Wild Voices Project

This episode is a best of, in which I’ve picked out some of my favourite parts of the conversations I had in 2017. In the following order (just so as you know who is speaking) I speak to Jonny Rankin, turtle dove pilgrim, about using wildlife to achieve personal and physical change; author Stephen Moss covers some of his most special birding memories; Dame Fiona Reynolds talks about the importance of beauty in making conservation happen; Debbie Pain and then Annette Fayet talk about the power of science to help us unlock undiscovered secrets in the natural world; Paul Rosolie describes why he wanted to travel unaccompanied into the uncharted depths of the Peruvian rainforest; Alan Rabinowitz recalls his childhood promise (now fulfilled many times over) to save big cats; wildlife photographer Tom Mason talks about how to set yourself apart as an artist; my grandfather, Tony Paine, describes an idyllic childhood in the countryside while Britain fought the Second World War; Ben Eagle and Pete Cooper talk with me about the hot topic of raptor persecution; and finally Chloe Revill describes how her immersive Change in Nature retreats help people reconnect with nature and might even motivate them to do more to save it.

I’ve already got some very exciting conversations planned for 2018, so I really hope that you keep listening. Thank you so much if you’ve listened in 2017. But for the next few days have a restful holiday period and I hope you manage to fit in some wild time outdoors with your loved ones.

This conversation is with my good friend and wildlife photographer, Tom Mason. We cover not only some of the specifics about techniques and equipment he uses but also his strategies for learning his art of photography and how Tom plans projects and delivers incredible wildlife photos that stand out from what you might have seen elsewhere. Tom’s approach to learning from masters of other artistic fields and for building a personal brand for his work is also I think really useful for anyone else interested in developing their photography.

Having worked on numerous assignments both in the UK and overseas, at just the age of 23, he is also a regular contributor to numerous publications such as BBC Wildlife Magazine, Practical Photography and numerous other titles.

He is a well known blogger for Wex Photographic, writing articles and presenting a range of videos for their YouTube channel. He is a regular lecturer, having presented at the Birdfair, Photography Show and Scottish Nature Photography festival as well as for numerous organisations and educational institutions. His images have been awarded internationally, recently gaining a Highly commended in the National Geographic Por el Planeta prize.

Tom has a huge passion for the environment and sharing the stories of the natural world through photography, hoping to positively engage people in order to help protect wildlife for the future.

As a instructor his aims are to help you focus your photographic vision, to aid you in developing your own style, showcasing a range of techniques to equip you with the abilities to come home with a collection of shots you’ll be proud of.

You can see more from Tom’s work on his website www.tommasonphoto.com Tom runs a YouTube Channel where he shares his tips and skills to help others improve their wildlife photography, as well as taking people behind the scenes within his own work. www.youtube.com/tommasonphoto. He is on Twitter @TomMasonPhoto and on Instagram with the same handle.

Chloe Revill is the co-founder of Change in Nature (http://www.changeinnature.org), an organisation that helps people to ‘unwind, reconnect and come alive’ in nature. In this incredible conversation with Chloe we talk about her career working in Government and at the United Nations level on climate change, helping to amplify the voices of small island states and developing countries whose very existence is being put at risk. We talk through the pivot her career took, after a year spent travelling through Africa and spending one week running a camp with 12 bushmen in the Bwabwata National Park in Namibia. We move onto the decision to set up Change in Nature, why she believes this organisation to give people a radical reconnection with nature is so needed, and the skills training she went through in order to be able to ready to begin facilitating retreats for people. And our conversation turns to the magic and wonder she helps people to experience, sharing a feeling that she also experienced during her own childhood growing up on a farm in southern Spain. This is an utterly fascinating conversation and Chloe’s training to tell stories and hold a space for dialogue comes across over the course of this enchanting episode.

Anthony V Paine is a man who has been an inspiration to me from a very early age. In this episode I speak to my grandfather about his childhood growing up in the countryside while experiencing the rationing that was part of the Second World War. From egg-collecting to den-building he recalls an English childhood in the 1930s and 40s. And we cover his fears for the future of the environment, his passion for walking on the hills and growing his own vegetables, as well as how he helped to inspire my own childhood love of wildlife. I hope you enjoy these tales from my grandfather.

This conversation is with two close friends of mine, Peter Cooper and Ben Eagle. They're both members of the A Focus on Nature Committee, the youth nature network, which is how we became friends. They're also amazing young leaders in the conservation sector in their own right. Ben is a young farmer and conservationist whose blog thinkingcountry.com was shortlisted at last year's national blog awards. Ben also runs his own podcast called meet the farmer. Pete is a nature writer and conservationist, a specialist in mammals. And you can find his writing at petecooperwildlife.com and he's also recently begun his own podcast about rewilding.

These two were staying with me a few nights ago and so we decided to try a new feature that I'm loosely calling beer and biodiversity. In our conversation we cover a huge range of topics including the need for young farmers and young conservationists to work together more, the recent news on the dramatic decline in insects and the joys of running your own podcast. We hope you enjoy this and apologies if the conversation gets slightly more random and slurred as the night and the beer draw on.

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals.  Find out more about us at  wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

This conversation is with Dr Alan Rabinowitz, Chief Scientist of Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organisation. Dr Rabinowitz has been dubbed by Time magazine "the Indiana Jones of conservation", although as you’ll hear, that’s not how he’d like to be remembered. He has been instrumental in the creation of some of the world’s largest protected zones for big cats, as well as writing a dozen or so books documenting his work and adventures. We talk about his childhood love of big cats, he explains his views on the links between apex predators and diseases such as SARS and Ebola, and he talks about his new project, Journey of the Jaguar, travelling down the spine of the jaguar’s range across two continents and through 18 countries. He’s done all this and so much more whilst having overcome a severe stutter as a child and despite a diagnosis with leukaemia in 2002. He is one of the world’s leading conservationists and it was a huge privilege to speak to him. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals.  Find out more about us at  wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org

This conversation is with Paul Rosolie, explorer and naturalist, author of 'Mother of God: one man's journey to the uncharted depths of the Amazon rainforest'. We talk about Paul's childhood love of wildlife and his struggles with the education system, his workout regime for staying in shape for the jungle, his state of mind when he ventures on solo expeditions and very close-up encounters with big cats and giant anacondas, as well as his views on the future of conservation. Find out more about Paul at paulrosolie.com.

Wild Voices: The power of science in conservation, Debbie Pain by Matt Williams

Wild Voices: Charting new frontiers in seabird science, Dr Annette Fayet by Matt Williams

Wild Voices: The case for beauty in our lives, Dame Fiona Reynolds by Matt Williams