COP26 – Walking 500 miles to Glasgow with a message about nature

Pilgrims who are part of a group called Listening to the Land reached Edinburgh Castle earlier this week on their 500-mile odyssey which will take them to Glasgow in time for COP26.

The group followed an ancient pilgrimage route through some of Britain’s key historic centres of cultural, industrial, spiritual and political power. They have walked 10 miles each day for eight weeks in rain and sunshine.

The group says it has been listening to the land and communities where they have walked and where local people have been asked to join them. Discussions have been centred on climate change, nature and biodiversity loss as well as local solutions.

Listening to the Land will present the voices of the people and the land to delegates in Glasgow through a scroll made of canvas into which people will be invited to weave their dreams and calls for nature, through a performance based on all the magical and urgent things the pilgrims have heard from the land and its people, and their deep personal transformation they experienced on this existential journey.     .

Jolie C. Booth, co-founder of Listening to the Land, says: “A vast amount of climate change is the result of us all speeding up and consuming too much. Pilgrimage is the exact opposite and puts us in direct contact with nature. The greater our connection to nature, the more we want to protect it. We hope by the time we arrive in Glasgow we will have inspired tens of thousands of people to go on their own sacred walk and connect to their land and let nature guide their action.”

Anna Lehmann, co-founder of Listening to the Land,  says: “We are at a deciding point for humanity. How we treat nature in the next decade defines the world we all will live in. Nature needs us to give back. The UK is uniquely positioned to lead on this: as this year’s COP host, as a huge historic emitter with a still growing international land footprint, but most significantly, the UK has the chance to become an ‘indicator economy’ that might, in the adoption of the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill, show how to set a clear goal for nature conservation and restoration and inspire other nations to follow.’

Supported by the British Pilgrimage Trust and the creative campaign Letters to the Earth, the group invites everyone who is unable to join the pilgrimage to walk wherever they are and share their own sacred walk, stroll in your backyard with them at #WalkingTheLand2021, or send them their hopes, wishes and fears for nature on www.pilgrimagefornature.com.