Wednesday 23 November 2022

Is a Gardening Organisation the Right Body for Encouraging an Appreciation of Biodiversity in English Schools?

Any attempt to improve the knowledge of and appreciation of biodiversity and nature in English schools, must be welcomed. However, the partnership, between the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS); the Natural History Museum (NHM) and the Department for Education has several odd features (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/23/schoolchildren-in-england-to-learn-about-biodiversity-in-new-rhs-project). RHS is basically a gardening organisation. Gardeners have been responsible for many introductions of many problematic alien species into the UK. It's actually a bit worrying that an anticipated awards ceremony for participants is tentatively scheduled for the Royal Chelsea Flower Show. Encouraging bioiversity isn't simply becoming more effective gardeners. The NHM is very good on species identification. It's uncertain how much time, however, its operatives would have to spend on the masses of specimens collected from the proposed school-associated 'nature parks' across England. Mapping the anticipated bidiversity in these 'green spaces' (especially, if newly-created), also may not prove to be especially meaningful in a UK-wide sense. It also seems more than a little 'Londoncentric'.

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