"It needs to be collective engagement to build a social contract with the river" ~ Ahmad Yazan Miri
Right to Thrive explores local people's connections to the River Don through a collection of generative interviews. In this series we encourage people to question extractive, human-centred views of nature in favour of recognising and celebrating its right to thrive.
Activist Yazan talks about the role and importance of history, culture and community in rebuilding our relationship with nature.
Ahmad Yazan Miri is an activist, nature enthusiast and former Youth4Nature Global Ambassador. He grew up in Aleppo in Syria, where he spent a significant part of his life living in a war zone, before moving to the UK and settling in Sheffield.
Yazan is passionate about advocating for the voices of future generations in nature and climate related matters, particularly young people from the most marginalised communities.
Why was it important for you to have a conversation about the River Don?
I'm interested in nature and climate in general, and also interested in youth participation, specifically in nature.
Most of all, I became really interested recently in connecting different aspects of human life with natural life, establishing the narrative or supporting the narrative that humans are a crucial part of nature, that we all have a collective interest in thriving together.
This perspective especially comes to me after after living about half of my life in a war zone [in Syria], where nature got destroyed, and also in an area that is called the Fertile Crescent that had millennia of thriving with nature and collaborating and building stories around food, around culture, establishing our heritage that is built and connected with nature.
It became for me a tool to strengthen the existence and protect the heritage and culture of my people. I ordered today a book which is one of the oldest recipe books in the world, from my city [Aleppo]. It's from the 13th century.
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