I feel most at home in the outdoors

From his childhood in Jamaica to becoming a Cub Scout in Hackney, Dwayne Fields highlights the transformative power of the outdoors and the need to ensure future generations can experience its wonders.

I feel most at home in the outdoors.

Maybe there’s something about being surrounded by trees that remind me of my happy childhood in Jamaica. I could go out all day, in the mud and dirt, climb Royal Palms and red birch, eat fruit and only come home when the sun set. When I landed up in Hackney at the age of 6, all that changed. I found myself in a concrete jungle. Where did all trees go?

Becoming a Cub Scout helped reintroduce me to the outdoors. To this day, it’s in our green spaces where I feel at my most present, calm and most like myself. When I take Scouts and my family into nature, our bonds become stronger. We laugh more and feel more alive.

But I worry that so many young people don’t get the chance to do this. In the UK, most children only get outdoors two hours a week, often less.

Yet we’re so lucky to have places like the Peak District, the New Forest, Epping Forest and the Lakes. Almost every town and city will have some green space within reach.

These are adventure playgrounds – places we can get curious about nature and find out more about ourselves too. It’s only when we’re tested, experience a little adversity (and British weather!), do we grow as people.

As Chief Scout (and before that as a Scouts Ambassador for seven years), my mission is to show that Scouts and the outdoors is for everyone and the place to develop skills for life.

That’s also one of the reasons Phoebe Smith and I co-founded #WeTwo. We wanted to show that the outdoors is a place for all of us – regardless of race, gender, age or background. There isn’t an entry fee to get into the wild but not everyone feels welcome there. And there are some invisible barriers. I say the outdoors belongs to all of us.

But young people need a helping hand. We need to improve countryside access, especially public transport links to wild spaces. Most of all, we need to see different kinds of people in the world of outdoor adventure. When I became the first Black Briton to walk to the North Pole, I think some people were surprised. But I know some young people from communities who use the countryside less, said: ‘If Dwayne can do it, maybe I can do it too.’

My most recent expedition was to the Galapagos Islands. Blue-footed boobies, iguanas and giant tortoises are a far cry from blackbirds hopping across the roofs of terraced houses in Hackney.

Phoebe and I took ten young people (many from disadvantaged areas) with us to experience the power of nature first hand. It wasn’t always easy. It’s a shock to the system and you can feel like a fish out of water (we saw some of those too, by the way). But over time, the change I saw in young people was incredible – like Ariana – a Scout from Streatham, or Sam from Glasgow. Their confidence and communication soared. I saw them helping others and become a team. Being in nature opens our hearts and minds to new possibilities. But that can happen in England too – seeing a mighty heron or crane paddling across the sky is a majestic sight. Wonder is all around us if we just open our eyes.

I always say that if you take something, you need to give back too. Nature gives us so much. That’s why we need to be custodians of nature. I know from speaking with Scouts and other young people that they want to do more. A recent survey said over 80% of 8-15 year olds want to help the environment. That fills me with hope.

But let’s back that up with action – volunteering for charities like Scouts, and creating opportunities for young people to create change. In Scouts, we’re doing that with our Earth Tribe Award, encouraging young people to become planet champions.

We’re all adventurers at heart and we should give ourselves permission to get back into nature. Let’s rekindle some of that wide eyed wonder we all had as children.