Rewilding the World with Ben Goldsmith

“The first time I saw a tiger pugmark in Cauvery landscape I was totally thrilled, I can’t explain the thrill and the joy I had. That’s what you all work and survive for, right?”

Sanjay Gubbi hit headlines six years ago after he was attacked by a leopard that had strayed on to the grounds of a school. Despite being seriously injured, Sanjay has made a full recovery and is very vocal about the problems that a loss of habitat is having on animals such as leopards.

Sanjay and his team at the Holematthi Nature Foundation are working with local communities to establish safe habitat and corridors for leopards and other iconic Indian wildlife across the country's southern states.

Join rewilding enthusiast and financier Ben Goldsmith as he speaks to environmental trail blazers from all corners of the globe.

Recent climate science seems to paint a picture of despair with irreparable damage being done to our natural world. But there are rays of hope. Across the planet people are carrying out astonishing work, returning large areas of land and oceans back to their former glory.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

Text Rewilding the World here. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if there are any rewilding projects you would love Ben to feature in future episodes.

The Devon Environment Foundation (DEF) is on a mission to accelerate nature restoration across Devon.

Devon’s beautiful natural landscapes are under growing pressure from farming, housing development, and sewage, plastic, and other pollution.

Grassroots nature restoration offers an inspiring, cost-effective response.

We raise money from people and businesses who love Devon, directing it where it delivers the greatest benefit for local nature.

We'd love to know what you think of the podcast. Do you have suggestions for guests, stories or topics you'd like to hear more about? To help us develop the show please consider taking a couple of minutes to complete our listener survey. Thank you very much if you've already done so, it's much appreciated. 

“What we need more than anything now from our landscape is carbon sequestration, flood risk reduction, biodiversity improvement and all those other so-called public goods.”

The Lake District is an iconic landscape loved by millions and people traveling from all over the world to revel in its beauty. It’s the land of Beatrix Potter, Wordsworth and one of the country’s most ambitious rewilding projects. 

Lee Schofield is an author and head of RSPB Haweswater in the Lakes, a place which incorporates a huge variety of ecosystems from ancient woodlands, a reservoir and two traditional hillside farms. Luke is spearheading a project to create a landscape of thriving uplands wildlife alongside sustainable farming.

Join rewilding enthusiast and financier Ben Goldsmith as he speaks to environmental trail blazers from all corners of the globe.

Recent climate science seems to paint a picture of despair with irreparable damage being done to our natural world. But there are rays of hope. Across the planet people are carrying out astonishing work, returning large areas of land and oceans back to their former glory.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach. 

Text Rewilding the World here. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if there are any rewilding projects you would love Ben to feature in future episodes.

The Devon Environment Foundation (DEF) is on a mission to accelerate nature restoration across Devon.

Devon’s beautiful natural landscapes are under growing pressure from farming, housing development, and sewage, plastic, and other pollution.

Grassroots nature restoration offers an inspiring, cost-effective response.

We raise money from people and businesses who love Devon, directing it where it delivers the greatest benefit for local nature.

We'd love to know what you think of the podcast. Do you have suggestions for guests, stories or topics you'd like to hear more about? To help us develop the show please consider taking a couple of minutes to complete our listener survey. Thank you very much if you've already done so, it's much appreciated. 

“Even in ten years we changed the entire ecosystem in Gökova Bay and fisheries.” 

The world’s oceans have been depleted of many important species through overfishing. Removing parts of the sea’s ecosystem and the introduction of invasive species can have far reaching consequences both in and on the water.

Zafer Kizilkaya is an award winning conservationist. In 2012 he founded the Mediterranean Conservation Society which built and oversaw Turkey’s first community-managed Marine Protected Area. These MPAs have now expanded along the Turquoise Coast and have seen balance returning to their ecosystems. Zafer also helped to reduce the number of invasive species by encouraging local fishermen to catch lionfish and rabbitfish, and for local fine-dining chefs to include them on the menus in their restaurants.

Join rewilding enthusiast and financier Ben Goldsmith as he speaks to environmental trail blazers from all corners of the globe.

