World Wildlife Day: To kindle and fan an extravagant hope

Mary Colwell with Curlew chick

Last month I went with the Surrey Bird Club to visit Elmley nature reserve.

Elmley Nature Reserve, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, is a 3,300-acre privately owned estate that has been restored from intensive arable farmland into a premier wetland habitat since the 1980s.

Becoming a National Nature Reserve (NNR) in 1992, it is the only family-owned and managed NNR in the UK.

As we slowly drove to the car park, we saw wildlife a plenty, including sky dancing marsh harriers, hovering kestrel, mewing buzzards, a vigilant hare, soaring sky larks and then joy of joys a large flock of curlew feeding near a lagoon. The Eurasian curlew (to give the bird its proper name) is one of the most endangered birds in the UK today. This Red listed bird has seen a 50% decline across England and Scotland, 80% decline in Wales and a staggering 97% decline in Ireland. The chief concern for this species is the loss of breeding habitat due to changing land use and crop choice on farmland.

In 2015 the Curlew was identified as one of the greatest conservation priorities in the UK. Horrified at the thought of losing this iconic bird from our skies, the English environmentalist, author and producer Mary Colwell saw this and decided to do something about it, saying: "I liked something about the way Curlew lived in the world, sang to the world, and drifted through the world with a light touch."

In 2020 Mary founded 'Curlew Action' with the vision of providing 'A secure place for Curlews and the wildlife that lives alongside them in a natural world, rich in biodiversity, where people are informed about, and engaged with, nature.' Following this in March 2021 Mary was appointed chair of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs initiated Curlew Recovery Partnership England, a roundtable of organisations charged with restoring Curlews, their habitats and associated wildlife across England.

Mary says that the founding mantra of Curlew Action was expressed by the Senegalese environmentalist Baba Dioum in 1968:

"We will conserve what we love; we will only love what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught."

Concerned that many children were growing up disconnected from the natural world Mary led a successful campaign to establish a GCSE in Natural History which was announced by the government in April 2022. This would enable students to observe wildlife, ecosystems and local environments through fieldwork.

Later on in the day of our visit to Elmley I sat on the causeway to enjoy the vast skies and to try and spot a bearded reedling (bearded tit) in the rushes. I didn't find a bearded reedling, but many skeins of curlew flew overhead calling as they flew - it was a truly magic half hour, and I wondered why Elmley had so many Curlew on site. A couple in the observation hide enlightened me.

Elmley Nature reserve is one of the three locations that are part of the South of England recovery project. There are six of these curlew 'headstarting' projects around the country and more to come. Elmley is a key partner in the Curlew recovery scheme

For the last three years experts have collected vulnerable curlew eggs in North Yorkshire (eg from airfields where they are in danger) and transported them to Elmley where they incubate the eggs, rear the hatched chicks in pens for five - six weeks and then release them onto the reserve in July. Over the last two years Elmley have fledged 50 Curlew. The first year's fledglings are now reaching maturity and one has paired up with a wild bird giving hopes of restoring the population.

3rd March is United Nations World Wildlife Day. 'This' the website tells us 'is an opportunity to celebrate the many beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna and flora' and to encourage people to 'work together to make sure ecosystems are able to thrive and plant and animal species are able to exist for future generations.'

In October 2025 Pope Leo marking the 10th anniversary of the publication of 'Laudato si' warned us that environmental challenges, including biodiversity loss are "even more relevant today than they were ten years ago, saying that the 'loss of biodiversity' is a key factor in the ecological crisis that requires urgent action and ecological education. Pope Leo called for a move from 'words to action' encouraging nations and individuals to move beyond dialogue to concrete steps to protect ecosystems and restore biodiversity. Mary Colwell is someone who has moved from words to action.

So why don't we just, like Mary Colwell 'get on with it'? In a Guardian article (23 September 2009) Mary said that, "the problem is, scaring people into action doesn't work." She cites the work of sociologist Eric Hoffer who studied what caused people to "rise up in a revolution, to become heroes."

He concluded: "Those who would transform a nation or the world cannot do so by breeding and captaining discontent or by demonstrating reasonableness and desirability of the intended changes or by coercing people into a new way of life. They must know how to kindle and fan an extravagant hope."

Hearing the curlew at Elmley touched something deep in me. It instantly transported me back to the moors of Co Durham of my childhood with my grandparents, to the mudflats on the Thames at Rainham and to windswept northern beaches. Learning of Mary Colwell's work to protect the curlew and seeing first hand the results of her actions has truly filled me with 'an extravagant hope'. Yes, we can by our small actions make a big difference.

I am looking forward to meeting and hearing from Mary Colwell once again at our JPIC Links weekend at Wistaston Hall Retreat Centre in Crewe, May 8 - 10th, to hearing of her journey and being inspired to transform her words into action.

'Hope is in our nature' - (Love, resilience and hope in our relationship with the natural world)

We still have places and we would love you to join us to be inspired by Mary.

Further information can be found at: www.jpiclinks.com or join us for free via zoom.

Curlew Action: www.curlewaction.org/

Curlew Recovery partnership England: www.curlewrecovery.org/

Elmley nature reserve: www.elmleynaturereserve.co.uk/