[Music]
seven point six billion people on the
planet today 380,000 new babies every
single day it’s something we do very
well some might say too well because we
have a population explosion and with it
an explosion of environmental problems
we need solutions for solutions we need
new knowledge and for new knowledge we
need research and of course research
need laboratories so what if I say that
we are here today in the laboratory of
the planet to solve environmental
problems that’s what I’m going to talk
to you today about malicious being one
such laboratories and the two main
reason why we can be a laboratory of
Environmental Solutions first the
laboratory of things that should not be
done to the environment but also a
laboratory more cheerfully of things
that can be done to solve these problems
so if you thought seven point six
billion people a lot think about this if
you extrapolate the human population
density of Mauritius to the rest of the
land surface to the planet you will get
100 billion that is to say we are at the
extreme of the extreme we are in a way a
window to the future of other countries
whose populations are much lower than
ours today and catching up with us so I
like to start the first aspect of this
Laboratory of things that should not be
done with this interesting saying
everything that should not be done to an
island has been done to Mauritius except
perhaps nuclear testing that’s quite a
depressing way to start it but it’s
quite true
if you look at Mauritius we were one of
the last countries in the world to be
colonized by human to be reached by
humans 1638 and we have lost our
biodiversity very very quickly our
habitats very quickly we have caught up
with all other countries we have
overtaken them and today we have just 2%
of our native habitat left and that has
a of course created havoc on our
biodiversity added to this situation of
extensive deforestation we’ve had
problems of over exploitation invasive
species impact and as a result we have
offered humanity the icon of extinction
of human caused extinction this used to
be a dodo now it’s a pile of bones but
that’s only the tip of the iceberg
we have many other species of gran
extinct in Mauritius 63% of the bird
species gone extinct 44% of the snails
fortunately it’s not a skeleton I’m
going to show you today because it’s a
bit depressing you know so I’m going to
show you
thanks to colleague and scientists and
painter Julian Hume some of the other
species that went extinct in a more
colourful cheerful version this is what
we lost we lost many species the Dutch
pigeon the red rail the largest parrot
in the world two species of fruit bats
already and many other species so we are
indeed a laboratory of things that
should not be done to biodiversity and
it’s not just over yet we have today the
rarest species in the whole world since
75 years and we have not been able to
save it there must be something done
about it that’s a palm last individual a
single plant left we have protected
nature I won’t say more
we have protected wildlife this is a
foot bat it’s been mass killed it’s the
first time in the world that we people
Maskell a threatened species to protect
fruits to increase food profits but we
achieved you things the species is now
more endangered this publication is
coming up next month and fruit
production has that increased actually
has decreased so we still elaboration of
things that should not be done but we
can learn from these things from these
mistakes right so now on the other the
more cheerful side of the laboratory of
hope of Mauritius which is the things
that we do that can help other countries
around the world follow our examples to
save their biodiversity and I will talk
about three levels in this the species
conservation ecosystem conservation and
conservation of ecological function I
start with the Kerala many examples but
just one bird in one plant for the
species conservation the Kestrel was
down to four individuals one female
females and people say it’s finish is
done let’s move on and try to save his
species which is which has more chance
of being saved but through the hard work
and dedication of many people the like
of pioneers like Stanley temple like our
Jones and all the team of scientists
working very hard in us in 70s and 80s
that kisra has been saved we now have
more than 500 individuals over the
island now we’ll take an example from
Rodriques a little sister the calf a
mammal or wild caffeine a species that
was thought extinct actually until a
smoke schoolboy discovered it in the
world how it was after his teacher told
him about the extinct plants of Oryx in
one of the classes and then he
recognized one of these plants outside
and of course it turned out to be the
last individual of the plant it was
rediscovered it was no more extinct and
conservationists jumped in and saved
that species and multiplied
so that’s to show to you that even a
small kid can bring a big difference in
conservation once you have the knowledge
now the other aspect that Burgess is
very much pioneering in the world and
giving hope to other places is about
ecosystem conservation we have talked
about species conservation so far but
species interact with each other so they
need the whole ecosystem to be able to
survive and we in Mauritius have been
pioneering this work when you look at
this forest in the National Park it
looks alright but if you look underneath
you have a maze of alien species all
these stems that you see here in front
of you strawberry guava we call it
Chinese governorís and these are weeds
that overwhelming the the forest and
killing and stifling the forest so what
we do in the National Park and some
number of private land owners as well we
can remove these weeds of course I’m
sorry it looks like in war zone when you
remove the weeds because it’s so invaded
it looks like that at the beginning it
doesn’t look very good but after a
