Wild Voices Project Matt Williams

Aidan Gallagher is a world-renowned actor and singer and also a UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador and one of the youngest ever Goodwill Ambassadors. You can find him at https://www.aidanrgallagher.com and http://www.twitter.com/aidanrgallagher.

This episode and interview are brought to you (with our huge gratitude) by Kate on Conservation (http://www.twitter.comKateonConsrvation and http://www.kateonconservation.com), and was recorded at the Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference in London in 2018.

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at http://www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

This episode is a conversation with James Glancy (https://www.jamesglancy.com/biography and https://twitter.com/jaglancy) who is a host of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, a conservationist who works with Veterans For Wildlife supporting the work of wildlife rangers in many African countries, and a former marine.

In this conversation we talk about a childhood where he felt a passion for nature and picked up a love of diving, how his military expertise has translated into helping rangers defend some of the planet’s most endangered species, and what rewilding means to him.

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

Welcome to another episode of the Wild Voices Project podcast with me, Matt Williams. It has been quite some time since I’ve published an episode - a new house, a new girlfriend, a new dog and a new baby mean that life has been somewhat busy in the past year. So I put the podcast on pause for a while. But we’re back - and to begin with it’s with some episodes recorded around a year ago. So in listening to this episode and some of the upcoming ones please bear in mind that they are around 12 months old and were recorded prior to the coronavirus epidemic. But I believe there’s still huge, timeless value in these conversations.

I hope you and your loved ones are well during this strange and concerning time. Many of us are very privileged by having access to nature and the outdoors right now. And I recognise that both I, and many of my guests, fall into that category. I hope that hearing about wildlife and nature might also provide some solace during this time.

This episode is a cracker - it’s with the so-called ‘godfather of biodiversity’ Professor Thomas Lovejoy. Thomas Lovejoy is a Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation, an expert on climate and biological dynamics in the Amazon, he was previously the biodiversity advisor to the World Bank, and is known for being the first person to coin the word ‘biodiversity’. In this episode, we discuss using high mist nets to catch spine-tailed swifts in the Amazon rainforest, the tipping points caused by fragmentation that could lead to irreversible dieback, and how he keeps his energy levels up for office work and advising decision-makers and achieves an emotional or professional reset at the start of each day.

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

This episode of Wild Voices Project is a special one because I’m talking to Dr David Bullock, who is the National Trust’s Head of Habitat and Species Conservation. On 18 May 2019 David is retiring after over two decades at the Trust. During my first year at the National Trust he has been one of the amazing people who work for the Trust who has made it so enjoyable. He has taught me so much about ecology and wildlife during that time - he’s one of the most knowledgeable people I’ve ever met. He has been so supportive of me as a new person in the Trust and become a true friend. I’m sure I’m not alone within the Trust in saying that I will truly miss David - a person who is full of joy, passion and generosity and always willing to spend some time having a conversation over a coffee.

So publishing this episode is a tribute to David. It’s my way of saying thank you. At the time of recording I didn’t know that David was going to be retiring.

We open with David’s first encounter with “wildlife” - an unforgettable childhood tussle with a goat. We talk about kickstarting natural processes and how important the ‘climate of fear’ created by predators and carnivores can be for the wider ecosystems and landscapes.
We talk about how the National Trust’s approach to looking after nature has changed, and we cover trendy beavers and the Lundy cabbage, and the cabbage’s endemic invertebrate, too.

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

Scott Haber began as a bioengineering student, but transitioned into nature-based mindfulness practice after learning from a woman who was practising traditional Andean ways. Scott then received the Bonderman Fellowship which allowed him to visit traditional, nature-based cultures around the world and learn from them. He now undertakes a unique blend of shared interests, including writing, making films and taking photographs while also leading nature-based mindfulness classes and courses. He’s also practising environmental advocacy, particularly helping the Shuar community in Ecuador protect their land from petrochemical developments and exploitation.
You can find Scott at his website (https://www.scotthaber.com/) and you can find out more about him and links to his work on the 'about’ page of his website (https://www.scotthaber.com/about-me/).

In May 2018 I was lucky enough to be able to join the Treshnish Isles Auk Ringing Group (http://tiarg.org/) on their trip to Lunga. This small, uninhabited island is part of the Treshnish Isles off the west coast of Scotland. But while no people live there, it’s full of thousands and thousands of seabirds.

We were there to survey one seabird in particular: the Manx shearwater. The UK is home to 90% of the world population of ‘manxies’, as they’re also known. This episode is a bit different to normal. It captures some of the sounds of the island, and through conversations with the friends and teammates I worked with also gives an insight into the fieldwork we undertook.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to Turus Mara (https://www.turusmara.com/ and https://twitter.com/Turus_Mara)), the boat company who got us to the islands. The Joint Nature Conservation Committee receive and analyse the data, as do Scottish Natural Heritage, who also cover some of the costs of the trip. And the Hebridean Trust own the islands and grant us access to them.

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.