Join our Wild Horizons series to hear fireside stories from today’s
most inspiring conservation pioneers
The stewards of Sri Lanka: Scaling Local Rewilding Initiatives
Ben Goldsmith is a British financier, philanthropist and environmentalist who has been at the forefront of campaigns for more rewilding in Britain and Europe. He founded and chairs the Conservation Collective, a network of locally-focused environmental foundations, which includes the Lanka Environment Fund.
Vinod Malwatte is a Sri Lankan conservationist who has held several positions within the environmental field over the last decade. Alongside other roles, he is Director of the Lanka Environment Fund, Co-founder of the Parrotfish Collective, a group of conservation communicators, Co-Chair of the Mangrove Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods Forum and a Trustee of the Federation of Environmental Organizations of Sri Lanka.
Daisy Honeybunn is a classical singer, photographer and TV presenter. Daisy and her husband, Pravin Mukhi, founded the DHD Foundation in 2020, which supports charitable organisations and philanthropic causes. The Foundation’s current core projects include working with the Lanka Environment Fund. Daisy has spent many happy times in Sri Lanka, and her and husband have a home near Tangalle.
Engage with the project firsthand. Find out more here.
THE RETURN OF THE JAGUAR: ARGENTINA’S GREATEST CONSERVATION LEGACY
Sebastián Di Martino is a biologist and conservationist who is currently Conservation Director of Rewilding Argentina. His work involves the protection and restoration of Argentina’s largest wetland, Iberá National Park and rehabilitation of and reintroduction of animals, such as the jaguar, back into their natural habitat.
JWP Impact Ambassador, Prof Alastair Driver, has been immersed in nature and nature conservation since he was a toddler clinging onto his naturalist father’s coat-tails on birding trips in the early 1960s.
He was privileged to be appointed as the first conservationist for the Thames catchment in 1984 and went on to become the national Head of Conservation of the Environment Agency in the UK for 15 years, before taking “early retirement” from public service in 2016 and almost immediately immersing himself in a new challenge at the forefront of rewilding in the UK. Since then he has been thoroughly enjoying the challenge of mainstreaming rewilding as a crucially important part of the solution to nature recovery in Britain.
Engage with the project firsthand. Find out more here.
DARE TO REWILD: A CONSERVATION SUCCESS STORY
Born in Johannesburg, Sarah and husband, Mark Tompkins, founded Samara in 1997 with the acquisition of the first of eleven farms in the Great Karoo. Sarah successfully fought against fracking when the reserve was targeted, and has since been committed to creating solutions for conservation and communities by driving partnerships and fostering educational opportunities for her guests.
Just five when her parents founded Samara, Isabelle Tompkins started working there aged 23 after studying Geography at the University of Cambridge. She has always been motivated by a desire to confront the challenges facing biodiversity, climate and society and, driven by the daily beauty of the Great Karoo landscape, strives to create a replicable conservation model that can influence other purpose-driven businesses in this sphere.
Lucia van der Post is a writer and journalist, specialising in design, travel and luxury. She was the Founding Editor of the Financial Times How to Spend It magazine and has written for many renowned publications over the years, including the Times and Country & Town House where she was a luxury columnist and editor of their Great British Brands. Lucia was fortunate enough to visit Samara at the beginning of its journey and reflects on the evolution of the reserve, its habitats and wildlife over the years.
Engage with the project firsthand. Find out more here.
Discovering Unknown Belize
After a childhood of adventure, followed by 20 years in the furniture industry; Paul Lister turned his life’s purpose to nature and established The European Nature Trust (TENT) whilst also purchasing Alladale, a 23,000 acre traditional sporting estate in Scotland.
For the last 20+ years TENT has continued to support conservation and wildlife foundations across Scotland, Mediterranean and east European countries, whilst Alladale has been transformed into a pioneering Wilderness Reserve where nature restoration and green tourism are central to its mission.
For the past decade, Paul has spent many winter weeks exploring Belize and discovering its incredible nature and wonderful people. His love of the country, people and wildlife has led him to create a documentary series on Belize, Unknown Belize, and to work with Journeys With Purpose to shape and host a special Journey to Belize between 23rd Feburary – 2nd March 2024.
