In mid-September I got an email that said “ditt arbete med Birding Therapy som en av de nominerade av Årets Miljöhjälte i kategorin biologisk mångfald” (your work with Birding Therapy is one of the nominees for this year’s Environmental Hero award in the biodiversity category"). At first I didn’t know what to think and thought it was a phishing/malware type of spam. But then it sunk in that this is real, and it’s difficult to put into words how I felt. I didn’t think that anyone was paying attention to the small side project I started to get more people, particularly underrepresented groups, out into nature and birding.

The day the list was made official I got an email from a journalist at one of Malmö’s radio stations seeking to interview me. It was around 08:00 and I was ready to commute to work. We agreed to meet at the train station and conduct a short interview there. The interview was in Swedish, and my skills in svenska are a work in progress but crucially I was not told the interview was live (!) So, I fumbled a bit at the beginning (thinking that it can be edited out) but eventually found my footing 😅 At this stage of my career, I’m used to being interviewed for print media but this was my first live on-air interview. I think I’ll stick to English next time until I’m fully proficient in Swedish 🙂

The full interview can be heard in the embed below (or here if you can’t see the embed). There’s also a nice summary here that hits the main points of the interview.

I think the nomination, in and of itself, is an important recognition of the importance of getting everyone aware of the very tangible benefits of nature, even those that live in urban centers. In Malmö, we’re lucky to have an efficient public transportation system that provides access to the city natural areas. But not many know of the existence of these places, not least newcomers to the city and people who don’t have the opportunities to go into nature.

The benefits of getting more people to recognize the benefits and importance of nature preservation are many. A particularly important one is that people (i.e. voters) will not opt for the protection of something they know nothing about. So, in order for the conservation of biodiversity to take place, more people need to be aware of its importance. There’s a general assumption that it’s enough to disseminate information via the usual channels (e.g. prominent media outlets) in order to reach most people in society. It may be true but these channels are not always the best sources for reaching all groups living in our society and many might not get the message regarding nature’s importance. This is why it’s important to increase representation in conservation because more people can be reached, and potentially involved, if they see themselves as part of the effort to protect nature.