‘HUMAN Swan’ Sasha Dench, known for global expeditions with migratory species, has turned her focus to climate change for her latest expedition.

The Round Britain Climate Challenge is the first ever circumnavigation attempt of mainland Britain with an electric paramotor (motorised parachute).

Sasha, who lives in Chagford, is the UN ambassador for Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and founder of Conservation Without Borders. She is drawing attention to climate issues at home with her groundbreaking 3,000 mile plus expedition which started from Loch Lomond in Scotland on Monday (June 21).

She will travel anti-clockwise around Britain, ending back in Glasgow around six weeks later. This daring expedition is designed to inspire and excite the nation to get involved in tackling the climate crisis in the run up to the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 being hosted in the UK in November.

Sacha, who hails from Australia, is highlighting climate change for this expedition after losing her family home in the Australian bushfires.

She will be landing frequently, talking with, filming, and gathering information from industry, innovators and entrepreneurs, local heroes, communities, schools, farmers and individuals — anybody involved in addressing the effects of climate change in their areas. A compilation of these stories will be presented at COP26 in Glasgow.

Sacha will set a new Guinness World Records Title for the fastest (and first) flight around Britain in a paramotor. It will also be a first for an electric paramotor.

A second Guinness World Records Title attempt will aim to inspire at least 140,001 people to take personal climate action between June 18 and 17 July as part of the global campaign Count Us In (https://www.count-us-in.org/).

On achieving this, every participant will get a badge recognising their contribution to setting a world record.

Sacha said: ‘This is the first time an electric paramotor will ever have been used in a long journey – and it’s going to be an exciting challenge.

‘I want to capture the imaginations of the young and old, rural and urban, and focus on answers to the climate crisis — not problems — and encourage everyone, to get involved. Just one person pledging to take an action through Count Us In will help us get that second Guinesss World Record too!

‘As well as investigating how climate change is affecting different regions of the country, we will be showing — in a visually stunning and exciting way —what is happening to help cut carbon and preserve and restore our environment. We’ll be finding the likely and unlikely heroes and discovering where and what works.’

Sasha Dench earned her name the ‘Human Swan’ after taking to the skies in her paramotor to raise awareness of wildlife, flying above the Russian Tundra. While she was working for the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust three years ago, she undertook a 4000-mile flight from Russia to the UK with migrating Berwick swans to raise awareness of their dwindling numbers.

In a bid to draw attention to a once-endangered raptor — the osprey — she also took part in an amazing 6000-mile flight to Africa in 2019. The bird of prey was almost driven to extinction and in the UK their numbers are still recovering.