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National What Week?
N aturenet has every fact the good environmentalist needs or wants... and this is the one page you've been asking for for years. An incomplete guide to the national and international days and dates in the wildlife and living environment calendar, which might stimulate some idea for events you can run yourself in support.. A few are included which, whilst not strictly environmental, might be good themes for events. We don't list events that are location-based, as the idea is that these are events that others can join in with.
Something missing? You know the details? Tell us here.
We include a few days which seem to have reached the end of their natural lives - but there's always room to revive them so the most recent information is still given. Where only the last year's date is shown it may be that the next date is not announced yet - or we haven't noticed it. Some of the dates only get set quite late in the year, so check the link in the right-hand column if there is one. It might be helpful - but some of these websites don't make it easy for you!
Next date/last known date
|Big Garden Bird Watch||25 - 26 January 2014||? last weekend in January||RSPB Birdwatch|
|World Wetlands Day||2 February||2 February||Ramsar|
|National Bramley Apple Week||2-8 February 2014||?||National Bramley Apple Week|
|National Nest Box Week||14-21 February||14 - 21 February every year||BTO or Birdcare|
|Biodiversity Month||March||March every year||Going for Green. Now apparently defunct|
|National Outdoor Week||12-20 March||Same date every year, we think.||Countryside Agency initiative, not updated since 2005, probably no longer supported|
|National Science & Engineering Week||14 - 23 March 2014||Some time in March every year||
The BSA - used to be National Science Week
|World Day for Water||22 March||22 March every year||UNESCO|
|World Meteorological Day||23 March||23 March||United Nations (UN)|
|International Dawn Chorus Day||3-4 May 2014||First weekend in May||Wildlife Trusts; IDCD website|
|Walk in the Woods||May||Yes - every May||The
Tree Council. Tel:020 7828 9928
Walk in the Woods
|National Pet Month||1 April - 5 May 2014||?||
|National Beanpole Week||13-21 April 2013||Annually since 2008|
|International Compost Awareness Week||5 -11 May, 2014||Yes|
|Low Tide Day or LowTide||May 17th 2014||The Saturday in May with the lowest tide||RiverOcean - date not centrally fixed as tides vary locally.|
|World Fish Migration Day||24 May 2014||Intended to be an annual event||Fish Ecology Network|
|National Mills Weekend||10-11 May 2014||Second weekend in May||SPAB Mills section|
|National Moth Night||8 - 10 August 2013||Varies widely||National Moth Night (actually more than one night now)|
|Be Nice to Nettles Week||15 - 26 May 2013||Late May each year||Be Nice to Nettles Week; CONE|
|Scotland's Nature Festival||17 to 25th May 2014||?||SNH - event used to be Scottish Biodiversity Week.|
|International Day for Biological Diversity||22 May||22 May (formerly 29 December)||United Nations (UN)|
|European Day of Parks||24 May||24 May every year||EUROPARC|
|World Turtle Day||23 May||Every year||The Humane Society of the United States|
|Dragonfly Week||July 2013||Varies||British Dragonfly Society|
|Wildlife Week||19 - 25 Mar 2012||Varies||Wildlife
|Volunteers Week||1-7 June||1-7 June every year||Volunteers Week|
|World Environment Day||5 June||5 June every year||United Nations (UN)|
|World Oceans Day||8 June||8 June every year||BMLSS|
|National School Grounds Week||18th – 22nd June 2012||Varies. Always in June|
|National Bike Week||15-23 June 2013||Annually, varies||National Bike Week|
|Garden Moths Count||2007-2009||Butterfly Conservation. Project now over.|
|National Insect Week||23 June to 29 June 2014||Every two years, varies.||National
Run by the Royal Entomological Society since 2004
|Wales Biodiversity Week||8th- 16th June 2013||Annually, varies||Biodiversity Wales.|
|Save Our Butterflies Week||May 18th - 26th 2013||Annually, varies||Butterfly Conservation.|
|International Mud Day||29 June||Annually, we think it's always the same day||World Forum|
|Big Arts Week||19 - 23 June 2006||
Big Arts Week Don't think this happened after 2006. Do my Arts look big in this?
|The Big Butterfly Count||19 July – 10 August 2014||?||Butterfly Conservation.|
|National Parks Week||July 29 to August 4 2013||Varies.||
of National Park Authorities
|National Mammal Week||1-9 July 2006||?||The Mammal Society. No current info on the week on this website.|
|Enjoy Your Local Nature Reserve Week||14-25 July 2004||?||Enjoy
your Local Nature Reserve.
