Meet the Playful Green Planet stewards
A network of organisations from the RSA Fellowship and beyond is forming to ensure children everywhere have access to nature play.
Playful
Green
Planet
Reconnecting children to nature and community
Nature-based play is vital for children everywhere. It supports their development and wellbeing, and nurtures their connection with the natural environment.
Playful Green Planet transforms green spaces into outdoor playrooms and classrooms. This helps children aged 0–11 deepen their connection to, and care for, nature.
The project aims to grow and support a network of Playful Green Planet stewards and champions within and beyond the RSA Fellowship. This is a network of people and organisations co-create nature-based play and learning spaces for children in their urban neighbourhoods.
As someone who has dedicated my life to exploring and protecting our natural world, I’m thrilled to support the RSA’s Playful Green Planet initiative. This project is a brilliant way to inspire young minds by bringing them closer to nature, fostering a love for wildlife, and encouraging sustainable living. By transforming spaces in urban areas into hubs of outdoor learning and play, we’re not just creating a greener planet, we’re nurturing the next generation of environmental stewards.
Steve Backshall MBE
Wildlife TV presenter
How does Playful Green Planet work?
The Playful Green Planet Network is committed to the following principles:
- For all children: accessible to every single child under 11 and to the early years, community and school settings that support them.
- Co-creation in place: led by local people and co-created with the strengths and needs of the community, educators and children at the heart.
- Triple benefits: provides measurable benefits that grow children’s ecological citizenship, community connection and nature regeneration.
- Sustainable: embedded within the local offer and evolving to continue to deliver impact for the long term.
We aim to reach 100,000 children by 2030.
Why does Playful Green Planet matter?
Children’s engagement with nature is declining, especially among those from lower socioeconomic and ethnic minority backgrounds. The latest research shows that 34% of children don’t play outdoors in nature on school days, and 20% don’t on weekends. This is despite the proven benefits of nature connection for children’s wellbeing, learning, development, and environmental care.
- Better wellbeing: being in nature reduces stress. It lowers heart rate, blood pressure and stress hormones, and can improve immunity in children.
- Better learning: after children have played or learned outside, they are more on-task and less disruptive in subsequent indoor lessons.
- Better pro-environmental behaviours: time in nature during childhood matters. Those who spend more time outside are more likely to care for nature actively as adults.
We aim to help bridge this gap and make nature-based play available to every child, everywhere.
Who’s involved?
The RSA, in partnership with the Eden Project and Bath Spa University, has been developing Playful Green Planet since 2022, and we are grateful for the strategic guidance of the Playful Green Planet Advisory Committee.
We began by testing this approach with two pilots in Dundee and Hull. Then in 2025, we launched the Playful Green Planet Network – a growing national movement of place-based organisations and individuals who already work with children, taking the lead as stewards and champions in reimagining local green spaces through nature-based play.
RSA Fellow case study
Dr Lee Fallin
Learn how Playful Green Planet steward Lee was inspired to connect with Fellows who share his interests in social justice and the environment.
Join the Playful Green Planet Network
The RSA is inviting organisations working with children aged 0–11 in urban areas to apply to become a Playful Green Planet steward.
Join the conversation
If you’re a Fellow, join the conversation via the Playful Green Planet Circle Space
Learn about the impact of Playful Green Planet
Through the Playful Green Planet Network, we aim to reach 100 sites and 100,000 children by 2030. This is how we’re doing so far.
Meet the Advisory Committee
Our practitioners, academics, impact entrepreneurs, and policy experts in nature-based creative play provide strategic oversight, support decision-making, and connections to partners and stakeholders for Playful Green Planet.
Playful Green Planet related content
PRESS RELEASE
RSA kickstarts Playful Green Planet: connecting children to nature and community
The RSA announced that it will kickstart a pilot of its radical Playful Green Planet intervention, supported by The National Lottery’s Community Fund.
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Could the RSA’s Playful Green Planet intervention help create a world where every child has access to nature-based play spaces?
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