Interview in BBC Wildlife Magazine

The BBC Wildlife Magazine October 2016 Edition had an article about Minority Ethnic people and about the fact that they were not going out into nature. Parts of an interview by me were included on page 32, "Diverse Nature" with a photo. The article is an interesting one and raises awareness of this topic to a wider audience who will know nothing about it. Well done to Ben Hoare and BBC Wildlife Magazine for highlighting the issue and getting the debate started.

In March, following me announcing my Race Equality in Nature Conference to take place in June (aiming to overcome the barriers to ethnic minority [non white] people getting out into nature in the UK) I was approached by Ben Hoare, Features Editor at BBC Wildlife Magazine, as he wanted to highlight the issue and write an article on the subject. I was interviewed by Ben just before the conference, gave him background reports & info and details of others he could contact. 

The article was written by asking BAME naturalists for their views on the topic. This was interesting to read and illuminating for most people interviewed. However, this approach assumed that just because someone was Minority Ethnic and an expert in nature, that they were an also an expert in race, which was not correct. All they could do was give their individual view, which sometimes was a odds with the research and experts in race equality, diversity and inclusion but left unchallenged. For example the issue of whether BAME should be used was I think a diversion from the actual issue, also giving the impression to the white readership that Minority Ethnic people were divided when this is not true for the majority. Also the experts didn't have the chance to give their views in response though I understand that this was probably

I think in discussions like this should include at least sections that are "Black led" race experts. 

The Conference was a great success and the Conference Report is at https://1drv.ms/f/s!AlHI1zymOkP6lFciU1tQX0r56Nmn with additional documents in Appendix 1.1 https://1drv.ms/f/s!AlHI1zymOkP6lFUbVyvJ1OfT1c5r and Appendix 1.2 https://1drv.ms/f/s!AlHI1zymOkP6lHO2pVQbVZxh3mn3

If you are interested in trying to make those out in nature from more diverse backgrounds, then please connect with me on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig https://www.linkedin.com/in/mya-rose-birdgirl-craig-350b598b) and ask to join the Race Equality in Nature Group. Please can you also share this information, so that we can get as many people as possible from all backgrounds involved (nature organisations and people working in ethnic minority communities, health & education).

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 14 year old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent.

Mya-Rose was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. She organised a conference in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter

Sexism in birding and nature conservation – Part 2

Since I wrote my first blog post on 2nd December 2015 http://birdgirluk.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/letter-to-bbc-wildlife-magazine-on.html, I have had lots of support. I really appreciate all of this; on Facebook Groups, my Facebook Page, Twitter and comments on my Blog.

Some of the advice has been given with really good intentions but without real understanding of the issues for girls like me.  Some people said that I should just appreciate how lucky I am to go on great birding trips (which I do), I should not worry about getting recognition (even though I only want recognition for what I and other girls achieve), I should stop blogging or having a presence on social media as that will stop the bullying (the bullying started way before I started my blog), that if I stopped trying to engage with people I would no longer feel let down and everything will be OK.  So basically all these problems have happened because I tried to have a public profile and brought it upon myself. I think this is genuinely what a lot of birders think, believing that they have a modern outlook. 

Some people did say "bullying is bad" but didn't actually say "I'm sorry that happened to you" before being critical. Someone went further to tweet that the young birders group which they were member was not involved. Despite messaging to say this was not true she didn't correct herself. If someone doesn't want to support me, unless are being rude to me, I don't care. But do I have to ignore things that are untrue?

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig birding in Somerset
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

Sometimes I do think about stopping it all, but I realise that all the backlash will carry on even if I stopped birding, ringing, talks, conservation projects, blogging and my social media accounts.  Then all that would happen is that all these people (as women can be sexist too) would be saying “I told you she wasn't really interested in birding, it was her parents forcing birding on her and I knew she would stop in her teens”.

I think that sexism in birding and nature conservation is there because these areas are still dominated by men, even if there are more women than there used to be.  People tend to like and respect people like themselves and that is the reason why young male birders are able to find prominent mentors from the nature conservation sector.

Women in higher roles are often trying to juggle work, sexism at work themselves  and a family life and just don't have the time for mentoring.

In this article I want to focus on the nature magazines. I have nothing against these magazines and at times they have been personally supportive of me.  However, just being nice to me and a few other female birders is not enough, they still need to ensure that men and women are being recognised fairly and that they understand the strong influential role that they play.

