Kabir is a conservationist and wildlife writer, born in 2005. His interest in London’s wildlife started at the age of seven, when he first noticed the Goldfinches, House Sparrows and Robins in his garden in Eastcote, North West London. Curious to learn more about his local wildlife, he soon bought a pair of binoculars and a field guide, and began visiting nearby wildlife sites. One of these was Ruislip Lido, a large former reservoir home to hundreds of ducks in the winter. Upon realising the Lido was in an urban area, he was inspired to start raising awareness of London’s often overlooked urban wildlife.
In 2017, Kabir started writing. He set up his blog to share his passion for nature in the capital and beyond, and his first article was published in the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds’ (RSPB) Wingbeat magazine. He also frequently attended his local RSPB group, where his love for birding grew. There, he would learn about opportunities to meet other like-minded young people; one of these was Bird Camp in Thetford, run by the Cameron Bespolka Trust and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).
When he attended the camp in 2018, Kabir met other young naturalists for the first time, many of whom he had connected with previously on social media. He learned about the differences they were making for nature in their local areas, such as through building nestboxes and wildlife gardening. This motivated him to restart an interactive mapping project he had been working on until a few months before called Nature Reserves of London – 2nd Edition (he had published a first edition in 2017, but it was incomplete). Later that year he participated in a number of BTO events, and filmed with Mike Dilger for The One Show in Norfolk.
The interactive map was completed in February 2019, and became popular among nature enthusiasts across London. It quickly received significant media coverage on television, radio and in nature publications that year, including from the London National Park City campaign, which Kabir subsequently joined. In July he spoke at London City Hall for the campaign, where Sadiq Khan declared London the world’s first National Park City.
Near Ruislip Woods lies the Colne Valley Regional Park, a large area of wetland and ancient woodland which forms the western boundary of Middlesex. Kabir had started surveying one of its most important wetland areas, Broadwater Lake, for breeding waterbirds at the start of 2019 for the BTO. High Speed Two (HS2) had gained possession of the site, and were planning to build a viaduct over the Valley; this would displace thousands of waterbirds from their feeding and breeding grounds, especially wintering ducks such as shovelers and pochards. He began protesting on social media against HS2’s environmental impact in the Valley and beyond, and attended a march at the railway’s terminus, Euston Square, led by Chris Packham, in late 2019. Learning about the other threats to wildlife in his local area, Kabir later joined a campaign to protect Warren Farm, rare acid grassland meadow in Southall, from development. He was also elected an RSPB Youth Councillor that year.
During lockdown in 2020, Kabir was featured several times on BBC Springwatch and the Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin’s Self-Isolating Bird Club, sharing ideas on how to make small differences for the natural world, and how he became acquainted with more of his local wildlife sites. His interactive map continued to gain popularity, as more Londoners, confined to their homes and immediate surroundings, began using it to discover nature reserves near them. Throughout lockdown he used social media to promote the importance of London’s urban green spaces through short videos; as well as continuing his activism, opening Hen Harrier Day 2020 and helping to judge a poll to determine Middlesex’s historic county bird with Russell Grant and former MP John Randall.
Post-pandemic, whilst studying for his GCSEs and A-levels, Kabir has continued to campaign for more Londoners to value the capital’s natural environment. He opened the environmental hustings for the London Mayoral elections in 2021, and was appointed a member of the Mayor of London’s Rewilding Taskforce in 2022. During the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, Kabir led the successful ’70 Nestboxes for 70 Years’ campaign, supported by the Cameron Bespolka Trust, CJ Wildlife and Swift Conservation. The project aimed to donate seventy nestboxes to seventy schools across London, introducing more young Londoners to urban nature through encouraging them to simply observe nesting birds in their school grounds. It was a resounding success: 106 schools, with 59,000 children, received nestboxes.
Since he began campaigning for London’s nature in 2018, Kabir and his work have been featured in numerous media outlets, such as the BBC, ITV, The Financial Times, The Observer, The Big Issue and several nature publications. He has given, participated in and chaired talks across London and beyond; these include smaller audiences like local RSPB groups, and larger ones such as the Natural History Museum and Birdfair. In addition to this, he has received various accolades for his advocacy of the capital’s wildlife, including the Prime Minister’s Points of Light award.
In the future, Kabir hopes to study geography at university, and become a broadcaster, to further communicate the importance of urban nature to more audiences. Above all, he hopes to continue encouraging people to notice, appreciate and protect the Wild Side of London.
Kabir Kaul 