Recent climate science seems to paint a picture of despair with irreparable damage being done to our natural world. But there are rays of hope. Across the planet people are carrying out astonishing work, returning large areas of land and oceans back to their former glory.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach. 

Text Rewilding the World here. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if there are any rewilding projects you would love Ben to feature in future episodes.

The Devon Environment Foundation (DEF) is on a mission to accelerate nature restoration across Devon.

Devon’s beautiful natural landscapes are under growing pressure from farming, housing development, and sewage, plastic, and other pollution.

Grassroots nature restoration offers an inspiring, cost-effective response.

We raise money from people and businesses who love Devon, directing it where it delivers the greatest benefit for local nature.

We'd love to know what you think of the podcast. Do you have suggestions for guests, stories or topics you'd like to hear more about? To help us develop the show please consider taking a couple of minutes to complete our listener survey. Thank you very much if you've already done so, it's much appreciated. 

“Affric Highlands is an area of landscape between Loch Ness and the west coast of Scotland, looking over to the Isle of Skye. It’s about 500,000 acres so it’s like a small country.”

Scotland’s fabled highlands are not what we think they are. Once upon a time the great Caledonian forests stretched from coast to coast, famed for its wildness and size. It teemed with wildlife and large animals like wolves, bears and lynx. Now, so much of what was once there has gone.

In this episode Ben Goldsmith is joined by Steve Micklewright from Trees for Life. They, and organisations like them, are working to reinstate wild forest in the Highlands and build a new economy around wildlife and nature tourism.

Ben Goldsmith is a rewilding enthusiast and activist based in the UK. In this podcast he is joined by people behind some of the most exciting and ambitious rewilding projects around the world.

Every year we hear stories about wildlife being destroyed. However, there are rays of hope as across the globe people are working to give nature a hand to recover and rejuvenate.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

Text Rewilding the World here. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if there are any rewilding projects you would love Ben to feature in future episodes.

The Devon Environment Foundation (DEF) is on a mission to accelerate nature restoration across Devon.

Devon’s beautiful natural landscapes are under growing pressure from farming, housing development, and sewage, plastic, and other pollution.

Grassroots nature restoration offers an inspiring, cost-effective response.

We raise money from people and businesses who love Devon, directing it where it delivers the greatest benefit for local nature.

We'd love to know what you think of the podcast. Do you have suggestions for guests, stories or topics you'd like to hear more about? To help us develop the show please consider taking a couple of minutes to complete our listener survey. Thank you very much if you've already done so, it's much appreciated. 

“When I see things like the crossing that’s just going in north of Los Angeles for mountain lions, bobcats and other species it’s a sign to me that humanity finally gets that it’s impacting nature and, essentially, impacting us.”

The shorthand definition of rewilding is the ‘Three Cs’; Core areas, Carnivores, and Corridors.

Jodi Hilty is president and chief scientist of Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, one of the largest wildlife corridor creating projects in the world.

Jodi and her colleagues are working to piece together habitat along 3000km of the western side of North America. They envision an interconnected system of wild lands and waters stretching from Yellowstone in the US to Canada’s Yukon Territory, which works for both people and nature.

Ben Goldsmith is a rewilding enthusiast and activist based in the UK. In this podcast he is joined by people behind some of the most exciting and ambitious rewilding projects around the world.

Every year we hear stories about wildlife being destroyed. However, there are rays of hope as across the globe people are working to give nature a hand to recover and rejuvenate.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

Text Rewilding the World here. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if there are any rewilding projects you would love Ben to feature in future episodes.

The Devon Environment Foundation (DEF) is on a mission to accelerate nature restoration across Devon.

Devon’s beautiful natural landscapes are under growing pressure from farming, housing development, and sewage, plastic, and other pollution.

Grassroots nature restoration offers an inspiring, cost-effective response.

We raise money from people and businesses who love Devon, directing it where it delivers the greatest benefit for local nature.

