Restore Nature Now! Activists and environmental groups come together for largest march for nature ever seen

June 21, 2024 by Extinction Rebellion

Email: press@extinctionrebellion.uk 

Phone: +44(0)7756136396 

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Donate

Media Assets – Will be coming through once march gets underway, roughly 14:00

• Direct action groups and major nature charities stand side by side to demand immediate action to restore nature.
• Activists from Extinction Rebellion (XR), Animal Rising and Just Stop Oil march with the supporters of over 300 respected environmental organisations including the National Trust, RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts, and Friends of the Earth [1]. 
• The march will travel through central London in this pre-liaised event to urge politicians to put nature at the top of their agenda.

On Saturday 22nd of June, the Restore Nature Now (RNN) march will leave from Park Lane and move via Piccadilly, Haymarket and Trafalgar Square down Whitehall to Parliament Square. Various notable speakers including Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin, British naturalist and explorer Steve Backshall and singer Feargal Sharkey will address the crowd [2]. 

Extinction Rebellion is thrilled to be joined by activist, author, member of the Waorani Nation from the Amazonian Region of Ecuador, and Goldman Environmental Prize winner Nemonte Nenquimo [3], who accepted the group’s invitation to attend the rally and will be addressing the crowd at Parliament Square. Extinction Rebellion UK’s Daze Aghaji will also take to the stage at Parliament Square to talk about the urgent need to #UpgradeDemocracy, due to our current political system being unfit to address the climate and ecological emergency [4]. 

Daze Aghaji from Extinction Rebellion says “When you look at all the organisations supporting this event, you feel this real love for the people who are passionately defending nature every single day. From Bumblebee Conservation and BugLife , Burgess Hill Swift Supporters, Citizen Zoo, Rewilding Britain, Trees for Cities, there are just so many amazing organisations with their incredible supporters who are coming from all corners of the UK to be counted and show our politicians that we want action on restoring nature now.”

For XR, RNN is part of a push for system change, working with many UK environmental focused organisations. What began with The Big One, where environmental charities took to the streets in April 2023, is evolving into a powerful movement of people demanding change. The group is now gearing up to ‘Upgrade Democracy,’ their next mass occupation starting on August 30, 2024. The occupation will focus on demanding a Citizens’ Assembly on Climate and Ecological Justice to achieve fair, long-term, and urgent solutions.

Nadine Oliver from Extinction Rebellion’s Press Team said: “Politicians have failed us, using token environmental policies for political gain. This must end, making the climate and nature crisis a priority. The impact of inaction and dismantling climate policy in recent years is clear: less wildlife, fewer insects, food insecurity, flooding, heatwaves, and unpredictable weather.”

“Whoever wins the next election, nature will lose. Our political system has been corrupted by billionaires, oil barons and a hostile right-wing press. That’s why we are pushing hard for an emergency citizens’ assembly on climate and ecological justice.”

The UK is currently one of the most nature depleted countries in the world, with one in six native wildlife British species facing extinction [5] and now a shocking 0% of rivers in England and Northern Ireland is considered in good overall health [6]. 

Charlie Gardner, a conservation scientist and XR activist, said: “This government hasn’t just been inactive on the nature crisis, it has been actively weakening the few protections nature does have. It has been a relentless attack on the natural world, but now people from across the country are coming together to say enough is enough, this has to stop.”

The march is happening this weekend, following a major climate victory in the courts, where the Supreme Court ruled that it was unlawful for Surrey County Council to grant planning permission for oil production to UK Oil and Gas (UKOG) at its Horse Hill site, near Gatwick, which raises major barriers to all new fossil fuel projects across the UK. [7]

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITOR

1. Full list of supporters of Restore Nature Now here
2. Other notables supporting Restore Nature Now include: Actor and campaigner Emma Thompson, actor and campaigner Judi Dench, naturalist and explorer Steve Backshall, Chief Executive of the RSPB Beccy Speight, Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts Craig Bennett, and many more!
3. About Nemonte Nenquimo
4. Why our political system is unfit to tackle the climate and ecological emergency and why XRUK is calling for a Citizens’ Assembly on Climate and Ecological Justice
5. The State of Nature Report
6. ​​State of our Rivers Report
7. Press release on Supreme Court Case 20/06/2024

About Extinction Rebellion

Extinction Rebellion (XR) is a decentralised, international and politically non-partisan movement using non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade governments to act justly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency.

Donate | Support our work
What Emergency? | Read about the true scale of the climate crisis
Why Citizens’ Assemblies? | Breaking the political deadlock
XR UK Local Groups | View a map of all local groups
XR UK website | Find out more about XR UK
XR Global website | Discover what’s going on in XR around the globe

Time has almost entirely run out to address the climate and ecological crisis which is upon us, including the sixth mass species extinction, global pollution, and increasingly rapid climate change. If urgent and radical action isn’t taken, we’re heading towards 4˚C warming, leading to societal collapse and mass loss of life. The younger generation, racially marginalised communities and the Global South are on the front-line. No-one will escape the devastating impacts.