The British countryside will be made into a less “white environment” under nationwide
diversity plans.
Officials in rural areas, including the
Chilterns and the
Cotswolds, have pledged to attract more minorities under plans drawn up by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (
Defra).
The plans follow Defra-commissioned reports that claimed the countryside would become “irrelevant” in a multicultural society, as it was a
“white environment” principally enjoyed by the “white middle class”.
National Landscapes – previously called areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) – and their local councils have since committed to a number of diversity targets.
The Chilterns National Landscape team has set out proposals that include community outreach schemes to attract more Muslims to the area, particularly from nearby Luton.
More diverse staff will be recruited, marketing material will be produced featuring people visibly from ethnic minorities, and written in “community languages”.
Research has also been commissioned to support this work, some of which suggests that dogs should be kept under tighter control, as some groups are scared of them.
Malvern Hills National Landscape said in proposals: “Many minority peoples have no connection to nature in the UK because their parents and their grandparents did not feel safe enough to take them or had other survival preoccupations.”
It added: “While most white English users value the solitude and contemplative activities which the countryside affords, the tendency for ethnic minority people is to prefer social company (family, friends, schools).”
The area will aim to “develop strategies to reach people or communities with protected characteristics such as people without English as a first language”.
Nidderdale National Landscape in North Yorkshire warns that ethnic minority counties may face barriers to access, and have “concerns about how they will be received when visiting an unfamiliar place”.
The area has stated in its plan that it will “develop more inclusive information to reflect more diverse cultural interpretation of the countryside”.
Cranborne Chase National Landscape, which overlaps Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Somerset, will “reach people or communities with protected characteristics such as people without English as a first language”.
The management of
Surrey Hills has found that “some demographics are still under-represented in our countryside”, while Suffolk and Essex Coast Heaths has concerns about “some sections of society that are under-represented when looking at the composition of visitors”.
Dedham Vale, the Suffolk valley that was the childhood home and inspiration to landscape painter
John Constable, has pledged to “identify and seek to address barriers facing under-represented and/or diverse groups which limit equal access to the Dedham Vale National Landscape”.
Defra commissioned a report on the countryside in 2019, overseen by Julian Glover, author and former board member.
This report stated: “We are all paying for national landscapes through our taxes, and yet sometimes on our visits it has felt as if National Parks are an exclusive, mainly white, mainly middle‑class club.”
It also said: “Many communities in modern Britain feel that these landscapes hold no relevance for them. The countryside is seen by both black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and white people as very much a ‘white’ environment.
“If that is true today, then the divide is only going to widen as society changes. Our countryside will end up being irrelevant to the country that actually exists.”
One of the report’s key proposals to the Government was: “New long‑term programmes to increase the ethnic diversity of visitors.”
The then Tory government responded, saying that it would “expand community engagement including with reference to increasing the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of visitors”, along with other protected characteristics like disability.
Defra commissioned a second report for £108,000, titled “Improving the ethnic diversity of visitors to England’s protected landscapes”, which in 2022 found that “perceptions of protected landscapes as being for white people and middle-class people could be a powerful barrier for first-generation immigrants”.
The research showed that ethnic minorities believe visiting landscapes and was associated with “white culture”, and see “the English countryside as a white space, to which they did not belong”.
One concern was that rural facilities “cater to white English culture”, namely: “Protected landscapes were closely associated with ‘traditional’ pubs, which have limited food options and cater to people who have a drinking culture. Accordingly, Muslims from the Pakistani and Bangladeshi group said this contributed to a feeling of being unwelcome.”
This report has been cited in National Landscapes’ management plans across the country, including those governing the Cotswolds, which will review its provision to reach the “widest possible demographic”.
In addition to dealing with ethnic disparities in those visiting beautiful landscapes, management plans will also seek to improve disabled access – often by creating fully accessible paths – and to give young people an interest in the great outdoors.
The Government set out its own ambitions for access to the countryside in 2025.
A Defra spokesman said at the time: “We will work with government, public bodies, businesses, civil society and communities to support people engaging with nature in their own ways and encourage them to do this safely and appropriately through continued promotion of the countryside code.
“We want to equip communities with the resources, knowledge and skills so they can respond to societal and environmental issues in their neighbourhoods.”
