Nature Solutionaries

There aren’t many places on Earth you can call unexplored. The Darién Gap in Panama is one of them. This mountainous, densely forested area, which is often used by refugees to cross from South to North America, is a place where you won’t find any roads, shops or hospitals. When you’re there, your survival depends on you.

As it happens, it’s also one of the world’s most beautiful and biodiverse places, with more biodiversity per square foot than the Amazon despite being much smaller. Plus, it has one of the highest carbon stocks in the world.

Home to venomous snakes, poisonous insects and dangerous rivers, the Darién Gap is one of the riskiest places to be. And that’s exactly where Alexandra Climent, a grassroots conservationist and artist, has decided to do her life’s work.

Despite its remoteness, even the Darién Gap is falling prey to fast deforestation and habitat fragmentation. Alexandra has been working with indigenous communities to buy up degraded land and reforesting it with native trees. 

The goal is clear: to create a 5,000-hectare forest corridor for wildlife that will connect reforested areas with protected areas and serve as an important carbon sink.

Listen to Alexandra’s story to discover why protecting this place matters, and why now. 

Alexandra Climent is a grassroots environmentalist, Founder of Endangered Rainforest Rescue, and an artist who makes beautiful furniture and sculpture from fallen trees. 

Omani feminist and climate change activist Rumaitha Al Busaidi shares her unique insights and tips on how to pursue your dreams and negotiate for a better life.

When Rhett Butler created a website called Mongabay 25 years ago, he had no idea it would become one of the most popular webs about conservation. 

But it’s no wonder it did.

For years, Rhett Butler worked 100 hours per week. 

He wrote thousands of articles about rainforests and published tens of thousands of photos from his travels.

He lived modestly from his savings and often heard comments, like "You are crazy for not chasing money.”

But his hard effort has paid off. Nowadays, Mongabay has five offices, 90 in-house staff members and 1,000 correspondents in 80 countries.

Together with Rhett we talk about:

➡️ why he never gave up

➡️ how he avoided comparing himself with wealthier peers in Silicon Valley

➡️ how to focus on what matters and less about money, and MUCH MORE

When Reinhard Nyandire was small, he lived in a mud hut and ate one meal per day. But that never stopped him from dreaming he would one day become a wildlife conservationist. 

Ignoring the teasing from his friends, he went on to study Environmental Planning and became a successful conservationist. 

Thanks to his social media campaigns, locals began flocking into Nairobi National Park and fell in love with it. Together, they were able to stop urban developers from destroying the park.

Nowadays, he consults for international environmental organizations and continues fighting for climate justice and land restoration under the helm of Justdiggit.

When Reinhard Nyandire was small, he lived in a mud hut and ate one meal per day. But that never stopped him from dreaming he would one day become a wildlife conservationist. 

Ignoring the teasing from his friends, he went on to study Environmental Planning and became a successful conservationist. 

Thanks to his social media campaigns, locals began flocking into Nairobi National Park and fell in love with it. Together, they were able to stop urban developers from destroying the park.

Nowadays, he consults for international environmental organizations and continues fighting for climate justice and land restoration under the helm of Justdiggit.

When Ayesha Amin, a renowned Pakistani women’s

“I felt so embarrassed that I just wanted to disappear,” she says. Her shame, however, turned into curiosity and this moment helped Amin realize that talking about sex and reproduction shouldn’t be taboo.

In 2018, Amin founded the nonprofit Baithak:

Together we talk about

To learn more about Ayesha Amin’s work, check out Baithak’s website, Baithak’s Instagram account or Amin’s Linkedin profile.

TIP: Help de-stigmatize menstruation by talking

Even though child marriage might seem like a thing of the past for some of us, one in five girls globally are still married off under the age of 18.

This means that for millions of these child brides, their childhood, education and future have been stolen forever. Uneducated women often end up having worse health and economic outcomes and their families are more vulnerable to climate change.

To free girls from this nightmarish practice, Ugandan activist Joan Kembabazi has been challenging traditional beliefs in her community and advocating for girls‘ education and empowerment.

In this interview, Joan talks about why child marriage happens, what it‘s like to be a child bride and what needs to be done to eliminate this practice.

Joan Kembabazi is the Founder & CEO of the Gufasha Girls Foundation. She campaigns against child marriage and advocates for girls‘ education in rural communities in central Uganda and beyond.

Subscribe to future episodes of Nature Solutionaries on Spotify or on my website https://veronikaperkova.com/

If we truly want to liberate women, access to contraception is just the tip of the iceberg. We also need to feel comfortable talking about our bodies, our sexuality and sensuality, menstruation, post-partum depression, parental burnout and menopause. Because if we feel ashamed or embarrassed about these topics, we’re still being repressed.

That’s just one of many life lessons that Nadine Goodman has learned over the last 40 years running CASA, an impactful nonprofit that helps 80,000 people in central Mexico push reproductive health and rights forward every year. In this revealing interview, we talk about what needs to happen for women to be truly liberated and why it’s a good idea to take a holistic view of the health and well-being of women, whole communities, and the environment.

To have a large family, and at least one son, are such strong cultural and religious norms in Nigeria that when women don’t meet them they’re often considered failures. Not only is this unfair to women, it’s also becoming nearly impossible to provide for a big family in Nigeria, where poverty is rampant and the cost of living has recently tripled. 

Chidera Benoit, a teacher and Executive Director of ⁠Population Explosion Awareness Initiative⁠, explains why it’s essential to change harmful patriarchal norms, broaden access to voluntary family planning and open up a conversation about sustainable population in Nigeria whose population is expected to double in the next two decades. 

Imagine that you were a 14-year old girl, and instead of chatting with friends or monitoring Instagram, you’d be married off to an elderly man and expected to run a household.

Imagine that you gave birth to your first child, a cute baby girl, and instead of receiving cheerful reactions, people would start crying and feeling sorry for you. 

Imagine that throughout your lifetime you would have to give birth to 9 children, undergo several miscarriages and see a few of your children die. 

THIS is not just a bad dream. It’s a daily reality for many girls and women in the northwestern region of Pakistan where men rule with an iron fist and where women aren’t even aware of their rights. In this revealing interview, two human rights activists from The Awakening, Erfaan Hussein Babak and Neelum Rahim, share their experiences of breaking taboos and empowering women in a strictly patriarchal society.