The Lookfar Podcast: Voices from the Wild

Tucked away in the Mata Atlântica, the once great forests on the Atlantic coast of Brazil, is a small but ever growing reserve in the Guapiaçu valley barely two hours’ drive from Rio de Janeiro. Reserva Ecológica De Guapiaçu, or REGUA, is one of the most successful ecological restoration projects Lookfar has encountered, and this week we’re thrilled to have Nicholas Locke, REGUA’s president and founder, join us on The Lookfar Podcast to talk about how he acquires old farmlands and fields teams to find seeds, grow seedlings, and plant trees on degraded landscapes. Nicholas also shares insights on how restored ecosystems provide valuable basic services to surrounding communities, such as cleaner water, cleaner air, and greater resilience in the face of natural disasters and other extreme events. There are few people in conservation who brim with more optimism than Nicholas, and in hearing about REGUA and its work, it’s not hard to understand why.

Available on Spotify, Apple, Google, and other podcast platforms. Search “Lookfar” and you’ll find it!

Martin Schaefer is the CEO of Fundación Jocotoco, an Ecuadorian nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving the extraordinary biodiversity of Ecuador. Martin joins us on The Lookfar Podcast: Voices from the Wild to talk about Jocotoco’s origins, the remarkable network of protected reserves it has built over the past two decades, and the close ties it fosters with local communities. Martin also provides an update on Jocotoco’s Chocó Campaign, launched last year in partnership with Lookfar Conservation, which seeks to establish a new, fully contiguous protected area in one of the most biodiverse and imperiled regions of the world that is roughly the size of Yosemite National Park.

Available on Spotify, Apple, Google, and other podcast platforms. Search “Lookfar” and you’ll find it!

Mark Plotkin is an ethnobotanist, author, and activist. The founder and president of the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), Mark joins us this week on The Lookfar Podcast: Voices from the Wild to talk about his life and work in the Amazon -- studying indigenous knowledge and empowering indigenous communities to preserve their heritage and protect their lands. Mark is the author of Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice and, this past year, The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know. He also has his own truly awesome podcast, The Plants of the Gods.

Our national parks have been called America's best idea. The National Park Trust is one of America's best nonprofit organizations -- working tirelessly to preserve our national parks and connect kids across the country to nearby parks and other outdoor areas. This week, Grace Lee, Executive Director of the National Park Trust, joins us on The Lookfar Podcast to talk about the Park Trust's work acquiring privately-held lands inside and alongside national parks, educating millions of children nationwide through its Buddy Bison and Kids To Parks Day programs, and recognizing leadership in government and in the private sector in support of national parks.

The extraordinary Kris Tompkins joins us this week on The Lookfar Podcast: Voices from the Wild. Kris talks with Lookfar founder Scott Stone about her time as CEO of Patagonia, Inc., and how coming from a business background shaped her approach to conservation. Kris also talks about the nearly 30 years she, along with her late husband Doug Tompkins, devoted to rewilding locally extirpated species, including the jaguar, giant anteater, and green-winged macaws, while protecting more than 14.5 million acres and creating 13 national parks in Chile and Argentina.

This week on The Lookfar Podcast: Voices from the Wild, Scott Stone of Lookfar Conservation talks to Jerry Toth, Co-Founder of the Third Millennium Alliance, about his nonprofit organization’s remarkable origins in the Pacific Equatorial Forests of Western Ecuador and how he is creating a more sustainable future in one of the most imperiled and biodiverse regions of the world.