Modern day wildlife conservation | Nick Bubb | TEDxZuriberg

for those of you wondering these are the last two northern white rhinos left in the world and they're both female it's sobering stuff and the only reason I can get so close to them is because they require a 24-hour guard to protect them and they've become used to humans this afternoon I want to remind you all about the value of nature I want to tell you what we can all do to help protect the natural world and while working in wildlife conservation is one of the most exciting dynamic interesting and rewarding roles you can ever have the idea that I want to share with you all is that there is a role for everyone in wildlife conservation there are few things more important in the world today than what you were doing here these inspirational words from Sir David Attenborough are written on the living wall when you enter the Sir David Attenborough building which is home to the Cambridge conservation initiative and ten of the world's leading biodiversity conservation organisations it always inspires me when I walk through those doors and leaves me excited and it's that excitement that I'd like to share with you all today and I hope that you all leave here empowered to help protect the natural world - to kick off I want to demonstrate the value of nature agriculture tourism fishing fishing which by the ways were 300 billion u.s. dollars to global GDP medicines energy clean water there are all examples of nature sustaining our economy and our welfare nature is the very basis of our welfare an economy and it's critical that we manage it correctly men wanted for hazardous journey small wages bitter cold long months of complete darkness constant danger safe return doubtful honor and recognition in case of success sometimes I think I'm describing my current job but this is an advert some of you might recognize that Sir Ernest Shackleton placed in the times in 1914 what was to follow was one of the greatest survival stories of all time and an example of inspirational leadership in adversity so how does this connect to conservation well five or nearly six years ago now I was invited to skip her a project an expedition that was part of a Discovery Channel documentary that was going to retrace Sir Ernest Shackleton's voyage 100 years after it first occurred we were going to use a replica boat such as the one you see here and replicas kit but we were also going to do was document climate change in the intervening years it was simple stuff it was what I would call citizen science so looking for instance of how far the glaciers had retreated during that time for those of you wondering this this is me how I might have looked a hundred years ago stepping back in time though and seeing firsthand the impact of climate change really changed me too and during the expedition we raised funds for an organization called fauna and flora international FFI a biodiversity conservation organization protecting critically endangered species and habitats and to cut a long story short I came back to the UK and had a lot of conversations with the CEO bother him for a long time eventually he offered me a role promoting the organization and our global program of work which spans 47 countries and the organization has been in existence for a hundred and fifteen years the role that I have is mainly in a suit working the boardrooms and conferences forums but but sometimes I got out in the field and here I'm tagging a critically endangered Antiguan racer snake I also get to visit some of the most amazing projects all over the world and I've been with FFI now for five years but my background is actually I'm an engineer I've worked in finance and probably or in fact definitely more interestingly I was also a professional offshore sailor for ten years competing in events such as the Volvo Ocean Race in 2008 so I've had a wide-ranging career but I am definitely no zoologist I didn't in Africa I don't know the Latin names of any plants and well I suppose what I am is I'm a passionate advocate for the importance of protecting the natural world and there are actually lots of conservationists like me that come without formal training of course many of us in fact most of us are zoologist psychologist naturalist primatologists and fundamentally scientists and yes many of my colleagues grew up keeping pet worms and collecting snail shells and yes many of them love hugging trees but hey nowadays even I enjoy doing that with my son even if I am a paper conservationist I'll come back to that but before we get too comfortable I think we all need a dose of reality in 2013 20,000 wild elephants were killed the lion population is down 40% in the past 20 years and there are only 3,000 tigers left in the wild this iconic species could become extinct within our lifetime in the last 10 years seven and a half thousand African rhinos have been poached a thousand Rhino were poached in 2017 in 2010 the Western black rhino sadly became extinct and the last male northern white rhino died in March why all this slaughter well rhino ivory is now worth in excess of sixty thousand US dollars per pound that's more than diamonds and as a consequence the poaching operations have become more slick they've become more advanced and what we need is we need military personnel leading experts in combat in tracking and in protecting these wildlife to work alongside our Rangers and our scouts no more so than in the Virunga National Park who expands DRC Rwanda and Uganda and is home to the critically endangered and iconic mountain gorillas but it's also home to militia and rebel outfits remnants of Congo civil war hiding out there are also poaching and criminal gangs and it's probably the most dangerous place in the world for conservationists to work a hundred and seven Wildlife Rangers have lost their lives there in the past 20 years and globally over a thousand Rangers have lost their lives in the last 15 years protecting wildlife but it's not just on the ground that we must fight it's also in the boardrooms and the courtrooms conservationists don't just protect megafauna we also work with mining giants we work with organizations