We'd love to know what you think of the podcast. Do you have suggestions for guests, stories or topics you'd like to hear more about? To help us develop the show please consider taking a couple of minutes to complete our listener survey. Thank you very much if you've already done so, it's much appreciated. 

“As Kazakhstan became part of the Soviet Union a whole series of very large transformations took place. 45 million hectares of land within Kazakhstan was simply ploughed under the Virgin Lands campaign.”

Mark Day is from the RSPB and part of the team delivering a project covering 180 million acres in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. The Altyn Dala, an area the size of France and Germany combined, is a huge grassland that once may have rivalled the Serengeti.

The Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative has been working for almost 20 years to save the critically endangered saiga antelope and establish new protected areas. Last year, its success received recognition from the United Nations, which named the project among its first 10 World Restoration Flagships.

Ben Goldsmith is a rewilding enthusiast and activist based in the UK. In this podcast he is joined by people behind some of the most exciting and ambitious rewilding projects around the world.

Every year we hear stories about wildlife being destroyed. However, there are rays of hope as across the globe people are working to give nature a hand to recover and rejuvenate.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

Text Rewilding the World here. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if there are any rewilding projects you would love Ben to feature in future episodes.

The Devon Environment Foundation (DEF) is on a mission to accelerate nature restoration across Devon.

Devon’s beautiful natural landscapes are under growing pressure from farming, housing development, and sewage, plastic, and other pollution.

Grassroots nature restoration offers an inspiring, cost-effective response.

We raise money from people and businesses who love Devon, directing it where it delivers the greatest benefit for local nature.

We'd love to know what you think of the podcast. Do you have suggestions for guests, stories or topics you'd like to hear more about? To help us develop the show please consider taking a couple of minutes to complete our listener survey. Thank you very much if you've already done so, it's much appreciated. 

“We call it rooting your identity. That really brings people close to the ground and feeling powerful and connected.”

In this episode Ben Goldsmith speaks to Astrid Vargas from Inspiration 4 Action. Astrid has been part of a plan to save one of the rarest big cats from extinction; the Iberian lynx. It was previously thought there were only 90 individuals left.

Thanks to the efforts of Astrid and others, a captive breeding programme has succeeded in boosting the numbers of this extraordinary rare cat to almost 1700 in the wild today.

Ben Goldsmith is a rewilding enthusiast and activist based in the UK. In this podcast he is joined by people behind some of the most exciting and ambitious rewilding projects around the world.

Every year we hear stories about wildlife being destroyed. However, there are rays of hope as across the globe people are working to give nature a hand to recover and rejuvenate.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.  

Text Rewilding the World here. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if there are any rewilding projects you would love Ben to feature in future episodes.

The Devon Environment Foundation (DEF) is on a mission to accelerate nature restoration across Devon.

Devon’s beautiful natural landscapes are under growing pressure from farming, housing development, and sewage, plastic, and other pollution.

Grassroots nature restoration offers an inspiring, cost-effective response.

We raise money from people and businesses who love Devon, directing it where it delivers the greatest benefit for local nature.

We'd love to know what you think of the podcast. Do you have suggestions for guests, stories or topics you'd like to hear more about? To help us develop the show please consider taking a couple of minutes to complete our listener survey. Thank you very much if you've already done so, it's much appreciated. 

“If you combine all of these reserves together they constitute an area of about 200,000 square kilometres... it’s probably one of the world’s largest terrestrial protected areas.”

Saudi Arabia is huge - almost ten times the size of Britain - and is well known for its deserts. However, once upon a time it had savannahs akin to those in East Africa, where once lived ostriches and striped hyenas and large predators like leopards and cheaters. A lot of that habitat has now gone following the arrival of motorcars, guns and livestock.

In this episode Ben Goldsmith talks to Dr Stephen Browne who is in charge of a huge programme of wildlife reintroduction and rehabilitation at the Royal Commission for AlUla. In 2023 it plans to release more than 1500 animals including oryx, gazelles and ibex into its reserves.

Ben Goldsmith is a rewilding enthusiast and activist based in the UK. In this podcast he is joined by people behind some of the most exciting and ambitious rewilding projects around the world.

