Government Wants To Attract ‘Minorites’ To Britain’s Countryside Because Its ‘Too White’

The British countryside is to be made into a less “white environment” under new nationwide diversity plans.

Government officials want to attract ethnic minorities to live in the British countryside after a report found that it was “too white” and “middle-class”.

A diversity drive has been initiated by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) in some of Britains best-known beauty spots after the report found that many of them risked becoming ‘irrelevant’ in a multicultural society.

The Mail Online reports: In the wake of the report, officials representing National Landscapes – including the Cotswolds and Chilterns – have now published a series of management plans that detail their proposals to attract more minority communities. 

The Chiltern National Landscape will launch an outreach programme in Luton and High Wycombe targeted at Muslims.

One factor stopping ethnic minorities visiting was said to be ‘anxiety over unleashed dogs’.

The Cotswolds National Landscape specifically mentioned the Defra-commissioned report and said it was now dedicated to changing its provision in an attempt to reach ‘the widest demographic’.

In its own management plan, the Malvern Hills National Landscape said: ‘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. This breaks down the oral traditions for learning.’

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 authority said it 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 warned that ethnic minority communities may be met with barriers when accessing their nearby countryside.

It said this could include ‘concerns about how they will be received when visiting an unfamiliar place’.

The organisation said that its plans 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, said it aims to ‘reach people or communities with protected characteristics such as people without English as a first language’.

Surrey Hills management found that ‘some demographics are still under-represented in our countryside’.

Suffolk and Essex Coast Heaths raised concerns about ‘some sections of society that are under-represented when looking at the composition of visitors’.

Dedham Vale has promised to ‘identify and seek to address barriers facing under-represented and/or diverse groups which limit equal access to the Dedham Vale National Landscape’.

The 2019 Defra-commissioned report on the countryside was overseen by author and former board member Julian Glover.

It 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.’

The report continued: ‘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.’

In response, the Conservative government at the time said it would ‘expand community engagement including with reference to increasing the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of visitors’.

This also included increased outreach to other protected characteristics such as disability.

Defra spent £108,000 on a second report titled ‘Improving the ethnic diversity of visitors to England’s protected landscapes’ in 2022.

It found that ‘perceptions of protected landscapes as being for white people and middle-class people could be a powerful barrier for first-generation immigrants’.

Research showed ethnic minorities associate visiting countryside landscapes with ‘white culture’

It found that they see ‘the English countryside as a white space, to which they did not belong’.

Another concern raised was rural facilities mainly ‘cater to white English culture’.

It said: ‘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.’