couple of decades it looks like this and
this is where all our research that we
have conducted in comparison between the
invaded forest and uninvited first show
that this is a massively positive action
to take for saving by diversity you save
a large number of species all birds
reptiles plants orchids ferns that we
have studied so far have recovered
dramatically thanks to that one action
of controlling alien species and alien
species a major primer on white in many
other countries and people are learning
from our experience to know what to do
with them so now as a bonus we got that
little plant as well coming up I like it
very much because it’s hard shape it’s a
small orchid has not been seen since
more than two centuries 1769 was the
last time it was ever seen in Mauritius
people thought he has disappeared even
some people for that
point it never existed but then it
reappeared by the hundreds within these
areas we have been rid of alien plants
so here’s another example of hope even a
plant that we thought was already gone
we are able to take it back from the
dead by restoring its environment
removing the alien weeds now I’ll talk
about a coach called function no matter
how much you will remove guava no matter
how much you will remove rats monkeys
and all these invasive species is
destroying our wildlife you will not
bring back the dodo you will not bring
back the tortoises so these species have
gone forever so we here Mauritius have
devised a new approach very much
pioneering in the world call using the
analogue species to replace ecological
function loss ecological function
because these large species had in a
cultural function they were for example
eating plants which are dominant and
therefore preventing other species of
plants from being overwhelmed by this
dominate native plants preventing
exclusion we call it but they were also
eating fruits and disseminating the
seeds and this allows plants to generate
to regenerate in the wild because if you
fool the seed fool to the food of the
true mother tree it’s not going to grow
it’s not going to survive very long and
the other thing as well of course the
tortoise will add manure and fertilize
the soil and all these four kind of
functions were actually very much help
our biodiversity how do we restore this
function if the species gone extinct we
have looked for the most gracious
replacement we can find to our four
species of tortoises that we have lost
in Mauritius and Rodrigues and we found
this guy from algebra which has a nice
pedigree of conservation because it’s a
species that was already by Charles
Darwin recommended to take be taken to
Mauritius as a first one the first
example of translocation for
conservation purposes because Darwin
Charles Darwin found out that tortoises
in the southwest Indian Ocean islands
were disappearing one after the other
from exploitation they were the tinned
food of their
nineteen nineteenth century they keep
fresh for months at sea so we brought
them here recommended to bring back this
animal to Mauritius and now we are
giving this tortoise a second
conservation role which is to replace
the extinct merchant tortoises and
here’s an example of what is doing
eating the fruit of a pandanus a screw
pine and later on disseminating that
seeds right so all the work I’m just
talking to you about have been published
and made accessible to the whole
international community through a large
number of scientific publication like
here is just a small very very small
sample and this is one way also
Mauritius is sharing that knowledge to
the rest of the world right now I have
not always been a conservationist I
became one through meeting amazing
people through also reading books from
people I’ve never met
completely inspiring or meeting people
like jean-michel
in the last century and you know
cigarette now now he looks like a guru
that he has always been to me and one of
the greatest joy of being a
conservationist I think is to actually
pass the baton and this is just a small
sample of the many students that I’ve
had but also me do my colleagues have
been training in Mauritius many of these
people now they’re working in
conservation organization not just in
Mauritius but also abroad and I think
this is a great hope because there’s a
multiplying effect when I was their age
I was like this palm we talked about
they’re almost the only one today we
have crowd solutions actually interested
in conservation that’s really really
nice we also have a lot of foreigners
coming to Mauritius and working in our
system and going back to their country
to save their biodiversity from what
they have learned he emerges now what is
there for you
I’m not going to ask you to do this kind
of thing this is what we do to try to
save this small plant from extinction so
I’m not going to ask you to become
conservation biologists I’m not going to
ask you to get wet I’m probably going to
suggest to you to take to think about it
now there are thousands of little
actions that you can you can do to
actually make things better reduce the
problem side of the equation and
increase the solution side of the
equation and help the environment help
biodiversity so saving electricity is
one of them because you put it less
eating healthy food is good for you they
have less pesticide but it’s also good
for the environment the choices that you
make you vote for the product that you
buy and think about what is the impact
of that decision that you’re taking to
on the environment is it destroying
biodiversity can I make a better choice
so changing subject slightly I know
people talk about well we can talk you
know talk to the dead sometimes but yeah
it’s quite true the dead can talk to us
here is one such dead bird telling us
plastic kills so with this I’d like to
encourage you to think that you’re not
just passengers in this laboratory of hope but you’re also actors in it
seven point six billion people on the
