Royal Holloway is launching a new national archive of 100 life history interviews with environmentalists from across the UK, as part of the British Library Sound Archive.
Interviewees and speakers at the event: Harriet Lamb, Asad Rehman, Areeba Hamid, Craig Bennett, Tony Juniper
The interviewees have all been involved in policymaking, protests and practical action over the last 50 years, to inspire and inform citizens interested in protecting the environment.
From the National Trust to Extinction Rebellion, from the Conservation Society to Greenpeace, this is a movement that has created lasting change across the UK.
The new archive marks the completion of the Oral History of the Environmental Movement project, led by Royal Holloway in collaboration with National Life Stories at the British Library.
The archive will be launched at a unique public event at the British Library in London on the 23 October as part of Green Libraries Week 2025. Introduced by Craig Bennett (CEO of the Wildlife Trusts), speakers also include leading UK environmentalists Areeba Hamid (Co-director of Greenpeace UK); Asad Rehman (CEO of Friends of the Earth) and Harriet Lamb (Chief Executive of the Green Party) and Tony Juniper (Chair of Natural England).
Speakers at this event will address key questions for the environmental movement, drawing on the experience of the last half a century to consider the possibilities for future action that will make a difference.
Questions such as what makes an effective campaign, what the major successes and failures across the last 50 years have been and what makes people stand up will all be answered.
The new archive of life history interviews, including both audio files and complete transcripts, includes testimony from a wide range of environmental campaigners, grassroots activists and social entrepreneurs, as well as radical campaigners and pioneers of major environmental initiatives from all over the UK.
It documents the history, aspirations and lived experience of key environmental campaigns through the words of those most closely involved.
The archive is the product of a three-year research project at Royal Holloway, involving a remarkable collaboration between long-term environmental activists, academic researchers and oral history curators at the British Library.
Project partners include Friends of the Earth, the Wildlife Trusts and the Royal Geographical Society. Other project outputs include documentation of witness seminars with activists in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, learning resources for schools, research articles and a freely-accessible book to be published in 2026.
The project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Professor Felix Driver, Professor in the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway, said: “This archive gives voice to generations of environmental campaigners involved in a wide variety of protest, projects and policy since the 1970s. From grassroots actions in localities and communities to the leadership of major national and global organisations, their actions made a difference.
“The archive provides an extraordinary resource for future environmentalists seeking to change the world for the better.”
Chris Church, Project Officer at Royal Holloway and former trustee of Friends of the Earth added: “Tens of thousands of people have worked over the last five decades to protect and improve their environment. Some have worked to protect their local area; others have engaged with businesses and governments to bring about lasting change. All of them worked for what they believe in, and their stories are now being told.”
Mary Stewart, the British Library’s Lead Curator of Oral History and Director of National Life Stories commented: “This has been an important partnership for National Life Stories at the British Library which has added one hundred in-depth life story interviews to the oral history collection, providing valuable insights into the history of the environmental movement in living memory.
“These interviews complement our existing holdings on science, earth and climate history, food production and political campaigning - bringing new and contrasting perspectives to the archive. All of this will greatly benefit researchers now and in the future."
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