for those of you wondering these are the
last two northern white rhinos left in
the world and they’re both female it’s
sobering stuff and the only reason I can
get so close to them is because they
require a 24-hour guard to protect them
and they’ve become used to humans this
afternoon I want to remind you all about
the value of nature I want to tell you
what we can all do to help protect the
natural world and while working in
wildlife conservation is one of the most
exciting dynamic interesting and
rewarding roles you can ever have the
idea that I want to share with you all
is that there is a role for everyone in
wildlife conservation there are few
things more important in the world today
than what you were doing here these
inspirational words from Sir David
Attenborough are written on the living
wall when you enter the Sir David
Attenborough building which is home to
the Cambridge conservation initiative
and ten of the world’s leading
biodiversity conservation organisations
it always inspires me when I walk
through those doors and leaves me
excited and it’s that excitement that
I’d like to share with you all today and
I hope that you all leave here empowered
to help protect the natural world – to
kick off I want to demonstrate the value
of nature agriculture tourism fishing
fishing which by the ways were 300
billion u.s. dollars to global GDP
medicines energy clean water there are
all examples of nature sustaining our
economy and our welfare nature is the
very basis of our welfare an economy and
it’s critical that we manage it
correctly men wanted for hazardous
journey small wages bitter cold long
months of complete darkness constant
danger safe return doubtful honor and
recognition in case of success sometimes
I think I’m describing my current job
but this is an advert
some of you might recognize that Sir
Ernest Shackleton placed in the times in
1914 what was to follow was one of the
greatest survival stories of all time
and an example of inspirational
leadership in adversity so how does this
connect to conservation well five or
nearly six years ago now I was invited
to skip her a project an expedition that
was part of a Discovery Channel
documentary that was going to retrace
Sir Ernest Shackleton’s voyage 100 years
after it first occurred we were going to
use a replica boat such as the one you
see here and replicas kit but we were
also going to do was document climate
change in the intervening years it was
simple stuff it was what I would call
citizen science so looking for instance
of how far the glaciers had retreated
during that time for those of you
wondering this this is me how I might
have looked a hundred years ago stepping
back in time though and seeing firsthand
the impact of climate change really
changed me too and during the expedition
we raised funds for an organization
called fauna and flora international FFI
a biodiversity conservation organization
protecting critically endangered species
and habitats and to cut a long story
short I came back to the UK and had a
lot of conversations with the CEO bother
him for a long time eventually he
offered me a role promoting the
organization and our global program of
work which spans 47 countries and the
organization has been in existence for a
hundred and fifteen years the role that
I have is mainly in a suit working the
boardrooms and conferences forums but
but sometimes I got out in the field and
here I’m tagging a critically endangered
Antiguan racer snake I also get to visit
some of the most amazing projects all
over the world and I’ve been with FFI
now for five years but my background is
actually I’m an engineer I’ve worked in
finance and probably or in fact
definitely more interestingly I was also
a professional offshore sailor for ten
years competing in events such as the
Volvo Ocean Race in 2008 so I’ve had a
wide-ranging career but I am definitely
no zoologist I didn’t
in Africa I don’t know the Latin names
of any plants and well I suppose what I
am is I’m a passionate advocate for the
importance of protecting the natural
world and there are actually lots of
conservationists like me that come
without formal training of course many
of us in fact most of us are zoologist
psychologist naturalist primatologists
and fundamentally scientists and yes
many of my colleagues grew up keeping
pet worms and collecting snail shells
and yes many of them love hugging trees
but hey nowadays even I enjoy doing that
with my son
even if I am a paper conservationist
I’ll come back to that but before we get
too comfortable I think we all need a
dose of reality in 2013 20,000 wild
elephants were killed the lion
population is down 40% in the past 20
years and there are only 3,000 tigers
left in the wild
this iconic species could become extinct
within our lifetime in the last 10 years
seven and a half thousand African rhinos
have been poached a thousand Rhino were
poached in 2017 in 2010 the Western
black rhino sadly became extinct and the
last male northern white rhino died in
March
why all this slaughter well rhino ivory
is now worth in excess of sixty thousand
US dollars per pound
that’s more than diamonds and as a
consequence the poaching operations have
become more slick they’ve become more
advanced and what we need is we need
military personnel leading experts in
combat in tracking and in protecting
these wildlife to work alongside our
Rangers and our scouts no more so than
in the Virunga National Park who expands
DRC Rwanda and Uganda and is home to the
critically endangered and iconic
mountain gorillas but it’s also home to
militia and rebel outfits remnants of
Congo civil war hiding out there are
also poaching and criminal gangs and
it’s probably the most dangerous place
in the world for conservationists to
work a hundred and seven
Wildlife Rangers have lost their lives
there in the past 20 years and globally
over a thousand Rangers have lost their
lives in the last 15 years protecting
wildlife but it’s not just on the ground
that we must fight it’s also in the
