Aidan Gallagher is a world-renowned actor and singer and also a UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador and one of the youngest ever Goodwill Ambassadors. You can find him at https://www.aidanrgallagher.com and http://www.twitter.com/aidanrgallagher.

This episode and interview are brought to you (with our huge gratitude) by Kate on Conservation (http://www.twitter.comKateonConsrvation and http://www.kateonconservation.com), and was recorded at the Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference in London in 2018.

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at http://www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

This episode is a conversation with James Glancy (https://www.jamesglancy.com/biography and https://twitter.com/jaglancy) who is a host of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, a conservationist who works with Veterans For Wildlife supporting the work of wildlife rangers in many African countries, and a former marine.

In this conversation we talk about a childhood where he felt a passion for nature and picked up a love of diving, how his military expertise has translated into helping rangers defend some of the planet’s most endangered species, and what rewilding means to him.

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

Welcome to another episode of the Wild Voices Project podcast with me, Matt Williams. It has been quite some time since I’ve published an episode - a new house, a new girlfriend, a new dog and a new baby mean that life has been somewhat busy in the past year. So I put the podcast on pause for a while. But we’re back - and to begin with it’s with some episodes recorded around a year ago. So in listening to this episode and some of the upcoming ones please bear in mind that they are around 12 months old and were recorded prior to the coronavirus epidemic. But I believe there’s still huge, timeless value in these conversations.

I hope you and your loved ones are well during this strange and concerning time. Many of us are very privileged by having access to nature and the outdoors right now. And I recognise that both I, and many of my guests, fall into that category. I hope that hearing about wildlife and nature might also provide some solace during this time.

This episode is a cracker - it’s with the so-called ‘godfather of biodiversity’ Professor Thomas Lovejoy. Thomas Lovejoy is a Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation, an expert on climate and biological dynamics in the Amazon, he was previously the biodiversity advisor to the World Bank, and is known for being the first person to coin the word ‘biodiversity’. In this episode, we discuss using high mist nets to catch spine-tailed swifts in the Amazon rainforest, the tipping points caused by fragmentation that could lead to irreversible dieback, and how he keeps his energy levels up for office work and advising decision-makers and achieves an emotional or professional reset at the start of each day.

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

This episode of Wild Voices Project is a special one because I’m talking to Dr David Bullock, who is the National Trust’s Head of Habitat and Species Conservation. On 18 May 2019 David is retiring after over two decades at the Trust. During my first year at the National Trust he has been one of the amazing people who work for the Trust who has made it so enjoyable. He has taught me so much about ecology and wildlife during that time - he’s one of the most knowledgeable people I’ve ever met. He has been so supportive of me as a new person in the Trust and become a true friend. I’m sure I’m not alone within the Trust in saying that I will truly miss David - a person who is full of joy, passion and generosity and always willing to spend some time having a conversation over a coffee.

So publishing this episode is a tribute to David. It’s my way of saying thank you. At the time of recording I didn’t know that David was going to be retiring.

We open with David’s first encounter with “wildlife” - an unforgettable childhood tussle with a goat. We talk about kickstarting natural processes and how important the ‘climate of fear’ created by predators and carnivores can be for the wider ecosystems and landscapes.

We talk about how the National Trust’s approach to looking after nature has changed, and we cover trendy beavers and the Lundy cabbage, and the cabbage’s endemic invertebrate, too.

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

Scott Haber began as a bioengineering student, but transitioned into nature-based mindfulness practice after learning from a woman who was practising traditional Andean ways. Scott then received the Bonderman Fellowship which allowed him to visit traditional, nature-based cultures around the world and learn from them. He now undertakes a unique blend of shared interests, including writing, making films and taking photographs while also leading nature-based mindfulness classes and courses. He’s also practising environmental advocacy, particularly helping the Shuar community in Ecuador protect their land from petrochemical developments and exploitation.

You can find Scott at his website (https://www.scotthaber.com/) and you can find out more about him and links to his work on the 'about’ page of his website (https://www.scotthaber.com/about-me/).

In May 2018 I was lucky enough to be able to join the Treshnish Isles Auk Ringing Group (http://tiarg.org/) on their trip to Lunga. This small, uninhabited island is part of the Treshnish Isles off the west coast of Scotland. But while no people live there, it’s full of thousands and thousands of seabirds.

