Lancaster students' fundraising hike for trees and climate

Jamie Malone and Ben Shellien started from Lancaster earlier this month, and plan to arrive in Glasgow as the conference starts on November 1.

On the way the two are raising funds for woodland restoration project “Restoring Hardknott Forest”, who plan to plant thousands of native trees on their site to boost biodiversity and help with climate change.

Jamie, who came up with the idea, said “The journey is going to be challenging, involving a lot of nights camping and long journeys through our lovely British Isles.

But as shown by the 6th IPCC Report last month, we are now more likely than not to reach 1.5C warming even under the best case scenario. It is also shown, if we take the measures necessary NOW, there is still a pathway where we can limit warming to 1.5C. It is for this reason this Convention of Parties (COP26) is regarded as our last chance”.

Project Officer at Hardknott, John Hodgson says he was delighted to hear from Jamie as it coincided with the project raising funds for their “tree appeal”. “It was great to hear from Jamie, who has already helped us as a volunteer, and we are very grateful for him donating the funds raised to our appeal”.

Jamie and Ben are on track, and have just crossed the Scottish Border, having travelled from Lancaster and though Cumbria – getting great support on the way.

Their JustGiving page is here, and more information about Restoring Hardknott Forest is here