Abstract
In contrast to the currently dominant discussions regarding why we need nature, this book starts with the reverse: nature needs us. Nature needs people to act on its behalf. Specifically, this book focuses on acting on behalf of swifts, a species whose population declined in the UK by 68% between 1995 and 2023. One of the two key reasons for this decline is the loss of nesting habitat, cavities in buildings that are sealed as part of modernisation and thermal insulation. The book provides a detailed account of a campaign initiated and run by Hannah Bourne-Taylor, calling on the UK government to mandate swift bricks in all newly built residential buildings. Swift bricks resemble ordinary bricks and fit into brick walls, but are empty inside, providing nesting spaces for swifts.
This book offers an opportunity to see an environmental campaign from the inside, to get to know what's in the campaigner's head, and the diverse factors that influence the campaign and the campaigner. It is a very relevant read for anyone interested in environmental values! By following the reasons why people protect birds and why others oppose it, we can see a broader spectrum of environmental values. We can also see which conservation arguments are more likely to work and why. Bourne-Taylor had not been involved in conservation before and was somehow thrown into this world, as if in a crash course of conservation action. She shows the perspective of a concerned citizen bombarded by negative news about environmental degradation, faced by typical confusion and helplessness (‘How do you know where to start?’), whose ‘worry turned into a fuel’ (p.21).
The book presents the insider's view into the world of conservation, from Bourne-Taylor's engagement with volunteer groups of the Swifts Local Network and her involvement as a parish councillor, through discussions and collaborations with established conservation organisations, such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, to formal politics and political lobbying. An impressive list of acknowledgements hints at how many people were involved in what is often seen as a solo campaign: ‘It turns out that a solo campaign requires many teams of people’ (p.266). Bourne-Taylor often highlights how important all forms of support are for a campaigner, from unknown children, through a policeman with a tattoo of a swift, to developers and politicians. These expressions of support that ‘validated and empowered’ Bourne-Taylor (p.72) indirectly hint at the broad public support for conservation – crosscutting the whole society whose members are largely united by a disbelief at why such a seemingly simple solution cannot be legally enforced.
At the same time, given that a large part of the campaign took place on social media, Hannah Bourne-Taylor describes the internet trolling that she had to withstand. Indeed, this book is also about personal costs incurred by campaigners, translating into stress and stress-related sickness. Constantly banging her head against the wall of incomprehensible political decisions resembles banging the young swifts’ heads against building walls in search of prospective nesting sites. But this is where the classic ‘we need nature’ discourse appears, too. However, rather than directly listing the benefits that nature provides, Bourne-Taylor provides poetic accounts of the healing power of nature and nature connectedness. There are numerous attentive observations regarding local wildlife, contact with nature and how doing even simple things to help nature pays back in the face of the increasing climate and nature crisis anxiety. Even small acts, such as feeding flocks of farmland birds in winter, can ignite a sense of agency linked to the sense that ‘small things add up’ (p.95). The views and sounds of birds helped Bourne-Taylor recover in the most difficult moments (‘the birds cocooned me in hope’ (p.96)), and they helped her to feel part of nature that she is so desperate to help. A sense of kinship with nature is what beautifully permeates through the whole book (‘I was the seed. I was the weevil. I was the bird. I was a tiny insignificance who could tap into a whole much, much greater than just me.’ (p.29)). Care for nature is both the means and the end, and immersing in local nature helps co-become nature.
While this book inspires no shortage of opportunities to get involved in nature conservation, it also shows how difficult conservation is. The seemingly simple case of calling for mandating swift bricks turned out dramatically more difficult than it might have seemed at the outset. And for Bourne-Taylor, the choice of this specific case was that it just appeared a relatively easy thing to start with, especially when compared to tackling the other key driver of the swifts’ population decline – the loss of insects, the swifts’ food. ‘(O)ne was a complex problem that to be resolved would mean changing a fundamental element in the very fabric of how our human societies currently function, linked to our economy as well as the biggest corporations in the world. The other was just a brick in a wall’ (p.27). After three years of campaigning and proving that almost everyone supports her cause, the UK government keeps refusing to implement this simple measure.
Because of the dramatic decline in population numbers and because swifts are such an iconic species, several books about these birds have been published in recent years in the UK, packed with facts about their biology and cultural importance. Their authors have documented the struggles to protect swifts, often linking to conservation action. However, while other authors may have documented their journeys in the search for swifts and swift conservation projects, Bourne-Taylor documents her own personal journey. Ultimately, the book reads as a political thriller. A reader expects a happy end with each next move, but the suspense continues, and the government keeps deceiving and disappointing the activist. However, even if the government has not succumbed yet, Bourne-Taylor has become the person most people recognise as the swift conservationist, and her campaign has largely contributed to a broad awareness of the problems experienced by swifts and other insect-eating and cavity-nesting birds. As a result, more planning authorities have voluntarily featured swift bricks in their planning policies, and more developers have voluntarily included swift bricks in their developments.
