Participants visiting the nature reserve. Photo: Ellen Teague
A commitment to protect Earth’s biodiversity was made at the conclusion of a recent Christian Aware summer school in the Yorkshire Dales, England. Around 25 participants promised to be particularly active during the Season of Creation, which starts on 1 September. A keynote speaker was Ellen Teague of the Columban Justice, Peace and Ecology Team.
The event was held in late July, on the theme of ‘Building Biodiversity,’ at Parcevall Hall, an Anglican Retreat Centre. It was a week when environmental catastrophes were hitting the news headlines, particularly heatwaves and fires in the Mediterranean countries and exceptional flooding in parts of Asia. We had an unusually cool temperature with rain all week!
My own Columban inputs focused on the international level, particularly initiatives of Columban missionaries’ JPIC teams globally to save habitats. This includes raising awareness of the importance of oceans in Fiji and tree planting in Pakistan. A Columban delegation attended the UN’s Biodiversity COP15 in Montreal last December as part of interfaith advocacy and saw the Global Biodiversity Framework set up. It was signed by 196 nations on 19 December 2022 to “take urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss” by 2030 and to protect 30% of land and sea area by 2030.
To deepen appreciation of the diversity of nature, Dr Judith Allinson of Green Christian ran two botany sessions. The first on Lichens, which are made out of fungi and algae, had the group using hand lenses to study Lichens on the conference centre walls. There are around 1000 lichens in Yorkshire, and she explained that lichenologists studying lichens growing on trees and rocks can see how much Nitrogen-oxide air pollution there is in Yorkshire. Nitrogen is the third most serious planetary boundary being broken after Biodiversity and Climate Change. It comes from fertilizers on fields, from slurry, from chickens and pig farms and traffic pollution.
Group studying lichens. Photo: Ellen Teague
The second session was at the internationally important Malham Tarn Bog, owned by the National Trust. Judith told us that bogs are a store of peat – a store of carbon, but 80% of bogs are losing their carbon because of government-funded drainage and the after-effects of pollution. Bogs are also a store for water – holding water and releasing it slowly, reducing flooding in lowlands. They are home to unique plants – in Malham Tarn’s case, species of Blue Moor Grass, Ragged Robin and many more.
The summer school – an annual event of the ecumenical charity - explored examples of what is being done to build biodiversity in the Yorkshire Dales with talks, slide shows, discussions and visits.
This included learning about ‘the ‘Wild Ingleborough’ project, which works with the local community to protect nature. The focus is on protecting whole ecosystems rather than the preservation of specific species and the underlying principle is ‘Making space for nature.’ Jane Skinner, an Anglican priest, presented a fascinating case study of Lundy Island, off the UK coast and where she ministers. Participants marvelled at the bird life on the island.
We heard about sustainable farming from John Dawson of Bleak Bank Farm in the Dales. He is the fifth generation of his family to run the farm since the 1920s and his son is fully involved. We heard about lambing, sheep shearing, dairy farming, maintaining 10 miles of dry-stone wall and the huge amount of administration involved in farming these days. Running small farms is stressful and he told us that 88% of farmers under the age of 40 rank poor mental health as the biggest problem facing them today.
Ellen Teague and Judith Allinson. Photo: Ellen Teague
He was one of several of the speakers we met who knew the work of Catholic Mary Colwell to protect the Curlew and he had delayed cutting silage in a field where chicks were hatching. “We waited until they flew away,” he told us. And he was firm that, “we won’t use GM (genetic modification).”
Participants in the summer school studied as a community - sharing ecumenical worship, bible study and discussion and weaving faith insights into the issues highlighted. We left motivated and hopeful that Christians have a role to play in helping build a more sustainable world, both through advocacy at national and international levels and through cherishing the natural world, which is the context of all our lives.
Ellen Teague, Columban Justice and Peace Media in Britain
Related links
- Read more from the current Columban PEJ eBulletin
