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Access to Wildlife
January 26, 2012
Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.
-St. Francis de Sales
-St. Francis de Sales
In making a case for making access to nature as a right, King observes...
"Governments can and should articulate a new right: that every child and young person has the right to grow up and live in a high-quality, wildlife-rich environment with ready access to the physical and mental health benefits, developmental advantages, and play opportunities it affords. There is a growing and compelling body of evidence that regular and ready access to a wildlife-rich environment is essential for children's health and wellbeing.
"Recognising — and acting on — a right to that wildlife-rich world is essential for delivering better health, better educational attainment, and better social development. Research published in The Lancet shows that, even after other factors are accounted for, living in a green environment makes people healthier.
"One Scottish child in five is overweight and one in ten is obese but we know that access to attractive, nature-rich greenspace increases physical activity and reduces obesity. Children who live in busy urban areas where there are lots of trees have lower rates of asthma and lower rates of behavioural problems such as ADHD, yet Scotland has no strategy to green those streets that have high levels of air pollution. Children who spend time playing outside suffer less from short sight later in life than those who don't. Children who have ready access to the natural environment have better self-esteem, self-confidence, independence, autonomy, and initiative than those who don't.
"Nature is good for people: let's recognise the right of every child to live and grow up in a wildlife-rich world."
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Natural Playscapes |
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Natural Playscapes: Creating Outdoor Play Environments for the Soul |
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Comments (2)
Displaying All 2 CommentsSpirit Child Yoga and ECE
Aurora, ON, Canada
I love this message! I see the pendulum swinging back, away from sterile playgrounds and overly safe and barren play spaces. However, we as mostly women early childhood educators, are one of the biggest barriers between children and nature. ECE's discourage playing in dirt, picking up insects and worms, discourage children from helping with growing plants and flower boxes, and often consider engagement with nature "dirty" or dangerous. By allowing more engagement with nature, we will surely see the negative behaviours and outcomes decrease, and maybe feel better ourselves! We will also help raise a generation who care about nature and work to help save the planet, that we have been destroying.
New Zealand
Go live in the country and it will all be there. U don't need to have it declared a right. I just wish we could have a charter of responsibilities campaigned for as strongly as a charter of rights. Everyone has rights nowadays and everyone knows their rights. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of responsibilities. People don't seem to know their responsibilities.
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