planet today 380,000 new babies every
single day it’s something we do very
well some might say too well because we
have a population explosion and with it
an explosion of environmental problems
we need solutions for solutions we need
new knowledge and for new knowledge we
need research and of course research
need laboratories so what if I say that
we are here today in the laboratory of
the planet to solve environmental
problems that’s what I’m going to talk
to you today about malicious being one
such laboratories and the two main
reason why we can be a laboratory of
Environmental Solutions first the
laboratory of things that should not be
done to the environment but also a
laboratory more cheerfully of things
that can be done to solve these problems
so if you thought seven point six
billion people a lot think about this if
you extrapolate the human population
density of Mauritius to the rest of the
land surface to the planet you will get
100 billion that is to say we are at the
extreme of the extreme we are in a way a
window to the future of other countries
whose populations are much lower than
ours today and catching up with us so I
like to start the first aspect of this
Laboratory of things that should not be
done with this interesting saying
everything that should not be done to an
island has been done to Mauritius except
perhaps nuclear testing that’s quite a
depressing way to start it but it’s
quite true
if you look at Mauritius we were one of
the last countries in the world to be
colonized by human to be reached by
humans 1638 and we have lost our
biodiversity very very quickly our
habitats very quickly we have caught up
with all other countries we have
overtaken them and today we have just 2%
of our native habitat left and that has
a of course created havoc on our
biodiversity added to this situation of
extensive deforestation we’ve had
problems of over exploitation invasive
species impact and as a result we have
offered humanity the icon of extinction
of human caused extinction this used to
be a dodo now it’s a pile of bones but
that’s only the tip of the iceberg
we have many other species of gran
extinct in Mauritius 63% of the bird
species gone extinct 44% of the snails
fortunately it’s not a skeleton I’m
going to show you today because it’s a
bit depressing you know so I’m going to
show you
thanks to colleague and scientists and
painter Julian Hume some of the other
species that went extinct in a more
colourful cheerful version this is what
we lost we lost many species the Dutch
pigeon the red rail the largest parrot
in the world two species of fruit bats
already and many other species so we are
indeed a laboratory of things that
should not be done to biodiversity and
it’s not just over yet we have today the
rarest species in the whole world since
75 years and we have not been able to
save it there must be something done
about it that’s a palm last individual a
single plant left we have protected
nature I won’t say more
we have protected wildlife this is a
foot bat it’s been mass killed it’s the
first time in the world that we people
Maskell a threatened species to protect
fruits to increase food profits but we
achieved you things the species is now
more endangered this publication is
coming up next month and fruit
production has that increased actually
has decreased so we still elaboration of
things that should not be done but we
can learn from these things from these
mistakes right so now on the other the
more cheerful side of the laboratory of
hope of Mauritius which is the things
that we do that can help other countries
around the world follow our examples to
save their biodiversity and I will talk
about three levels in this the species
conservation ecosystem conservation and
conservation of ecological function I
start with the Kerala many examples but
just one bird in one plant for the
species conservation the Kestrel was
down to four individuals one female
females and people say it’s finish is
done let’s move on and try to save his
species which is which has more chance
of being saved but through the hard work
and dedication of many people the like
of pioneers like Stanley temple like our
Jones and all the team of scientists
working very hard in us in 70s and 80s
that kisra has been saved we now have
more than 500 individuals over the
island now we’ll take an example from
Rodriques a little sister the calf a
mammal or wild caffeine a species that
was thought extinct actually until a
smoke schoolboy discovered it in the
world how it was after his teacher told
him about the extinct plants of Oryx in
one of the classes and then he
recognized one of these plants outside
and of course it turned out to be the
last individual of the plant it was
rediscovered it was no more extinct and
conservationists jumped in and saved
that species and multiplied
so that’s to show to you that even a
small kid can bring a big difference in
conservation once you have the knowledge
now the other aspect that Burgess is
very much pioneering in the world and
giving hope to other places is about
ecosystem conservation we have talked
about species conservation so far but
species interact with each other so they
need the whole ecosystem to be able to
survive and we in Mauritius have been
pioneering this work when you look at
this forest in the National Park it
looks alright but if you look underneath
you have a maze of alien species all
these stems that you see here in front
of you strawberry guava we call it
Chinese governorís and these are weeds
that overwhelming the the forest and
killing and stifling the forest so what
we do in the National Park and some
number of private land owners as well we
can remove these weeds of course I’m
sorry it looks like in war zone when you
remove the weeds because it’s so invaded
it looks like that at the beginning it
doesn’t look very good but after a
couple of decades it looks like this and
