Nadia Shaikh

Nadia is a land justice campaigner, co-director of the Right to Roam campaign, which is a campaign working to reclaim our rights to be on land in England. Nadia’s mission lies in fighting against human’s disconnect from nature and the land by advocating and exposing the truth about land ownership and all the environmental injustices that go with it. Beyond this, she also works in nurturing and leading the Raven Network, which is radical anti-racist voices for the environment and nature. People of color only represent about one to two percent of that workforce, the Raven Network serves as a peer support network for people who are struggling with racism in their workplace. 

Nadia is also a naturalist and ornithologist that has spent most of her career championing biodiversity and environmental protections. In turn, we thought it was fitting to champion her and her incredibly important work for our next class of Champions 2025! 

How does time in Nature, and feeling connected to Nature, help you personally?

“I’ve had the privilege to be able to reconnect with nature and land in such a way that it’s become fundamental to me being a living, breathing human being. It is heartbreaking because that should belong to everybody and knowing that it doesn’t is what drives my work. So I guess it’s got those two faces, right? Having a connection to nature, spending time in it, genuinely having companionship with my favorite trees on the island where I live, all the individual birds that I know really well, just checking in every day, like, there’s oystercatcher, there’s  redshank, my blackbird’s singing in my tree. These grounding moments every day are the rhythm of my day, without which, the world makes no sense.”

What advice do you have for people looking for a better connection with Nature?

“I think if you’ve never had regular experiences and exposure to the natural world, understanding how it can make you feel better is difficult and it’s really hard to encourage. It’s like when you try and convince somebody that running is good for you and you’ve never run before. We want to encourage those that we love around us to lean into this beautiful possibility of endless wonder.

“I would speak directly to those who are already seeing the benefits of having a relationship with the natural world: ‘It is your job to carry people along with you.”

I don’t think it’s my job to tell people you should do this. My job, I think, is to tell people who are already doing it, take people along with you –friends, family, loved ones. If you’re meeting for coffee, go for a walk. Whenever you plan something, go outside, notice things, point those things out. Don’t miss opportunities to be an educator. Humans are at their core, storytellers, our existence is to communicate about the world around us. That’s what our ancestors did. What food feeds us, what plants dyes things, you know, what respect and boundaries should we have for the world around us? What does it mean when blackberries ripen and what does it mean when the swallow arrives? 

Our job was storytelling constantly about the world around us, not least because they are our kin and it makes sense, but as a matter of survival and our relevance to be rooted in this place, because humans are complex. We exist in our heads so much of the time. Our job is to take ourselves outside of our heads and into our community for the survival of the community. “

What changes would you like to see to help more people access Nature and build positive, nurturing relationships with it?

“I wouldn’t be the co-director of Right to Roam if I didn’t say full access reform and I want every single person to be able to walk out their door and with ease and without barrier to find the non-built environment and be safe in that environment and politically, the greatest barrier is that we do not own land, we as in the majority, and therefore the cultural backdrop with which people are born in this country or come to live in this country is that you do not belong and that permeates very, very, very deep.

If we don’t have access, if we don’t have a fundamental right as somebody that’s standing on this land to explore it and sleep under the stars, to climb trees, to swim in rivers, then I don’t know how any of the other peripheral or auxiliary access elements will work.”

Find out more about Nadia and her work:

Nadia’s Instagram

Right to Roam’s Instagram

The Raven Network’s Instagram

Nadia’s Podcast