“I was coming down Mount Snowdon and in the far distance I thought I could see brown people, and I thought my eyes were kidding me. Then, as I descended and got closer, I realised they were women in hijabs. I was like ‘wow Muslim women on the mountain’, like ‘am I dreaming?’” Haroon Mota, the founder of Muslim Hikers, is remembering a walk he did around 15 years ago and, if you look at the statistics, his shock at seeing members of his own community out on the trails makes sense. Only 1% of national park visitors come from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.
A 2021 report by the countryside charity CPRE reported data showing ethnic minorities have, on average, 11 times less access to green space than their white counterparts, and that only 20% of BAME children who visit natural environments go to the countryside, compared with 40% of white children.
The reasons for the racial imbalance outdoors is complicated, and Mota has his own opinions on what the major barriers are, but a diversity review commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and…