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Box 1.1 Diversity in the Environment Sector
ОглавлениеThere is an urgent challenge in the sector that in most developed nations, there is significant under‐representation in the environment sector of minority groups and women in terms of engagement with nature as well as in employment.
A headline from the UK body Natural England (2019) in its national survey ‘Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment’ noted:
Children from black, Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds are less likely to spend time outdoors than children from white backgrounds… 57% of children with black, Asian and minority ethnic family backgrounds spend time outdoors at least once a week, compared with 73% of children from white family backgrounds The majority of children (72%) had visited urban greenspaces in the last month while just over a third had visited the countryside (36%) and 17% visited a coastal location. The results for young people show a similar pattern: the majority of visits taken by 16‐ to 24‐year‐olds were to urban greenspaces (62% of visits), with smaller proportions to the countryside (28%) or coast (11%).
The think tank Policy Exchange (2017) also researched diversity in different occupations. They found in their research that, of the 202 occupations, farmers were the least diverse and environment professionals were ranked 201.
In a key 2014 US report by Dorceta Taylor (2015), commissioned by Green 2.0, ‘The State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations’ she highlights:
The current state of racial diversity in environmental organizations is troubling, and lags far behind gender diversity… Environmental jobs are still being advertised and environmental organizations recruit new employees in ways that introduce unconscious biases and facilitate the replication of the current workforce… Moreover, environmental organizations do not use the internship pipeline effectively to find ethnic minority workers
This challenge is being met by many organisations and individuals who campaign and have activities in the area. These include
Green 2.0
Black2Nature
www.yearofgreenaction.org/green‐actions/black2nature
Bird Girl
Diversity Joint Venture for Conservation Careers (DJV)
www.diversityinconservationjobs.org/about
Center for Diversity & the Environment
Student Conservation Association ‐ Career Discovery Internship Program
SACNAS – Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science
Women for Wildlife
