RSPB's Commitment to racial equity: Sy Joshua on joining The RACE Report Staff Perceptions Survey

Together, we can all be drivers of change to protect our natural world, its biodiversity, and everything within our lives and wider society that relies on it. But this is only possible if we all have access to nature, and we are focusing on breaking down obstacles inside and outside our organisation to make this more achievable.

We are on our journey to address the barriers that ethnic minority people face in connecting with nature and accessing and progressing in environmental careers.

Action

Through The RACE Report’s analysis, we know that black and ethnic minority people are significantly underrepresented in the environment sector, including within our organisation. And we aren’t just aware there’s a gap, we know the extent of it, and have a better sight of the crucial work we need to do as individual organisations and as a collective. We also know that in ethnic communities are often disproportionately affected by climate change yet have the least say in decision-making.

Within the RSPB, we are working to ensure more people see the RSPB as a place for them to work, volunteer, visit or collaborate with. Focusing on our employees specifically, we are targeting recruitment, progression and belonging, and have invested in the new role of Senior Race Equity Specialist to guide, lead and support us through change.

We are developing our first ‘Anti-racist Action Plan’ with targeted interventions that complement actions contained within the Wildlife Countryside Link Ethnicity Route Map. We are also testing a range of interventions to support this, including widening our inclusive recruitment practices, training for hiring managers, support on job adverts, panels and challenging assumptions, as well as increasing our support to our staff affinity group for people of colour.