BBC Wildlife Magazine has a female editor, but I think if you always do things in the same way, things don't change. In May 2015, they had a big piece on ‘The Wildlife Powerlist – Britain’s Top 50 Conservation Heroes’. The write up said "Who has the potential to change the fortunes of wildlife and the way we experience the natural world over the next decade?  We asked a team of experts to nominate conservationist, scientists, broadcasters, artists and writers to identify the 50 most influential people in British Wildlife…"

The 50 were chosen by the magazine’s advisory panel of 30 middle aged men (or older) and 2 women (again older) and ‘other’ experts.  I would like to know who the other experts were and whether there were more men than women.  The result was that only 12 out of 50 chosen were women, with 2 out of the top 10 being women.  Jane Goodall was number one, but no one can argue with that? How can that be accurate, with so many women involved in the conservation sector? Was the outcome because it was men who voted or was it because women are not recognised for what they do? Maybe because they don't shout about what they are doing as much as men?  I think next time, they could try to focus on coming up with female names, who are as good and powerful as the men.

This month Birdwatching Magazine featured an article “Bird Watching, The Next Generation – Meet the young birders making a difference” which was in conjunction with the BTO. On the front page was a teenage girl looking through a telescope, which looked promising.  First a 4 page article by 24 year old wildlife photographer Luke Massey on a trip back to his roots in France.

Then a 6 page article from the BTO’s Ieuan Evans on how young birders can get involved with BTO and other projects (great, I have been ringing and doing nest box surveys for 4 over years). On page 1 was a photo of a girl ringing and on page 6 one of a young boy birding.  It’s good to have the photo of a girl but it would have much better if a woman from the BTO had written the piece.  The BTO has lots of capable women.

Then a ½ page article by Findley Wilde age 13 year old on his concerns on conservation.

Then finally, a 4 page article by Nicola Boulton about working as a wildlife guide and photographer in Western Scotland.

So of the articles, 1 out of 4 are written by a woman.  It was good that there were two photos of girls birding and ringing but this is bit shallow if they are not given the chance to write.

Then there are a number of young  people, under the heading “One to Watch”.  I know most of them and they are great birders in influential in our field.  I am not saying that they didn't deserve to be listed but I don't think they are the only possible people that could have been included in this category. There was only 1 girl out of 7 people. This is my main issue.  Were these people chosen by the BTO or the magazine?  There are lots of amazing young female birders/ringers out there and I think this was a missed opportunity to showcase more of them.  I know from Twitter that the magazine certainly was told about lots of them.

Sorrell Lyall,  Nathan Burch,  Alex White, Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Billy Stockwell
at The Wildlife Trusts Every Child Wild Podcast on how to get young people into nature
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

Additional comments

There are situations where even if there isn’t actual sexism, there is an inequality between men and women in birding and nature conservation.

Are the number of women who come into our field impacted by the fact that it appears to be dominated by men?

Would there be more women taking up the hobby, if women were more visible?

  

Birdwatch Magazine Birders’ Choice Awards 2015

Again I personally have a good relationship with the magazine and so my comments are not meant to be taken personally by them or anyone who won.

Birdwatch Magazine announced their awards in October 2015 and anyone could vote on-line.

Four categories were for people:

Conservation hero of the year – Choice of 5/5 men

Local hero – to be nominated by voters

Blog of the year – Choice of 4 men/2 women

Best Book – Choice of 4 men/2 women

Results were announced on 27/12/15, with all the winners being male, who I am not at all disputing their winning.

Conservation Hero - Chris Packham, winning outright

Local hero – Nominated by readers, the magazine highlighted 11 men/2 women, with the winner being a man

Blog of the year – Mark Avery, winning outright with a woman second (me!)

Book – Martin Garner, which was particularly lovely as he died not long afterwards

Why are those at the top dominated by men?  Is it because there aren’t enough women, so they don’t get to the top or is it because men are promoted more than women? Particularly our female nature presenters? Where are they? Where are my role models? Where are my mentors?

Our nature media has to be more inclusive and balanced, publishing writing from men and women and be ethnically diverse where possible.  Following my approach to the 4 big NGO’s on the issue of ethnic diversity, the RSPB and The Wildlife Trusts have been using images of ethnic minority children and young people.  This is something the nature magazines need to focus on as well.

I hope the next time articles like this are written, women are fairly recognised and represented.  

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig birding in Somerset
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

About the Writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly

Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent. 

Mya-Rose is a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter

BBC Wildlife Magazine Young Blogger of the Year

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig at Mabamba Wetlands, Uganda
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

During 2015, I decided that as well as blogging on my blog, I would also post on the BBC Wildlife Magazine blog, in the Local Patch Section http://bit.ly/1QufmKe. This actually was very time consuming but worthwhile just to be involved.

