Judy Ling Wong
{{short description|Environmental activist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Judy Ling Wong
| honorific_suffix = CBE
| birth_place = 1949
| alma_mater = Clyde School
University of Melbourne
| employer = Black Environment Network
}}
Judy Ling Wong {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE}} (born 1949) is an environmental activist. For 27 years she was the UK Director of BEN. She is now its Honorary President. She received a CBE in the 2007 Birthday Honours.Judy is a major voice on policy and practice towards social inclusion.
Early life and education
Judy Ling Wong was born and raised in Hong Kong.{{Cite web|url=http://www.judylingwong.co.uk/index.html|title=Judy Ling Wong Artist and Environmental Activist|website=www.judylingwong.co.uk|access-date=2019-06-15}} She moved to Australia, where she attended Clyde School. She studied architecture at the University of Melbourne. In 1972 Ling Wong moved to Europe, and lived in West Berlin where she worked as a painter.
Career
Judy Ling Wong moved to Britain in 1974. She worked as a painter, dancer and poet.{{Cite web|url=https://www.fie.org.uk/component/contact/contact/274|title=Foundation for International Education - Foundation for International Education|website=www.fie.org.uk|access-date=2019-06-15}} She wrote a series of books, on nursery rhymes and ballet.{{Cite web|url=https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/author/judy-ling-wong/|title=Judy Ling Wong - AbeBooks|website=www.abebooks.com|language=en|access-date=2019-06-15}} She is based in London.
In 1987 she established the Black Environment Network (BEN), building relationships between people from ethnic minorities and the built environment. In 1990 the BEN merged with the Ethnic Minority Award Scheme (EMAS), with BEN becoming more of a political project. Ling Wong has encouraged more people from minority ethnic backgrounds to visit the countryside.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2002/oct/09/guardiansocietysupplement1|title=Access all areas: ethnic families and national parks|last=Birch|first=Simon|date=2002-10-08|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-06-15|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite book|last=Wong|first=Judy Ling|chapter=The Environment Belongs to All of Us|date=2009|work=Environmental Justice in the New Millennium: Global Perspectives on Race, Ethnicity, and Human Rights|pages=213–229|editor-last=Steady|editor-first=Filomina Chioma|editor-link=Filomina Clarice Steady|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US|language=en|doi=10.1057/9780230622531_11|isbn=9780230622531|title=Environmental Justice in the New Millennium}} BEN championed the message that countryside access is not an access issue but a rights issue, challenging the notion that the English countryside is a "white space".{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yW4dVOMIy1MC&q=%22judy+ling+wong%22&pg=PA112|title=The New Countryside?: Ethnicity, Nation and Exclusion in Contemporary Rural Britain|last1=Neal|first1=Sarah|last2=Agyeman|first2=Julian|date=2006|publisher=Policy Press|isbn=9781861347954|language=en}} Ling Wong worked to emphasise the relationship between environmentalism and the countryside. The National Alliance of Women's Organisations investigated rural racism and its intersection with gender. She advocates for access to nature and equality of opportunity to environmental participation within the urban environment where most ethnic minorities live.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/national-and-regional-populations/regional-ethnic-diversity/latest|title=Regional ethnic diversity}} {{Cite web|url=https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/opinion/inequality-environment-ethics/multicultural-voices-sustainable-food|title=Multicultural voices for sustainable food | Wicked Leeks}}
She services on the advisory board of the University of Gloucestershire Countryside and Community Research Institute.{{Cite web|url=http://www.ccri.ac.uk/ccri-advisory-board/judy-ling-wong/|title=Judy Ling Wong|website=Countryside and Community Research Institute|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-06-15}} She is a co-founder of the National Park City Foundation and was a member of the steering group for the movement to make London a national park city.{{Cite web|url=https://adventure.com/london-national-park-city/|title=Could London be the world's first National Park City?|date=2017-10-11|website=Adventure.com|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-15}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.nationalparkcity.london//component/content/article/10-make-a-difference/96-our-city-london-make-a-film-for-london?Itemid=1116|title=Use your imagination for Our City London|last=Chaudoir|first=Mark|website=www.nationalparkcity.london|language=en-gb|access-date=2019-06-15}} She chairs the Green Apprenticeships Advisory Group, supporting the BEIS Green Recovery Taskforce.{{Cite web|url=https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/about/how-we-do-it/green-apprenticeship-advisory-panel/|title=Green apprenticeships advisory panel}} Judy delivered the 2019 Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment Lecture at Imperial College London.
= Awards and honours =
Her awards and honours include;
- 2000 Order of the British Empire for services to the environment{{Cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk/2000/birthday_honours_2000/793823.stm|title=BBC NEWS {{!}} In Depth {{!}} Birthday Honours 2000 {{!}} OBEs: L - Z|website=news.bbc.co.uk|access-date=2019-06-15}}
- 2005 University of Gloucestershire Honorary Doctorate{{Cite web|url=https://www.glos.ac.uk/discover/heritage/pages/honorary-degree-recipients.aspx|title=Honorary degree recipients {{!}} University of Gloucestershire|website=www.glos.ac.uk|access-date=2019-06-15}}
- 2007 Commander of the British Empire for services to heritage
- 2013 Honorary Fellowship Institution of Environmental Sciences{{Cite web|url=https://www.the-ies.org/structure_and_personnel|title=IES Structure & Personnel {{!}} The Institution Of Environmental Sciences|website=www.the-ies.org|access-date=2019-06-15}}
- 2014 Honorary Fellowship Society for the Environment{{Cite web|url=https://socenv.org.uk/page/HonoraryFellows|title=Honorary Fellows - Society for the Environment|website=socenv.org.uk|access-date=2019-06-15}}
- 2017 Women's Environment Network Ambassador{{Cite web|url=https://www.wen.org.uk/blog/2017/8/hot-off-the-press-judy-ling-wong-cbe-joins-wen-as-our-newest-ambassador|title=Judy Ling Wong CBE, joins WEN as our newest Ambassador|website=Women's Environmental Network|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-15}}
- 2020 Included in the BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Power list 2020.{{cite web |title=Woman's Hour Power List 2020: The List |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5f6X3JsVjcGXfXstdbYxhkk/womans-hour-power-list-2020-the-list |website=BBC Radio4 |access-date=16 November 2020}} Patron Population Matters {{Cite web|url=https://populationmatters.org/our-patrons|title = Our patrons|date = 19 September 2018}}
• Patron CIEEM {{Cite web|url=https://cieem.net/cieem-welcomes-new-patron-judy-ling-wong/|title = CIEEM welcomes new Patron: Judy Ling Wong | CIEEM}}