No sign of an undate since 2005
|International Bog Day||27 July, 2014||Last Sunday in July||Scottish
Event seemingly no longer supported centrally, but date sometimes used still.
|World Ranger Day||31 July||Every year||International Ranger Federation|
|National Marine Week||27th July -11th August 2013||?||Wildlife Trusts|
|National Allotments Week||4 to 10 August 2014||Annually since 2005||National Allotment Gardens Trust|
|European Bat Weekend||30-31 August 2014||Last weekend of August each year||Bat Conservation Trust; Bat Weekend|
|Beachwatch||21-22 September 2014||Annually, third weekend of September||Marine Conservation Society|
|International Coastal Cleanup||21 September 2013||In September||Ocean Conservancy|
|International Car Free Day||22 September||22 September||22september.org|
|National Badger Day||4 October 2014||First Saturday in October every year||The Badger Trust.|
|Red Squirrel Week||28 September - 6 October 2013||Yes||Red Squirrel Week; Wildlife Trusts|
|World Habitat Day||7 October 2013||1st Monday in October||UN. Although it sounds like biodiversity, is about human housing and shelter. Thought we'd better include it though.|
|European Shark Week||15th to 23rd October 2011||Annually from 2007-2011. Now finished.||The Shark Alliance. Event now finished.|
|Will for Wildlife Week||14-20 October 2013||?||Wildlife Trusts - varies by local trust|
|Seed Gathering Season||23 September - 23 October every year||Annually||The
Tree Council; Seed
Used to be 'Seed Gathering Sunday' but has grown. We think the dates are the same each year.
|Apple Day||21 October||21 October every year||Common Ground|
|Feed the Birds Day||25-26 October 2014||Last weekend of October||RSPB (yes, it's a weekend, but it's called a day)|
|Make A Difference Day (volunteers day)||25 October 2014||Last Saturday in October||CSV 0800 284 533|
|Youth Work Week||4 – 10 November 2013||1st week in November||The National Youth Agency|
|International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict||6 November||6 November every year||United Nations (UN)|
|National Tree Week||
23 November - 1 December 2013
Tree Council 020 7828 9928
National Tree Week
|Tree Dressing Day||7-8 December 2013||1st full weekend in December||Common Ground|
|International Volunteer Day||5 December||5 December||United Nations (UN)|
|Festival of Winter Walks||21 December 2013 to 05 January 2014||Yes||Ramblers|
2010 is the...
International Year of Biodiversity
2009 was the...
Year of Science
Year of Astronomy
International Year of Natural Fibres
2008 was the...
International Year of Planet
International Year of the Reef
and, perhaps more importantly: International Year of the Potato
2007 was the...
Year of the Dolphin
International Polar Year
2006 was the...
The International Year of Deserts
Year of the Outback
2005 was the...
International Year for Sport and Physical Education
Year of the Volunteer
2004 was the...
We couldn't find anything for 2004 to be the year of, except the CAMRA
'Year of Beer with Food'. That wasn't too bad.
International Year to commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition
Oh, and the International Year of Rice. But we don't really care about that as much as we do beer.
2003 was the...
International Year of Freshwater 2003
2002 was the...
Year of Reviewing Ecotourism
and International Year of Ecotourism
International Year of Culture Heritage 2002
International Year of Mountains 2002
Count Me In:
for dates of just about every week/month/day etc there is, including all the
above and many others.
Reuters AlertNet List
UN list of international annual days and weeks, years decades etc