We were there to survey one seabird in particular: the Manx shearwater. The UK is home to 90% of the world population of ‘manxies’, as they’re also known. This episode is a bit different to normal. It captures some of the sounds of the island, and through conversations with the friends and teammates I worked with also gives an insight into the fieldwork we undertook.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to Turus Mara (https://www.turusmara.com/ and https://twitter.com/Turus_Mara)), the boat company who got us to the islands. The Joint Nature Conservation Committee receive and analyse the data, as do Scottish Natural Heritage, who also cover some of the costs of the trip. And the Hebridean Trust own the islands and grant us access to them.

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

Jo Roberts is Chief Executive of the Wilderness Foundation (https://www.wildernessfoundation.org.uk). She has served as its CEO since 2004. The Foundation works to transform the lives of young people from challenged and challenging backgrounds through wilderness experiences and thereby to demonstrate the value of wilderness. Jo and the Foundation run workshops, mentoring and expeditions at their base in Essex, in Scotland and in South Africa. Disclaimer: since I recorded this conversation with Jo I’ve become one of the Trustees of the Foundation.

Jo grew up in South Africa and trained there as an anthropologist during the period of apartheid. We discuss her upbringing and her early love of wildlife and the outdoors. We talk about the skills she has developed through her experiences in the wilderness. And we talk about some of the questions and techniques she uses to support and challenge the young people she works with, in order to help to change or even radically transform their life paths. Jo is one of the most thoughtful and inspiring people I’ve had the chance to work with (and we have had the chance to work together on a number of projects over the past couple of years) and I’m looking forward to doing more with her and the Foundation in the years to come. I’m hoping, next year, to volunteer to help on one of the expeditions and combine my love of camping and Scotland with helping some of the young people and getting to know the organisation better.

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

Emily Mott (http://www.emilymott.com) is a photographer and environmental activist. She was educated at The Putney School, Dartmouth College and Art Center College of Design. In New York City she worked as a pastry chef and book reviewer before turning to photography. Among her clients have been Rolling Stone magazine, the New Yorker, the Telegraph, Waitrose, Ikea, British Airways and many others. In 2013 Complex.com named her as one of the 25 best travel photographers in the world.

She does pro bono photography work for Friends without Borders, Portsmouth Bangali Community Association and the Rural Refugee Network among others. She lives on a farm in West Sussex with her husband, two children, eight chickens and a cat.

Emily has also been an instrumental figure in the local activist movement to save Markwells Wood from fossil fuel exploration (https://www.markwellswoodwatch.org/).

In this conversation we cover her photography work and her approach to documenting beautiful landscapes and environmental destruction, including in Borneo. We also go into some detail about the risks that fracking poses to our countryside and environment, the planning regulations that apply to it and the tactics that Emily and her fellow activists have used in their local campaign.

You can contact Emily at [email protected].

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

This conversation is with Teleri Fielden (@TeleriFielden), the National Trust and Welsh Young Farmers scholar at Llyndy Isaf farm in Snowdonia. Teleri was recently featured on the BBC’s Snowdonia Shepherdess programme. She looks after a farm on the slopes of the Welsh mountains in Snowdonia. And in this conversation tells us about her experience in this landscape and how farming cattle and sheep can be beneficial for wildlife and conservation.

Teleri’s interest in farming and the outdoors comes from spending time as a child on her grandfather’s farm. She tells us how that turned into her opportunity to take on the scholarship at Llyndy for three years. She also talks about some of her encounters with wildlife in the landscape. And she tells us how skills from marketing roles have helped her in her farming career to date.

This is a very special episode of the Wild Voices Project podcast in collaboration with the Meet the Farmers podcast (http://thinkingcountry.com/meet-the-farmers-podcast) presented by Ben Eagle (@benjy_eagle).

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

Lizzie Daly (http://www.lizziedalywildlife.com/) is a wildlife filmmaker and presenter. You can find her on twitter @_LizzieDaly and her youtube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC20DGpTHgqDlgctp6jDkmZg. Lizzie is a biologist and broadcaster, a wildlife filmmaker both in front of and behind the camera for BBC Earth Unplugged, CBeebies and NatGeo Kids. She’s also the founder of the “Do You Suck” plastic waste campaign in five UK cities.

I met Lizzie at BBC Countryfile Live over the summer and her passion and energy shone through during her talk on stage. I was really lucky to have the chance to speak to her earlier this year at Cardiff public library.

In this conversation we discuss how her early persistence to succeed academically translated into determination to succeed in wildlife filmmaking. We cover the role that technology has played in helping her to develop films for herself and build her career from scratch. We talk about her passion for African elephants and for British wildlife, and share our respective views on puffins and other seabirds. And Lizzie also describes how a past mistake (or what seemed like a mistake at the time during an audition) set her up for future success.

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.