Elma Kay is the Managing Director of Belize Maya Forest Trust, the non-governmental organisation entrusted with the stewardship and management of Belize’s second largest private protected area. Alongside this role, her passion for combining biodiversity protection with community participation and sustainable financing has led her to be the Chairwoman of Belize Network of NGOs, Maya Forest Corridor Trust, and Belize’s Scientific Authority for the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Elma will join our guests during our Journey to Belize to share more on Belize Maya Forest Trust’s vital work and the outstanding biodiversity Belize Maya Forest protects.
Ross Westgate is a financial broadcaster and businessman with a decorated career in journalism. Ross is also Co-Founder of Gleann Mor Natural Capital, formed to help put nature at the heart of our economy. An advisory and project management business, it helps scale up nature-based solutions working with Landowners/ Managers, NGO’s, Corporates and Investors as well as a broad range of Environmental Solution Providers. Gleann Mor is named after one of the 2 principle valleys at Alladale Wilderness Reserve and has been inspired by its work as well as that of The European Nature Trust, for which Ross has been an Ambassador and advisor since 2014.
Engage with Belize’s conservation initiatives firsthand. Find out more here.
Creating Europe’s Largest Forest National Park: Carpathian Mountains, Romania
Christoph, born in 1965, achieved a degree in forestry at the University of Munich, however was always drawn to protect natural landscapes instead of logging them down. In 1993, he initiated a research project about wolves in the Romanian Carpathians where he intended to spend 3 years.
However, meeting his Austrian wife Barbara, a fellow biologists and conservationist, in Romania, he spent the next 10 years developing this initial research into a complex multi-layer conservation project upon wolves, bears, and lynx. In 2003, after finishing the large carnivore project, Christoph and Barbara set up a horse-riding business and spent time exploring Transylvania on horse-back.
Isabella Tree is an award-winning journalist and author of five books, married to the conservationist Charlie Burrell.
Her best-selling book Wilding tells the story of the daring wildlife experiment they began in 2000: rewilding their 3,500 acres of unprofitable farmland at Knepp Estate in West Sussex, UK. In less than twenty years their degraded land has become a functioning ecosystem again, wildlife has rocketed and numerous endangered species have made Knepp their home. What has happened at Knepp challenges conventional ideas about nature, wildlife and how we manage and envisage our land. It reveals the potential for the landscapes of the future.
Isabella and Charlie are currently working on The Book of Wilding – a practical guide to rewilding big and small, due to be published by Bloomsbury in May 2023. Isabella also writes for The Guardian, National Geographic Magazine and Granta. Her children’s books When We Went Wild and When The Storks Came Home are published sustainably by Quarto Books.
Engage with this project firsthand. Find out more here.
REWILDING THE JAGUAR
IBERÁ WETLANDS
ARGENTINA
Conservationist Kristine Tompkins & her late husband Douglas Tompkins have achieved unprecedented success as philanthropists with more than 25 years dedicated to saving wildlife and natural habitats. As the current president and cofounder of Tompkins Conservation, Kristine has worked to protect wild beauty and biodiversity by creating national parks, inspiring activism & fostering economic vitality as a result of conservation. In 2018, she was named the United Nations‘ Global Patron for Protected Areas.
Jonathan Baillie is President of Natural State whose mission is large-scale natural restoration. Jonathan was formerly Chief Scientist and Executive Vice President, Science and Exploration at National Geographic Society, where he led grant making in areas of science and exploration and acted as Vice Chair of National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration, based in Washington DC.
Engage with the Tompkins’ project in Argentina firsthand. Find out more here.
This extraordinary wetland, the largest in Argentina, is home to 30% of the biodiversity in the country including endangered species such as the pampas and marsh deer, the maned wolf and grassland birds like the strange-tailed tyrant.
In 2005, what was to become one of the largest rewilding programs in the Americas was started, with the goal of restoring keystone species that had been extirpated from Iberá through hunting and habitat loss and were extinct in the region, the Province or, in some cases, the country.
As the rewilding program developed, the cultural identity of Iberá began to recover alongside the ecosystems and natural processes, impacting a total population of 100,000 people who surround the park.
Today, Iberá stands as one of the world’s most successful ongoing conservation missions.