this is where all our research that we
have conducted in comparison between the
invaded forest and uninvited first show
that this is a massively positive action
to take for saving by diversity you save
a large number of species all birds
reptiles plants orchids ferns that we
have studied so far have recovered
dramatically thanks to that one action
of controlling alien species and alien
species a major primer on white in many
other countries and people are learning
from our experience to know what to do
with them so now as a bonus we got that
little plant as well coming up I like it
very much because it’s hard shape it’s a
small orchid has not been seen since
more than two centuries 1769 was the
last time it was ever seen in Mauritius
people thought he has disappeared even
some people for that
point it never existed but then it
reappeared by the hundreds within these
areas we have been rid of alien plants
so here’s another example of hope even a
plant that we thought was already gone
we are able to take it back from the
dead by restoring its environment
removing the alien weeds now I’ll talk
about a coach called function no matter
how much you will remove guava no matter
how much you will remove rats monkeys
and all these invasive species is
destroying our wildlife you will not
bring back the dodo you will not bring
back the tortoises so these species have
gone forever so we here Mauritius have
devised a new approach very much
pioneering in the world call using the
analogue species to replace ecological
function loss ecological function
because these large species had in a
cultural function they were for example
eating plants which are dominant and
therefore preventing other species of
plants from being overwhelmed by this
dominate native plants preventing
exclusion we call it but they were also
eating fruits and disseminating the
seeds and this allows plants to generate
to regenerate in the wild because if you
fool the seed fool to the food of the
true mother tree it’s not going to grow
it’s not going to survive very long and
the other thing as well of course the
tortoise will add manure and fertilize
the soil and all these four kind of
functions were actually very much help
our biodiversity how do we restore this
function if the species gone extinct we
have looked for the most gracious
replacement we can find to our four
species of tortoises that we have lost
in Mauritius and Rodrigues and we found
this guy from algebra which has a nice
pedigree of conservation because it’s a
species that was already by Charles
Darwin recommended to take be taken to
Mauritius as a first one the first
example of translocation for
conservation purposes because Darwin
Charles Darwin found out that tortoises
in the southwest Indian Ocean islands
were disappearing one after the other
from exploitation they were the tinned
food of their
nineteen nineteenth century they keep
fresh for months at sea so we brought
them here recommended to bring back this
animal to Mauritius and now we are
giving this tortoise a second
conservation role which is to replace
the extinct merchant tortoises and
here’s an example of what is doing
eating the fruit of a pandanus a screw
pine and later on disseminating that
seeds right so all the work I’m just
talking to you about have been published
and made accessible to the whole
international community through a large
number of scientific publication like
here is just a small very very small
sample and this is one way also
Mauritius is sharing that knowledge to
the rest of the world right now I have
not always been a conservationist I
became one through meeting amazing
people through also reading books from
people I’ve never met
completely inspiring or meeting people
like jean-michel
in the last century and you know
cigarette now now he looks like a guru
that he has always been to me and one of
the greatest joy of being a
conservationist I think is to actually
pass the baton and this is just a small
sample of the many students that I’ve
had but also me do my colleagues have
been training in Mauritius many of these
people now they’re working in
conservation organization not just in
Mauritius but also abroad and I think
this is a great hope because there’s a
multiplying effect when I was their age
I was like this palm we talked about
they’re almost the only one today we
have crowd solutions actually interested
in conservation that’s really really
nice we also have a lot of foreigners
coming to Mauritius and working in our
system and going back to their country
to save their biodiversity from what
they have learned he emerges now what is
there for you
I’m not going to ask you to do this kind
of thing this is what we do to try to
save this small plant from extinction so
I’m not going to ask you to become
conservation biologists I’m not going to
ask you to get wet I’m probably going to
suggest to you to take to think about it
now there are thousands of little
actions that you can you can do to
actually make things better reduce the
problem side of the equation and
increase the solution side of the
equation and help the environment help
biodiversity so saving electricity is
one of them because you put it less
eating healthy food is good for you they
have less pesticide but it’s also good
for the environment the choices that you
make you vote for the product that you
buy and think about what is the impact
of that decision that you’re taking to
on the environment is it destroying
biodiversity can I make a better choice
so changing subject slightly I know
people talk about well we can talk you
know talk to the dead sometimes but yeah
it’s quite true the dead can talk to us
here is one such dead bird telling us
plastic kills so with this I’d like to
encourage you to think that you’re not
just passengers in this laboratory of hope but you’re also actors in it
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