boardrooms and the courtrooms
conservationists don’t just protect
megafauna we also work with mining
giants we work with organizations that
have the pent potential to cause
enormous damage such as here in Cambodia
where forests are being wiped out and
the real ways are being polluted what we
need is people who understand these
businesses we need environmental impact
assessment specialists we need business
specialists and strategists we need
lawyers and fundamentally we need people
who understand these businesses and
prepared to work within them or with
them this is a paper and pulp
manufacturing plant in Sumatra is owned
and operated by a company called April
one of Asia’s largest paper and pulp
manufacturers and they are responsible
for decimating huge swaths of forests
across Sumatra but they’ve realized the
error of their ways and they’re now
solely reliant on plantation timber and
our role with them is to maximize the
potential of the remaining forests and
to use these plantations to make
wildlife corridors crucial corridors
that allow what wildlife is left to roam
free
I suppose in summary we’ve realized that
to have impact we have to engage with
the people that have the potential to
cause the most damage so this is a lot
of negative chat and what I want to do
now is share two stories of hope with
you the first is the international
gorilla conservation program just over
30 years ago there was a lady called
Dian Fossey he was living with the
gorillas and she realized they were at a
critical point there were only about 300
left and their habitat was being wiped
out so who did she call David
Attenborough David came back came down
and saw for himself a shot film he went
back to the UK and to cut a long story
short the international gorilla
conservation program IG CP was formed
it’s a collaboration between FF I and
WUF and the story goes a little like
this if you protect the forest you
protect the critical habitat that the
gorillas need you also protect the
watershed which gives fertile lands
which means you can run sustainable
agriculture programs alongside
ecotourism this gorilla tourism which is
now worth in excess of 200 million US
dollars a year and amazingly it’s the
single biggest contributor to randa’s
GDP remember it’s a very small country
but the best news of all there are now
over a thousand mountain gorillas living
there and the other thing it brings
enormous pride to the local communities
employment and in the area that’s been
through so many troubles in its recent
history the second story is very
different it’s about two twins I met six
months ago now these are very
intelligent and worldly guys and what
sets them apart is they come from
enormous privilege
they’ve always been interested in nature
but they’re not conservationists they’ve
never really been to Africa they never
experienced the savanna grasslands and
they’ve never crossed an ocean they
certainly didn’t keep pet worms and
collects now shells but the thing is
they loved Sir David Attenborough and
one day as only people like this can do
they decided you know what this guy
makes sense we’re going to write to him
and ask what he can do and again to cut
a long story short so David introduced
me to them and I took them to Africa to
see our major projects which included
the iconic mountain gorillas they’ve
lifted the lid and Africa has got under
their skin they’ve seen heard and felt
what real nature is like and we now have
two new lifelong conservationists who
come with power influence and
significant resources that they’re
making available to help us in this
battle now these are good news stories
that I believe we should celebrate and
we should celebrate them together this
is a tower of giraffes by the way
because collaboration is key to success
there are many examples within the NGO
world but I just want to quickly pick up
on something called wild labs it’s a
community of conservationists
technologists engineers data scientists
changemakers and what they do is they
get together and they share ideas they
share technological innovation tools and
they’re coming up with new solutions to
age-old conservation problems
in short the conservation world is
recruiting for new skills so who else do
we need well we need people who in suits
who can talk a bit better than me but
but I really think that we need to maybe
follow the lead of men like Shackleton
we need to explore new areas we need to
summon our spirit of adventure and we
need to take this battle to the
frontline wherever that may be
we need to gently guide at educate
people who do not yet understand the
value of nature many years ago I heard
Sir David Attenborough talking about
real conservationists and paper
conservationists he was actually
describing the incredible credentials of
my boss what he inadvertently did was
raise the question of whether you need
to be out chasing poachers wrangling
Crocs or working with somach on Tigers
such as this amazing species there’s
only 400 of them left in the world to
call yourself a real conservationist
well I think we all know the answer is
that both are critical and what matters
is the effort the passion and the
purpose that you go about your job with
so to sum up there is a lot of
negativity out there there is nothing
the world’s media loves more but I
believe there are chinks of light we’ve
heard today from leaders across all
sorts of different sectors but if we get
together and we work together and we ask
ourselves some deep questions and we
look at our priorities and how far ahead
we’re thinking I believe we can make
real progress and not just in the
conservation world of course we need
scientists but we also need engineers
lawyers accountants soldiers language
experts sales and marketing experts
branding experts there is a role for
pretty much anyone in the world of
wildlife conservation and we need to
remember that nature is the very basis
of our welfare and economy and we cannot go on taking without paying back
