Birdwatching is a pastime that goes back more than 200 years. It took off in the 19th Century in the UK and the USA, and birdwatchers became increasingly involved in environmental conservation, doing battle with those whose main interest in birds was shooting them.

In recent years, the hobby has become more popular across the Global SouthA term increasingly used to describe less-developed countries, most of which are south of a line that separates, on different continents, the USA from Mexico, Europe from Africa, and Russia from central Asia and China.. But birdwatching is still dominated by White, male, middle-aged, affluent English-speakers. That is what Somerset birdwatcher Mya-Rose Craig, or "Birdgirl", has set out to change.

Craig is something of a prodigy in the world of ornithologyThe scientific study of birds and their conservation.. When she was 12 she had a column, called "Birding Tales", in her local newspaper. Aged 13, she was published in the left-wing magazine New InternationalistAn international left-wing magazine based in Oxford. It is owned and run by a worker cooperative.. Chris PackhamAn English naturalist, TV presenter and conservation activist. invited her to contribute to his work A People's Manifesto for Wildlife, and she has appeared on BBC and ITV.

She has been a committed environmental activist for eight years. And now she is using her platform to draw attention to a problem inside the movement: racism.

She says that when she first started getting involved in birdwatching, she noticed that there were very few other people of colour out in the countryside. Birdwatching was seen as a hobby for White people. She thinks there is "systemic exclusion" of people of colour, caused by both the costs of conservation activities, and the racial composition of the major conservation bodies.

That is why she set up Black2Nature, an organisation that campaigns to give everyone equal access to nature. It runs nature camps and other activities for people and communities that are traditionally excluded from the countryside. And more recently she has published We Have a Dream, a book of interviews with 30 other younger ecological activists of colour.

She is not the only young climate activist of colour who feels environmental activism has a diversity problem. Environmental group Extinction RebellionA global environmental organisation that has organised several high-profile stunts to draw attention to climate issues. (XR) has been criticised for encouraging its members to get arrested, without considering the additional risks faced by activists of colour in the judicial system.

And some accuse the climate movement of excluding voices from the Global South, where many of the harshest impacts of climate breakdown will be experienced. Amnesty has warned that the country facing the most severe risks is the PhilippinesA nation in the south-west Pacific made up of 7,641 different islands., whose island geography makes it especially vulnerable to extreme weather events.

Yet Filipino activists like Mitzi Jonelle Tan say their voices are being ignored by rich, majority-White countries in the struggle to halt the climate catastrophe. She warns that thanks to Covid-19 travel restrictions and limited funding, many activists from her own country and other at-risk developing countries will not be able to attend the COP26 summitA UN climate change conference due to be held in Glasgow between 31 October and 12 November. in Glasgow this year. She fears their views and experiences will be ignored as a result.

Yes, say some. All too often White activists simply do not think about the role of race in their activism or in the climate crisis, and they can sometimes be unwelcoming towards activists of colour who try to raise these issues. Non-White activists need to be given more prominent voices.

No, say others. Climate activists cannot control how they are portrayed in the media, and coverage is often hostile. To undermine their support, right-wing newspapers have tried to present them all as out-of-touch, middle-class and White. It is up to the media to pay more attention to activists of colour.