The campaign to make access to green space a right for all. 

Nature is a Human Right is the campaign to make access to green space a right for all, not a privilege. We want the United Nations and global governments to recognise that greenery is essential to human health and happiness, and that nature deprivation is a form of violence. 

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Here's a brief introduction to why access to nature must be recognised as a right for everyone in society...

WE NEED CONTACT WITH NATURE

Homo sapiens are a species whose well-being depends on being in our natural habitat as much as any other

For 99% of our species' genetic history, we existed solely in wild environments, 10,000 generations' survival hinging on their ability to engage with these living surroundings. Over this time, we evolved positive psychological and physiological responses to green settings, which provided safety to rest and digest, as well as mood- and immunity-boosting microbes.

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Despite the fact that we've since invented technologies that (ostensibly) grant us independence from nature, our stubborn genes haven’t kept pace: we’re still biologically hardwired to need immersion in verdure – the restorative sight of foliage, the calming scent of soil – to function, and to feel, as we should.

BUT WE'RE GETTING

LESS & LESS OF IT 

Urbanisation is sweeping the globe, replacing green with grey and erasing nature from millions of people's daily lives

Today, over half of the world's population – some 4.3 billion of human beings – live in cities. By 2050, the United Nations predicts this proportion will have risen to 2 in 3 people. Already, 2.7 million people in the UK don’t live within accessible walking distance of green space. In the USA, it’s a staggering 100 million. 

Nature deprivation is a social and environmental inequality: BAME and low-income households have less access to both public and private green space, and are more likely to suffer the negative impacts of nature deprivation – including myriad mental and physical illnesses, and higher levels of aggression and crime – as a result. 

IT'S TIME TO FIGHT

FOR OUR RIGHT

Nature is a Human Right is on a mission to end nature deprivation

by making access to nature a human right

With each passing day, nature deprivation becomes a more pressing issue. Why? This painful irony: scientists are continually discovering more and more ways that contact with nature is essential to human health and happiness and, at the same time, we're continuously moving further and further away from (the rest of) nature as a species.

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Adding to this, the Coronavirus crisis has both awakened our innate draw to nature – green spaces have been used and appreciated more than ever – and highlighted the stark disparity in access to these spaces. For the 1 in 8 households with no garden, especially during park closures, life in lockdown felt like ‘prison’. We also experienced the tragedies of health gaps, fuelled (in part) by nature deprivation.

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It's time to act. Nature is a Human Right is fighting the injustice of nature deprivation, and for greener, healthier, happier, more equal cities, in which nature access is not a luxury, but a right.