that have the pent potential to cause enormous damage such as here in Cambodia where forests are being wiped out and the real ways are being polluted what we need is people who understand these businesses we need environmental impact assessment specialists we need business specialists and strategists we need lawyers and fundamentally we need people who understand these businesses and prepared to work within them or with them this is a paper and pulp manufacturing plant in Sumatra is owned and operated by a company called April one of Asia's largest paper and pulp manufacturers and they are responsible for decimating huge swaths of forests across Sumatra but they've realized the error of their ways and they're now solely reliant on plantation timber and our role with them is to maximize the potential of the remaining forests and to use these plantations to make wildlife corridors crucial corridors that allow what wildlife is left to roam free I suppose in summary we've realized that to have impact we have to engage with the people that have the potential to cause the most damage so this is a lot of negative chat and what I want to do now is share two stories of hope with you the first is the international gorilla conservation program just over 30 years ago there was a lady called Dian Fossey he was living with the gorillas and she realized they were at a critical point there were only about 300 left and their habitat was being wiped out so who did she call David Attenborough David came back came down and saw for himself a shot film he went back to the UK and to cut a long story short the international gorilla conservation program IG CP was formed it's a collaboration between FF I and WUF and the story goes a little like this if you protect the forest you protect the critical habitat that the gorillas need you also protect the watershed which gives fertile lands which means you can run sustainable agriculture programs alongside ecotourism this gorilla tourism which is now worth in excess of 200 million US dollars a year and amazingly it's the single biggest contributor to randa's GDP remember it's a very small country but the best news of all there are now over a thousand mountain gorillas living there and the other thing it brings enormous pride to the local communities employment and in the area that's been through so many troubles in its recent history the second story is very different it's about two twins I met six months ago now these are very intelligent and worldly guys and what sets them apart is they come from enormous privilege they've always been interested in nature but they're not conservationists they've never really been to Africa they never experienced the savanna grasslands and they've never crossed an ocean they certainly didn't keep pet worms and collects now shells but the thing is they loved Sir David Attenborough and one day as only people like this can do they decided you know what this guy makes sense we're going to write to him and ask what he can do and again to cut a long story short so David introduced me to them and I took them to Africa to see our major projects which included the iconic mountain gorillas they've lifted the lid and Africa has got under their skin they've seen heard and felt what real nature is like and we now have two new lifelong conservationists who come with power influence and significant resources that they're making available to help us in this battle now these are good news stories that I believe we should celebrate and we should celebrate them together this is a tower of giraffes by the way because collaboration is key to success there are many examples within the NGO world but I just want to quickly pick up on something called wild labs it's a community of conservationists technologists engineers data scientists changemakers and what they do is they get together and they share ideas they share technological innovation tools and they're coming up with new solutions to age-old conservation problems in short the conservation world is recruiting for new skills so who else do we need well we need people who in suits who can talk a bit better than me but but I really think that we need to maybe follow the lead of men like Shackleton we need to explore new areas we need to summon our spirit of adventure and we need to take this battle to the frontline wherever that may be we need to gently guide at educate people who do not yet understand the value of nature many years ago I heard Sir David Attenborough talking about real conservationists and paper conservationists he was actually describing the incredible credentials of my boss what he inadvertently did was raise the question of whether you need to be out chasing poachers wrangling Crocs or working with somach on Tigers such as this amazing species there's only 400 of them left in the world to call yourself a real conservationist well I think we all know the answer is that both are critical and what matters is the effort the passion and the purpose that you go about your job with so to sum up there is a lot of negativity out there there is nothing the world's media loves more but I believe there are chinks of light we've heard today from leaders across all sorts of different sectors but if we get together and we work together and we ask ourselves some deep questions and we look at our priorities and how far ahead we're thinking I believe we can make real progress and not just in the conservation world of course we need scientists but we also need engineers lawyers accountants soldiers language experts sales and marketing experts branding experts there is a role for pretty much anyone in the world of wildlife conservation and we need to remember that nature is the very basis of our welfare and economy and we cannot go on taking without paying back you you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 33,822

Rating: 4.9186602 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Global Issues, Animals, Biodiversity, Biology, Botany, Conservation, Environment, Exploration, Monkeys, Nature, Work

Id: BTzm6RKmaXs

Length: 13min 35sec (815 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 25 2018