Every year we hear stories about wildlife being destroyed. However, there are rays of hope as across the globe people are working to give nature a hand to recover and rejuvenate.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach. 

Text Rewilding the World here. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if there are any rewilding projects you would love Ben to feature in future episodes.

The Devon Environment Foundation (DEF) is on a mission to accelerate nature restoration across Devon.

Devon’s beautiful natural landscapes are under growing pressure from farming, housing development, and sewage, plastic, and other pollution.

Grassroots nature restoration offers an inspiring, cost-effective response.

We raise money from people and businesses who love Devon, directing it where it delivers the greatest benefit for local nature.

We'd love to know what you think of the podcast. Do you have suggestions for guests, stories or topics you'd like to hear more about? To help us develop the show please consider taking a couple of minutes to complete our listener survey. Thank you very much if you've already done so, it's much appreciated. 

“We really are focused on prioritising those species that are about to blink out. We must make sure that on our watch that doesn’t happen.”

Welcome to a new series of Rewilding the World with Ben Goldsmith. In this first episode Ben speaks to Penny Becker, Vice President of Island Conservation.

Island Conservation works to remove invasive invertebrate species from island ecosystems. Overwhelmingly, the majority of extinctions that have taken place over the last few centuries have occurred on islands. By removing these invasive species it gives an island’s ecosystem a chance of recovery.

Ben Goldsmith is a rewilding enthusiast and activist based in the UK. In this podcast he is joined by people behind some of the most exciting and ambitious rewilding projects around the world.

Every year we hear stories about wildlife being destroyed. However, there are rays of hope as across the globe people are working to give nature a hand to recover and rejuvenate.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach. 

Text Rewilding the World here. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if there are any rewilding projects you would love Ben to feature in future episodes.

The Devon Environment Foundation (DEF) is on a mission to accelerate nature restoration across Devon.

Devon’s beautiful natural landscapes are under growing pressure from farming, housing development, and sewage, plastic, and other pollution.

Grassroots nature restoration offers an inspiring, cost-effective response.

We raise money from people and businesses who love Devon, directing it where it delivers the greatest benefit for local nature.

We'd love to know what you think of the podcast. Do you have suggestions for guests, stories or topics you'd like to hear more about? To help us develop the show please consider taking a couple of minutes to complete our listener survey. Thank you very much if you've already done so, it's much appreciated. 

“We belong here. The challenge is can we be here without impacting detrimentally on the rest of the ecosystem. And the simple answer is yes we can; we know what to do and we know how to do it.”

In this special episode join Ben Goldsmith as he speaks to conservationist and author Isabella Tree and Director of Rewilding Britain, Alastair Driver, about the concept of rewilding.

Rewilding as a term means different things to different people, and can sometimes be viewed negatively.

In this podcast the three talk about their own passion for rewilding and tackle some hard-hitting questions - such as how are we going to feed ourselves if we hand back some of our farmland to nature?

Ben Goldsmith is a rewilding enthusiast and activist based in the UK. In this podcast he’s joined the people behind some of the most exciting and dramatic rewilding projects on earth.

It’s easy to feel gloomy; climate science gets scarier and we lose more and more nature every year. However, the natural world is incredible and there are rays of hope and examples of habitats and wildlife returning and flourishing when it’s given a helping hand.

Season two of Rewilding The World is out in September 2023.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach. 

Text Rewilding the World here. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if there are any rewilding projects you would love Ben to feature in future episodes.

The Devon Environment Foundation (DEF) is on a mission to accelerate nature restoration across Devon.

Devon’s beautiful natural landscapes are under growing pressure from farming, housing development, and sewage, plastic, and other pollution.

Grassroots nature restoration offers an inspiring, cost-effective response.

We raise money from people and businesses who love Devon, directing it where it delivers the greatest benefit for local nature.

We'd love to know what you think of the podcast. Do you have suggestions for guests, stories or topics you'd like to hear more about? To help us develop the show please consider taking a couple of minutes to complete our listener survey. Thank you very much if you've already done so, it's much appreciated.