copyright Project Wild Thing

I wrote previously about the dislocation of children from nature and the risks this brings to their wider development, confidence and self esteem (see Wild child full of grace….). The RSPB and Natural England are founder members of The Wild Network. This initiative by an association of charities,organisations and individuals champions the connection with nature for young children. It aims to raise awareness of what children are missing as they have increasingly less access to the outdoors. One of the results of the most recent research by the RSPB  highlighted how urban young are ‘closer to nature than their country cousins’ which headlined an article in the Times (Oct 17, 2012).

Wild Network emerged out of a meeting hosted by Natural England held at the British Ecological Society headquarters in London. At that meeting that David Bond spoke of his ambition to create a film exploring how children engage with nature. David’s vision set out in that inaugural meeting has now been realized. PROJECT WILD THING has been billed by Adam Vaughn in the Guardian as ‘the film which could change your life’  Bond’s mission has been to explore why children today spend so little time outdoors and to explore what can be done about it.