last two northern white rhinos left in
the world and they’re both female it’s
sobering stuff and the only reason I can
get so close to them is because they
require a 24-hour guard to protect them
and they’ve become used to humans this
afternoon I want to remind you all about
the value of nature I want to tell you
what we can all do to help protect the
natural world and while working in
wildlife conservation is one of the most
exciting dynamic interesting and
rewarding roles you can ever have the
idea that I want to share with you all
is that there is a role for everyone in
wildlife conservation there are few
things more important in the world today
than what you were doing here these
inspirational words from Sir David
Attenborough are written on the living
wall when you enter the Sir David
Attenborough building which is home to
the Cambridge conservation initiative
and ten of the world’s leading
biodiversity conservation organisations
it always inspires me when I walk
through those doors and leaves me
excited and it’s that excitement that
I’d like to share with you all today and
I hope that you all leave here empowered
to help protect the natural world – to
kick off I want to demonstrate the value
of nature agriculture tourism fishing
fishing which by the ways were 300
billion u.s. dollars to global GDP
medicines energy clean water there are
all examples of nature sustaining our
economy and our welfare nature is the
very basis of our welfare an economy and
it’s critical that we manage it
correctly men wanted for hazardous
journey small wages bitter cold long
months of complete darkness constant
danger safe return doubtful honor and
recognition in case of success sometimes
I think I’m describing my current job
but this is an advert
some of you might recognize that Sir
Ernest Shackleton placed in the times in
1914 what was to follow was one of the
greatest survival stories of all time
and an example of inspirational
leadership in adversity so how does this
connect to conservation well five or
nearly six years ago now I was invited
to skip her a project an expedition that
was part of a Discovery Channel
documentary that was going to retrace
Sir Ernest Shackleton’s voyage 100 years
after it first occurred we were going to
use a replica boat such as the one you
see here and replicas kit but we were
also going to do was document climate
change in the intervening years it was
simple stuff it was what I would call
citizen science so looking for instance
of how far the glaciers had retreated
during that time for those of you
wondering this this is me how I might
have looked a hundred years ago stepping
back in time though and seeing firsthand
the impact of climate change really
changed me too and during the expedition
we raised funds for an organization
called fauna and flora international FFI
a biodiversity conservation organization
protecting critically endangered species
and habitats and to cut a long story
short I came back to the UK and had a
lot of conversations with the CEO bother
him for a long time eventually he
offered me a role promoting the
organization and our global program of
work which spans 47 countries and the
organization has been in existence for a
hundred and fifteen years the role that
I have is mainly in a suit working the
boardrooms and conferences forums but
but sometimes I got out in the field and
here I’m tagging a critically endangered
Antiguan racer snake I also get to visit
some of the most amazing projects all
over the world and I’ve been with FFI
now for five years but my background is
actually I’m an engineer I’ve worked in
finance and probably or in fact
definitely more interestingly I was also
a professional offshore sailor for ten
years competing in events such as the
Volvo Ocean Race in 2008 so I’ve had a
wide-ranging career but I am definitely
no zoologist I didn’t
in Africa I don’t know the Latin names
of any plants and well I suppose what I
am is I’m a passionate advocate for the
importance of protecting the natural
world and there are actually lots of
conservationists like me that come
without formal training of course many
of us in fact most of us are zoologist
psychologist naturalist primatologists
and fundamentally scientists and yes
many of my colleagues grew up keeping
pet worms and collecting snail shells
and yes many of them love hugging trees
but hey nowadays even I enjoy doing that
with my son
even if I am a paper conservationist
I’ll come back to that but before we get
too comfortable I think we all need a
dose of reality in 2013 20,000 wild
elephants were killed the lion
population is down 40% in the past 20
years and there are only 3,000 tigers
left in the wild
this iconic species could become extinct
within our lifetime in the last 10 years
seven and a half thousand African rhinos
have been poached a thousand Rhino were
poached in 2017 in 2010 the Western
black rhino sadly became extinct and the
last male northern white rhino died in
March
why all this slaughter well rhino ivory
is now worth in excess of sixty thousand
US dollars per pound
that’s more than diamonds and as a
consequence the poaching operations have
become more slick they’ve become more
advanced and what we need is we need
military personnel leading experts in
combat in tracking and in protecting
these wildlife to work alongside our
Rangers and our scouts no more so than
in the Virunga National Park who expands
DRC Rwanda and Uganda and is home to the
critically endangered and iconic
mountain gorillas but it’s also home to
militia and rebel outfits remnants of
Congo civil war hiding out there are
also poaching and criminal gangs and
it’s probably the most dangerous place
in the world for conservationists to
work a hundred and seven
Wildlife Rangers have lost their lives
there in the past 20 years and globally
over a thousand Rangers have lost their
lives in the last 15 years protecting
wildlife but it’s not just on the ground
that we must fight it’s also in the
boardrooms and the courtrooms
