These last 6 months have been a time of great uncertainty for us all but especially for young people. The impact of Covid combined with the concerns around climate change has heightened anxiety in many of us.

However, The Lancashire Wildlife Trust Youth Council are working hard to carry on helping look after our wildlife and wild places, even during lockdown.

The Youth Council is made up of 12 young people who come from across Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside, and who are aged 16 to 25 years of age. They support The Trust by campaigning, volunteering and learning about our amazing wildlife.

This week via an online meeting three members of the Youth Council met Cat Smith, MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood. Cat Smith is also shadow Minster for Young People, so she was interested to hear directly from our Youth Council.

The three Youth Council members asked a range of questions. They wanted to know if jobs or paid traineeships could be created in the environmental sector for young people, post covid. They were interested to know about how The Environment and Fisheries Bills were progressing through Parliament, and if they would protect our precious marine and land based ecosystems here in the North West, as part of Natures Recovery.

The worry about the negative impact of Covid on our environment was also raised, with the fear that some of our progress on sustainability and tackling climate change was actually going backwards, with additional litter and plastic waste being generated.

Cat answered all the questions and listened to the concerns of the young people. She is a keen advocate of youth voice, and the need to protect the environment. She later commented that “A great part of my job is hearing directly from young people about the issues that matter to them.”

Many young people feel so passionately about the importance of our wild places. Natures Recovery is intrinsically linked to Social and Economic Recovery. As one of the Youth Council recently said “We care about Natures’ Future because it’s our future.”

If you would like to find out more about our Youth Council, or you would like to join it please contact Emma Bartlet by emailing: ebartlet@lancswt.org.uk