About Community Ecologies
Climate & Adaptation
The Community Ecologies 2026 programme will focus on climate change and climate adaptation. Climate change can often feel overwhelming and abstract, which can lead people to disengage from the conversation. Our 2026 programme brings together projects that actively reconnect people to this topic in experimental, accessible, and surprising ways.
What is Climate Change?
Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, primarily caused by human activity — especially the burning of fossil fuels. These changes affect ecosystems, health, housing, food systems, and the everyday lives of communities.
What is Climate Adaptation?
Climate adaptation is the practice of preparing for the ways our climate is already changing and will continue to change. Adaptation can take many forms, including:
- Practical changes to infrastructure, horticulture, and conservation.
- Social and cultural adaptations that support communities — human and more-than-human — to thrive.
Forage & Preserve: Wild Food Skills by Magdalena Gomez
2026 programme
The 2026 programme will begin on 9 May and will run on alternate Saturdays from 2–3:30pm. Entry is free and everyone is welcome!
The full 2026 programme will be announced here soon.
Wild Food Walk by Than Gunabalasingham, 2025
A selection of our 2025 workshops
Our 2025 Community Ecologies programme brought local residents, artists, chefs, horticulturalists, foragers, ecologists, and educators together to explore the connections between people, place, and the natural world. The programme created opportunities for co-learning, creativity, and skill exchange rooted in the unique urban ecology of our urban nature reserve. It invited the community to co-create practices that support both environmental and social wellbeing, making the reserve a living laboratory for resilience and connection.
The Colours of Herbs — Odhran
📅 Sat 6 Sep · 3–4pm
Experience the colours of medicinal herbs through a sensory plant walk, tea tasting, and creative mapping.
Forage & Preserve: Wild Food Skills for Urban Ecology — Magdalena
📅 Sat 20 Sep · 3–4pm
Learn to identify, harvest, and preserve wild urban plants with practical skills like pickling and fermenting.
Embodied Drawing Workshop — Kirsty
📅 Sat 4 Oct · 3–4pm
Explore nature’s cycles and the beauty of decay through intuitive, playful drawing.
Collective Cartographies — Leela
📅 Sat 18 Oct · 3–4pm
Create a collaborative map of the reserve, weaving together memories and climate-aware visions.
Butoh Movement Workshop — Elspeth Chan Chi Fan
📅 Sat 1 Nov · 3–4pm
Connect body and environment through Butoh-inspired movement, blending imagination, fluidity, and ecological awareness.
Unravelling the Patterns of Nature — Anand & Eden
📅 Sat 15 Nov · 3–4pm
Discover nature’s hidden rhythms through sound, pattern, and creative making.
Wild Food Walk — Than
📅 Sat 29 Nov · 3–4pm
Join a guided walk to explore the edible and medicinal uses of wild plants in the reserve.
Creative Plant Naming — Yaya
📅 21 Jun · 3–4pm
A sensory workshop using tea tasting, smell, and drawing to connect with plants and reimagine how we name them.
Providing Solitary Bees with Bed and Board — Eamonn Postlethwaite
📅 12 Jul · 3–4pm
Discover the bees of Bethnal Green, learn to identify species, and help build a new bee habitat in the reserve.
Singing with the Birds — Catherine Clover
📅 26 Jul · 3–4pm
Learn to mimic the bird songs heard around the reserve in this fun, no-experience-needed vocal workshop.
Butoh Movement Workshop by Elspeth Chan Chi Fan, 2025
A Selection of our 2024 workshops
- Plant Identification Walk
- Woodland Contact Improvisation
- Haiku Writing in Workshop
- Worm Walk & Talk
- Natural Dye Making
- Tree Identification Walk
- Clay Pond Building
- Ecological Adaptation to Climate Change – A Discussion
- Community Grief Circle
Each event is designed to bring people together, encouraging exploration at the intersection of art, ecology, and community.
Feedback
If you’ve participated in or led a workshop, we’d love your feedback to help shape the next season. For more information, email: info@bethnalgreennaturereserve.org
With heartfelt thanks to the Chapman Trust and Nineveh Trust for their generous support.