hot and hungry, so we broke off from the march to have our lunch. We sat some steps around a fountain in the middle of Piccadilly Circus.  We watched while we had our lunch as the stream of marchers steadily teamed past us sending their message out to the public. I had not paid a lot of attention to the passers-by until this point. I noticed that many of them were taking photos and showing appreciation for the message we were carrying with us. Once we had finished lunch we set off to rejoin the water block.

When we caught up with the water block they had already arrived at parliament square, and the speeches had begun. We saw speeches from several people including Fergal Sharkey and Chris Packham. These speeches were very inspiring and were driven to encourage us to push the incoming government to take radical action to help our struggling environment.

Once all the speeches were over we headed back to the train station. On the journey back to Doncaster it provided time to reflect on my day in the capital. I felt very positive about my actions on the day. It filled me with hope and optimism about the future. I felt that if we banded together as a species we can begin to work with our environment rather than against it, find new clean sources of energy and cleaner affordable ways to travel. It also helped me with my own motivations for my work at the trust. It showed that my small contribution, along with that of our dedicated volunteer team we are lucky to have at the Don Catchment Rivers Trust, is a small part of a huge amount of action, not just here in the UK but across the world. So, the message I would like to pass on from my experience is this; we must live in hope that if we band together we can have a cleaner more sustainable future and live in harmony with the other organisms on the planet.

Comments from the Don Catchment Rivers Trust

The Don Catchment Rivers Trust is not generally a campaigning organisation, and this is also true for many of the other organisations that took part in the march. However, decades of neglect for our rivers, which was preceded by centuries of industrial damage, means that 0% of England’s rivers are in good or high overall health. Our Rivers have been straightened and used as a dumping ground for chemicals and waste for too long.

Now, The Rivers Trust has four asks for our next Government:

· Prioritise nature recovery – make nature-based solutions like trees and wetlands to improve the environment and tackle climate change first choice, rather than relying on chemicals and concrete.

· Improve our understanding of rivers – support better data and evidence to improve regulatory monitoring and recognise the value of citizen science alongside it.

· Make polluters pay – drive strong enforcement of those who pollute to turn the tide on the abuse of our rivers.

· Manage land with water in mind – empower collaborative working that gets everyone involved in restoring our rivers.

On 4th July, please think of nature and rivers when you cast your vote and we should all work together to hold the incoming government to account to restore nature now!

Please click here to find out more about the Vote For Rivers campaign! Click here to read about the enviromental policies proposed by the parties in the upcoming general election.

Written and compliled by Project Volunteering Officer Anthony Cox