conservationists don’t just protect
megafauna we also work with mining
giants we work with organizations that
have the pent potential to cause
enormous damage such as here in Cambodia
where forests are being wiped out and
the real ways are being polluted what we
need is people who understand these
businesses we need environmental impact
assessment specialists we need business
specialists and strategists we need
lawyers and fundamentally we need people
who understand these businesses and
prepared to work within them or with
them this is a paper and pulp
manufacturing plant in Sumatra is owned
and operated by a company called April
one of Asia’s largest paper and pulp
manufacturers and they are responsible
for decimating huge swaths of forests
across Sumatra but they’ve realized the
error of their ways and they’re now
solely reliant on plantation timber and
our role with them is to maximize the
potential of the remaining forests and
to use these plantations to make
wildlife corridors crucial corridors
that allow what wildlife is left to roam
free
I suppose in summary we’ve realized that
to have impact we have to engage with
the people that have the potential to
cause the most damage so this is a lot
of negative chat and what I want to do
now is share two stories of hope with
you the first is the international
gorilla conservation program just over
30 years ago there was a lady called
Dian Fossey he was living with the
gorillas and she realized they were at a
critical point there were only about 300
left and their habitat was being wiped
out so who did she call David
Attenborough David came back came down
and saw for himself a shot film he went
back to the UK and to cut a long story
short the international gorilla
conservation program IG CP was formed
it’s a collaboration between FF I and
WUF and the story goes a little like
this if you protect the forest you
protect the critical habitat that the
gorillas need you also protect the
watershed which gives fertile lands
which means you can run sustainable
agriculture programs alongside
ecotourism this gorilla tourism which is
now worth in excess of 200 million US
dollars a year and amazingly it’s the
single biggest contributor to randa’s
GDP remember it’s a very small country
but the best news of all there are now
over a thousand mountain gorillas living
there and the other thing it brings
enormous pride to the local communities
employment and in the area that’s been
through so many troubles in its recent
history the second story is very
different it’s about two twins I met six
months ago now these are very
intelligent and worldly guys and what
sets them apart is they come from
enormous privilege
they’ve always been interested in nature
but they’re not conservationists they’ve
never really been to Africa they never
experienced the savanna grasslands and
they’ve never crossed an ocean they
certainly didn’t keep pet worms and
collects now shells but the thing is
they loved Sir David Attenborough and
one day as only people like this can do
they decided you know what this guy
makes sense we’re going to write to him
and ask what he can do and again to cut
a long story short so David introduced
me to them and I took them to Africa to
see our major projects which included
the iconic mountain gorillas they’ve
lifted the lid and Africa has got under
their skin they’ve seen heard and felt
what real nature is like and we now have
two new lifelong conservationists who
come with power influence and
significant resources that they’re
making available to help us in this
battle now these are good news stories
that I believe we should celebrate and
we should celebrate them together this
is a tower of giraffes by the way
because collaboration is key to success
there are many examples within the NGO
world but I just want to quickly pick up
on something called wild labs it’s a
community of conservationists
technologists engineers data scientists
changemakers and what they do is they
get together and they share ideas they
share technological innovation tools and
they’re coming up with new solutions to
age-old conservation problems
in short the conservation world is
recruiting for new skills so who else do
we need well we need people who in suits
who can talk a bit better than me but
but I really think that we need to maybe
follow the lead of men like Shackleton
we need to explore new areas we need to
summon our spirit of adventure and we
need to take this battle to the
frontline wherever that may be
we need to gently guide at educate
people who do not yet understand the
value of nature many years ago I heard
Sir David Attenborough talking about
real conservationists and paper
conservationists he was actually
describing the incredible credentials of
my boss what he inadvertently did was
raise the question of whether you need
to be out chasing poachers wrangling
Crocs or working with somach on Tigers
such as this amazing species there’s
only 400 of them left in the world to
call yourself a real conservationist
well I think we all know the answer is
that both are critical and what matters
is the effort the passion and the
purpose that you go about your job with
so to sum up there is a lot of
negativity out there there is nothing
the world’s media loves more but I
believe there are chinks of light we’ve
heard today from leaders across all
sorts of different sectors but if we get
together and we work together and we ask
ourselves some deep questions and we
look at our priorities and how far ahead
we’re thinking I believe we can make
real progress and not just in the
conservation world of course we need
scientists but we also need engineers
lawyers accountants soldiers language
experts sales and marketing experts
branding experts there is a role for
pretty much anyone in the world of
wildlife conservation and we need to
remember that nature is the very basis
of our welfare and economy and we cannot go on taking without paying back
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