Our final contribution to our two-week focus on COP26 comes from Mirran Trimble at Froglife who has written a number of posts for us about the COP. Here it is:
On Monday 1st November Froglife and the British Dragonfly Society joined forces at COP26 to deliver an Exhibition Stand all about ponds. After all of the build-up before the event, the day itself was a bit of a whirlwind of excitement. It felt amazing to be part of such an important event and to have an impact on so many people who came along and took part.
The atmosphere in the Green Zone was incredible, and as it was the first day there was a lot of excitement and anticipation building up. The building was bustling with activity and everywhere you looked there was so much positivity and hope for a better future for our planet. It is always nice to be surrounded by like-minded people who are fighting hard to achieve the same common goals, but it was also really cool to see such a diverse range of people and groups represented with so many brilliant ideas for how to save our planet. It was a fantastic opportunity to speak to people and learn from their experiences and expertise.
Our pond stall was definitely a success, and our model pond activity in particular was very popular. It was great to see people really getting into it, thinking about why ponds are so important and debating over which of our pond props were beneficial or harmful for wildlife. The answers aren’t always obvious so this stimulated some really interesting discussions and we were able to give people lots of ideas and inspiration for their own ponds. Our model ponds were also a really nice example of ‘tub’ ponds which can be created in the smallest gardens or on balconies. It was lovely to see people getting excited when they realised that they can still create something that is so important for biodiversity, even if they only have a very small space.
I am also delighted that we were able to publically share all of the messages that people sent in to us. When given a great platform like this, it is important to share the voices of those who don’t have that same opportunity, so that is exactly what we did. Many people stopped to read the messages, and hopefully all of your powerful words will stay with them and inspire positive climate action.
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Photo caption: Mirran talking to COP26 attendees all about the power of ponds alongside Roger Downie (Froglife – Trustee) and Andrea Hudspeth (British Dragonfly Society – Scotland Officer).