This World Environment Day somehow feels different; after the last few months it feels more real.

We’ve had the chance – in some ways a privilege – to see what happens when we just STOP. Lockdown2020 has impacted the planet in more ways than we could ever have imagined with pollution levels dropping, nature being allowed to re-colonise areas previously overrun with people and transport and our slower pace of life meaning we get to recognise all this as it happens.

At The Spanish Boot Company, we’re already big champions of sustainability and so we’re absolutely supporting the campaign to build back better as we slowly come out of lockdown to face our new reality.

So, what does nature mean for us?

We’re lucky enough to run our business from deep in the English countryside. Our small Buckinghamshire village is surrounded by rolling fields and miles of footpaths to roam and explore. Because we’re a close community, we are aware of challenges facing local farmers and landowners and we work together to ensure we celebrate and protect this beautiful countryside. Although the farmers might not be as keen, we love nothing more than seeing wild deer, hares and some amazing birdlife whenever we wander outside the village boundaries.

Valverde del Camino, the home of our factory, is in the Spanish province of Huelva. Traditionally, and to this day, it’s a fairly industrial part of Spain, known for mining, but also agriculture being home to a large strawberry industry.

A large swathe of Huelva is home to the Donana National Park, a huge nature reserve consisting of marshes, shallow streams and sand dunes. Today, it’s inhabited by deer, wild boars, eagles and thousands of migratory birds. In the past, there have even been report of a herd of feral camels roaming the area. By the early 1960s, only three remained but they were apparently joined by several more, released into the wild after filming of the epic Lawrence of Arabia in the area.

It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994.

Nature is everywhere. Our food, our oxygen, our water – everything we need to survive comes from nature. So, to celebrate and honour nature on this World Environment Day, we’d like to ask all our followers, customers, friends and neighbours to please do your bit, however small, to make a permanent change after lockdown to help us all to build back better.

Thank you.