In early March 2015, I was blogger of the week with my post about surveying Spoon-billed Sandpiper in Bangladesh, which is a critically endangered bird which was down to 200 pairs in the world.

In the summer, BBC Wildlife Magazine announced that they would be giving awards, including one for Young Blogger of the Year.  They did not announce the winners until their January 2016 magazine.

BBC WIldlife Magazine Blogger of the year awards

In the young Blogger Section, Zach won, who blogged every day for a year.  However, I was really pleased to be announced as highly commended in that category, which was amazing.

BBC WIldlife Magazine Blogger of the year awards

Over the year January to December 2015, I posted 270 times on the BBC Wildlife Magazine local patch reporter blog and had 51,940 views on my posts.  Both were the highest of any blogger.  So thank you to all my followers and the people who read my posts.

About the Writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly

Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent. 

Mya-Rose is a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter

Letter to BBC Wildlife Magazine on sexism in nature conservation

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig ringing
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

My lovely friend Lucy McRobert wrote a brilliant article in the December 2015 edition of BBC Wildlife Magazine.  In it she talked about the sexism in birding and nature conservation. This was something raised by Matt Williams at the September 2014 AFON Conference in Cambridge.  It was a subject that I felt so strongly about, that I was prepared to speak up about it in front of all the delegates.  

Lucy McRobert's article in the December 2015 BBC Wildlife Magazine

This is a longer and amended version of the letter that I have sent about the article.

Dear BBC Wildlife Magazine

Lucy McRobert is exactly right in her opinion on sexism in nature conservation. Even at 13 years old, sexism brings me down.  It's hard to talk about it without sounding like you have "sour grapes", but I will try.  I go to Scouts and Guides; in the first we roll around in mud and make nest boxes; whilst in the other, we have movie nights and are told Guides aren't interested in nature.  These stereotypes are ingrained before children even leave primary school.

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig doing a Nest Box Survey and ringing as part of Scouts
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

Age 7, I was in a BBC4 programme about birding, after which I was subjected to a lot of abuse on social media.  If I had been a boy, being out birding at the weekends would have been acceptable and people would not have been clambering to say that I was "clearly" uninterested in birds. A boy would have reminded male birders of their own childhood and would have been seen as normal.  As a girl, I was unfairly labeled as “bored and unhappy”.

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in BB4's "Twitchers: A Very British Obsession"

Many male teenage naturalists have high profile male conservationist mentors, so when they do something good, they are hailed by them as the future of conservation. It's much rarer for girls to have mentors championing them and when they do something great, they are not promoted in the same way.

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig at BTO Conference in 2014
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

I have been subject to cyber bullying because of my sex, which no boys have been subjected to. When I was 11 years old, a secret Facebook group of middle aged male birders targeted me and posted 150 comments about me, including a sexual remark made by a university lecturer. The very next comment was made by a teacher who ignored the remark. Screenshots were leaked and eventually the group closed, but just reopening with a new name. The attitude of other people in the group was simply that the comment should not have been leaked. I know that the group had previously done the same to at least one other prominent female birder who was also leaked sexual remarks.  She got the police involved and got the remarks removed. 

Not long after this happened, I wrote a blog post with a paragraph about this bullying incident, the sexual remark and how bad that made me feel. The blog post was posted in a young birders group where instead of any sympathy, a young male birder made a comment making a false allegation about me and that actual paragraph, which was liked by eleven young birders who were mainly boys and were supporting the men in the group. Although this was a small minority of the group, I felt unable to interact with anyone in the group after that.

No boys have to put up with things like that.

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig ringing
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

There are often comments appearing on social media about me from adult male birders who have never met me, disparaging my birding abilities.  These are comments because I'm a girl. It's like, if a boy is a birder or ringer (bander) they tell everyone how fantastic they are and everyone accepts it.  If it's a girl, it's assumed by many they don't know what they are doing, especially if they are more bashful about their skills (as girls often are).

Teenage girls obsess about what people think.  I give lots of talks, but never when there are likely to be any young male nature conservationists, as I feel that I would be judged negatively.  Recently, a young birders’ group held a Young Birder of the Year competition. I did not take part, as I felt I would have been criticized if I won or if I didn’t win. Boys don’t care about this kind of thing.

To get on in nature conservation in the UK, as a girl you have to be five times better than the nearest boy.  So that's what I try to do.

Mya-Rose Craig

Age 13

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig birding
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

About the Writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly

Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and is looking forward to watching Penguins in Antarctica in December 2015, which will be her 7th continent. 

Mya-Rose is a Bristol European Green Capital 2015 Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol 2015 Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter