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Pedro Flores is quick to point to the legacy of experiencing the great outdoors early in life. Born in a small town near Porto, Portugal, and living just five minutes from a beach, he had close contact with nature as a boy and young adult.
“When I was growing up, it was just the best time to go with my friends in the summer to enjoy nature and the sea,” he says. “We also have beautiful green spaces back home, so I was lucky to be near to, and to explore, nature in all its beauty. It kind of put a little bug in me to explore a career in natural conservation.”
Studying environmental engineering at the University of Porto was the first step towards becoming head of sustainability for The Royal Parks, the charity that looks after eight of London’s most prestigious outdoor areas. Considered ‘the lungs of London’, most of the parks are Grade I-listed historic landscapes, with a legacy that Flores recognises well.
“The first experience with nature for a lot of the younger generation in London is in The Royal Parks,” he says. “It’s their first opportunity to see wildlife up close, to really have a space where their mental wellbeing can be improved just by being in contact with nature.”
However, that legacy is under threat from the climate crisis. The charity has unveiled a sustainability strategy up to 2030, which points out that The Royal Parks play a major role in mitigating climate change impacts by providing green spaces that act as carbon sinks, as well as supporting wildlife and offering recreational areas for tens of millions of visitors a year. Adapting the parks so that they can fulfil their potential as crucial assets will be an important challenge for the charity to anticipate, problem-solve and prioritise in the years ahead.
“When you have such massive and unique natural capital as we have in The Royal Parks, you’re going to feel the impacts of climate change firsthand and very fast,” Flores says. “With warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers, you have to consider the impacts from heavy rainfall that can cause water bodies within the parks to swell. The ground around these water bodies can become waterlogged, resulting in flooding in some cases.”
Such waterlogging damages tree roots, which then struggle to take up oxygen, causing the soil to become saturated. Wildfires are another threat, particularly with London expected to experience reduced water availability during the next couple of decades.
“London is a heat island, first of all, so we know that the temperatures will be felt at a heightened level within the capital,” warns Flores. “When you have 5,000 acres of green space, you have a responsibility to combat the impacts of climate change.
“We have tens of thousands of trees across all eight Royal Parks. That’s a massive consideration for how they act as natural carbon sinks to absorb and contain all of the CO2 within our trees and within our soils and vegetation. All parks are Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs), so all of the natural assets have a part to play to adapt to climate change, and we have a deep responsibility to make sure that we continue to enhance biodiversity.”
Creating climate-resilient parks is one of the strategy’s core aims – and this starts with understanding the ever-changing threats of climate change, Flores says. Each park is unique and has its own adaptation measures, he adds, pointing to Richmond Park’s ‘Slow the Flow’ project – desilting bodies of water, digging new ditches, installing ‘leaky dams’ and log barriers to slow water flow, and creating varied micro-habitats for wildlife.
Engaging the public is crucial, Flores says. “We need to understand how we’re going to continue to engage with our visitors and staff to encourage them to understand how the importance of environmental conservation is threaded in all our policies and strategies.
“It’s one of our charitable objectives to promote sustainability in the management and use of The Royal Parks. There are multiple points that need to be achieved for parks to become resilient now and in the future for all generations to enjoy.”
The strategy has three main themes: conserving parks, sustainable park operations, and parks for people – all of which went through extensive stakeholder engagement.
“We’ve done peer-review comparisons with similar organisations,” explains Flores. “We talked to our contractors, we talked to the Friends groups, with people that have close attachments to The Royal Parks, because we needed to understand what would be important for them when it came to the sustainability strategy.
“When it comes to conserving the parks, it’s all about how we’re going to thread climate resilience into the park management plans, how we’re going to conserve the natural and designed landscapes, how we enhance biodiversity within the parks and how we’re going to protect all the water bodies.
“We want to make sure the parks can be accessible for people of all walks of life. We want to talk – to improve the information, how we engage with volunteers and also how the volunteers engage with members of the public.”
Like many sustainability professionals, Flores is rethinking The Royal Parks’ operations, with reducing emissions and looking at supply chains both paramount.
“We need to look inside the organisation and consider, when we’re carrying out a project, how can we improve the sustainability performance,” he says. “This means first considering the materials we use and the embodied carbon emissions from those materials.”
Talking to suppliers and contractors is another important strand of the strategy. Suppliers must have strong, verifiable credentials for meeting net-zero targets, particularly given that a large proportion of the charity’s scope 3 emissions come from purchases, goods and services.
The strategy is important to all of the park’s teams, he stresses – not just the professionals working in sustainability. Communications with visitors, particularly through social media and campaigns, drive home the environmental message “to equip people with information on how they can better interact with The Royal Parks and behave responsibly”.
This extends to education and green careers: “We provide information about the challenges around park management, what careers exist in the horticultural, sustainability and environmental landscape,” says Flores. “We do what we can to make sure that they understand that it’s a valid, fulfilling career that they can follow in their lives as well.”
Every year, The Royal Parks host high-profile events that are part of London’s cultural heritage, including the contemporary art fairs Frieze London and Frieze Masters, Hyde Park Winter Wonderland and the finish line of the London Marathon. These raise millions of pounds, which is then ploughed back into the parks. So what does a responsible large-scale public event look like?
Beforehand, the charity works with events partners to put in place measures to protect the park, with each event assessed individually for suitability. The charity has a highly experienced team that ensures organisers respect the parks’ environment and heritage, and the parks are fully restored after the event – funded by the event organisers. All events must also align with the parks’ sustainability strategy.
“There is continuous collaboration with event organisers, where we look at sustainability management elements that come with organising these events,” says Flores. “We always try to improve year-on-year the delivery of these events to reduce waste and to improve recyclability.
“We’re also looking at how we can empower social causes with our events, and we see plenty of examples of that taking place in our Royal Parks Half Marathon. We look at how we can mitigate carbon emissions on an annual basis, and work with people who have the experience and the competency to continuously improve how these events will be delivered in the future.”
Many of The Royal Parks are located close to royal palaces, with Buckingham Palace sitting next to St James’s Park, Kensington Palace in Kensington Gardens and Hampton Court Palace bordering Bushy Park. Several of them trace their origins back to Henry VIII, who rode and hunted in Greenwich Park and Richmond Park – both of which were close to royal palaces at the time. He also commandeered the land that now makes up Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens and The Regent’s Park, turning it into a vast hunting park.
• Nearly half The Royal Parks’ 5,000 acres are grassland
• More than 7,000 wildlife species live in the parks – including six pelicans in St James’s Park
• The parks are home to more than 170,000 trees
• 14 playgrounds offer children the space to explore and discover nature
• Recreational sports include boating, tennis, swimming, rugby and football. The Hub at The Regent’s Park is central London’s largest outdoor sports facility
• All parks are Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation, designated through the Mayor’s London Plan and borough local plans
• Natural England has designated Richmond Park and Bushy Park Sites of Special Scientific Interest
• Richmond Park is also a National Nature Reserve and Special Area of Conservation
• The parks have a rich cultural heritage, hosting 197 listed buildings and structures.
Huw Morris is a freelance journalist
Photography: The Royal Parks
