In 2017 a Policy Exchange document titled ‘The Two Sides to Diversity’ was published. This report showed both the most and the least ethnically diverse professions. The environment sector was listed as the second least diverse after agriculture.

Since 2017 many reports have been published trying to define the barriers to ethnic inclusion. One of the newest reports is the ‘Changing the World from Within’. This report was commissioned by Wildlife and Countryside Link and Natural England. For this research, Wildlife and Countryside Link member organisations (including The Wildlife Trusts) were surveyed to try and understand the state of the sector and the actions needed to address the severe lack of ethnic diversity.

The ‘Changing the World from Within’ Report

 The report has highlighted some important findings:

• Many senior leaders were unable to provide definitions for terms such as ‘ethnic minority’
• Some leaders were so concerned about getting the terminology wrong they were at risk of not addressing the issue at all.
• Most leaders agreed that increasing ethnic diversity should be a top priority, but many had not developed an action plan for progressing the work.
• Visible Minority Ethnic staff were also surveyed with 100% saying that there was racism within the sector.
• Concerns were also raised about the behaviour of other staff, including racist undertones being dismissed and a lack of repercussions for those who were overtly or covertly racist.

The specific barriers to change identified were:

•  A lack of capacity and competing priorities,
• A lack of ethnically diverse recruitment pools,
• Societal issues and
• A lack of an organisational agreement as to ‘why increased ethnic diversity matters to our specific mission’.

Full Colour who undertook the research have worked with WCL and members, to create a Route Map which provides step by step advice to create greater diversity over a 5 year period. The route map will aid organisations like The Wildlife Trusts to tackle these barriers and increase the ethnic diversity of their staff.

The Wildlife Trusts

At The Wildlife Trusts we have already started our journey to greater ethnic diversity. Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion framework ensures that we embrace the challenge of increasing our diversity and further developing an inclusive culture.

Alongside a commitment to be actively anti-racist, our framework establishes five main goals:

1.      To have diverse and inclusive leadership,

2.      To increase our diversity,

3.      To cultivate an inclusive movement,

4.      To communicate inclusively, and

5.      To provide access and engagement for everyone.

These goals are supported and established in Wildlife Trusts across the federation, alongside the inclusion and diversity goals that are specific for the local communities of individual Wildlife Trusts.

Some of the steps we have taken include:

•  Having a public commitment to EDI and to being an actively anti-racist organisation, supported and championed by senior leadership
• Conducting Staff and Trustee diversity surveys to monitor progress
• Changing our recruitment practices to increase inclusion
• Providing training sessions and learning resources for Staff and Trustees
• Delivering projects that support under-represented people into the sector

These steps not only demonstrate our commitment but also put us further along the Route Map. We will be using sections of the Route Map to strengthen our Anti-Racism journey, along with sharing best practice from Trusts that have successfully increased the ethnic diversity of the staff.

You can find out more about our journey to greater ethnic diversity and see our response to The Changing the World from Within Report on the Wildlife and Countryside Link website.