Welcome to Conservation Voices…

Conservation Voices was conceived from an idea of doing a bit of good in the world. It began as an idea pitched to a very good friend of mine and to be honest, even to me it sounded a little crazy. But my friend is an objective thinker; “why don’t you try this…” he said, or “delete that…” and by the end of the very long phone call we were both very excited about the potential.

Scarlet Ibis heading to roost. Photograph by M J Bungard.

Conservation for me, has always been a passion, I guess that’s why I stuck at it for 20 plus years on hideously low (or no) pay and am still here. I have a love of the natural world; it fascinates, it captivates and from that is generated a sonorous sense of responsibility. There are multiple arguments as to why we should protect biodiversity. For instance, ecosystems and species can be valued, a real financial cost. Ecosystem services have value in terms of the benefit they bring. But much more profoundly, nature has an intrinsic value, it shifts our perspective of our place in the world. I challenge you not to feel an emotional nirvana when confronted with breath-taking views or feel your soul stir when the great play of natural world is performed in front of your eyes.

We are not distant from nature, we do not exist on some higher level, we are but a single thread of an intricately woven network.

THAT is what drives me.

When I first set out on the conservation path there were for me, two iconic figures; Sir David Attenborough and Gerald Durrell. However, looking back I would have loved to have been more aware of the work others were doing. This knowledge would have helped me so much when sat in front of a careers advisor. Unfortunately, conservation science was not as widely recognised then as it is now and the internet didn’t really exist. I didn’t even have an email account until I did my MSc. Ahem. The upshot was that it was supremely difficult to convey to the careers advisor exactly what I wanted to do, when I had no real examples. Because I like animals, it was recommended that I worked in a kennels, which demonstrated to me how little conservation was understood at the time; it just wasn’t where I was going. Conservation has now changed significantly with a myriad of options open to budding conservation biologists, and the routes into the career are multiple and varied.

Today, the conservation landscape is scattered with a handful high profile names, although many more than when I started. Perhaps the increase in names is to do with my own awareness and experience of the topic, although I feel it is more connected to increased prominence of conservation science - but underneath, sit a growing army of conservation biologists and they deserve recognition, and promotion, for the work they do. Moreover, we all need to hear of conservation success stories; we are plagued with images of doom and gloom, unprecedented species loss, climate change and rapidly disappearing habitats. Don’t get me wrong, we need to know that these threats are absolute, jeopardising not only species longevity and key habitats, but our own survival. Furthermore, we really, really need to know what does and doesn’t work in conservation, but there are other forums for this, such as Conservation Evidence. But we equally need to know that somewhere, the fightback is succeeding and who the people are spearheading the campaign. Who should be inspiring the next generation. From this, Conservation Voices was born.

Conservation Voices is about profiling those who work in conservation, often in small NGOs (Non-Government Organisations) or occasionally, individually. If you are one of these voices or perhaps know someone who is inspirational, then please get in touch.