Field Notes

Dr Simon Stuart is one of the world's leading conservation scientists, best known for leading the development of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species into the world's most authoritative assessment of species' extinction risk. Awarded the prestigious Blue Planet Prize in 2020 for his contributions to global biodiversity conservation, he has spent more than three decades advancing...

What is it like to be in your late 20s and making major life decisions in today’s world? Studies show young people understand themselves to be living in a highly unstable world where biodiversity collapse, climate change and economic uncertainty have direct impacts on daily life. Sociologists note long-term planning around the linear milestones of previous generations - education, career, marriage...

For many people, a close encounter with an insect leads to a quick departure by one or both or a summary execution, most often of the non-human party. If you recognise these scenarios from your own life, you may find this interview transformative. Insects have a powerful advocate in James Khoo. A passionate and committed entomologist from Singapore, James lives with a large number of tiny creature...

Sponges are not only a great help in the shower, but some of the oldest, simplest animals on earth. If you haven’t yet discovered how fascinating and vitally important to a healthy planet they are, Dr Anita George is about to blow your mind. Anita only learned to swim when she did her masters in marine biology and as the first female scientist in India to get a diving certificate, she has now carr...

For Anna, no two work days at A Rocha Kenya are the same. She may be underwater doing a bit of coral gardening, helping scouts from Dakacha forest think through a Christian response to a machete attack, writing an impact report for a major donor or counting crows from a rooftop. In all the variety there is consistency though - in her love for God and for Kenya, and in her determination to support...

If you have lived longer than five minutes on this planet you will have realised pain and delight, suffering and consolation, anguish and ecstacy co-exist. For a conservationist and pastor like David Anderson, the tension is all the more vivid. He has seen the places under his care, with their human and creaturely communities, thrive and flourish and also come under extreme pressure.  In his own l...

Creation is groaning with ever increasing distress. Those at the frontlines of the fight to reverse the frightening trends need strategies for staying strong. Each episode of Field Notes concludes with our guest sharing practices they have adopted in pursuit of a life lived hopefully and in a departure from our usual format, Rick and Jo revisit some of their favourites. Listen and be inspired by t...

Plastic has a rather dirty reputation these days. There are few places on land or underwater where you won’t find discarded plastic waste causing harm and havoc. Thomas Chhoa has spent his life in the petro-chemical industry creating plastic, and he still believes this is a wonder-material and overall a force for good in the world. Now a Senior Advisor with the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, he is...

Peter Harris founded A Rocha in the early 1980s and has given his life since to the cause of nature conservation. He has long known the vital importance of the question of how and why to value nature. In this conversation with Rick and Jo (his daughter!) he explores the different explanations he has encountered for the worth of the non-human world and why he believes money lies at the heart of it...

Verónica is a transplant to the USA from Argentina. As a plant molecular and cellular biologist and a plant lover, she soon began getting to know the fora of her new home, discovering the extent to which native plants were suffering as invasives flourished. As Texas Conservation Project Director for A Rocha USA, she now spends much of her time killing Glossy Privet in many ingenious ways, and as a...

Rev Jacynthia Murphy is of Māori descent and serves in a Pākehā parish. In this conversation with Rev Silvia Purdie and the Field Notes hosts she discusses her indigenous perspective on faith and her passionate environmentalism. She is one of the women featured in “Awhi Mai Awhi Atu: Women in Creation Care,” edited by Silvia (Philip Garside Publishing, 2022). Silvia is a counsellor and pastoral th...

There is little in life with more direct environmental impact than food - how and what we produce, where we source it and how it gets there, how we prepare it and what we do with the waste. How do we balance sometimes competing factors and make food choices that honour God and the world he loves and has tasked us to look after? Food is a passion for Jasmine Kwong. As a creation care advocate for O...

Jayaprakash Bojan (JP)’s photo of a giant male orangutang peeping at him from behind a tree in a Borneo river won him National Geographic’s Nature Photographer of the Year in 2017. The image was seen by over 3.5 million people, propelling both him and the plight of Red Apes into the spotlight. In this conversation with A Rocha co founder Peter Harris and Jo Swinney, JP talks publicly for the first...

While the outlook for biodiversity is rather bleak, all the evidence says conservation works - we just need to do it well and do it more. It sounds simple, but often well-intended interventions have unintended consequences, or aren’t very effective, or become unmanageable over time. How do we learn the important lessons, what does success mean in this context, and how does someone in Jeremy’s line...

Growing up, Sylvia spent a lot of time on the family farm just outside Nairobi, Kenya. Where she remembers a wide open landscape, there are now blocks of flats and a hospital. Reliable rains have been replaced by four seasons of drought and the land can no longer support the herds of livestock it once did. We talk to her about the role of media in addressing the catastrophic loss of biodiversity a...

Jo and Rick are joined by Jo Herbert-James to discuss the themes in Jo Swinney’s Lent book, “The Whole Easter Story: why the cross is good news for all creation.” What does our relationship with God have to do with how we live on this earth? How is the death and resurrection of Christ relevant to the current crises of biodiversity collapse and climate change? And are us humans really all that matt...

This is the United Nations Decade of the Ocean, bringing an increased focus on caring for the ‘blue’ bit of the planet. Governing marine and coastal areas involves convening a multitude of groups - often with competing interests. Agreeing a management approach that works not only for the humans but the many other living things in the ecosystem may be difficult but it isn’t impossible, as Environme...

Cindy Verbeek left her city life for a rural Eden in northern BC, Canada, where the air was clean, bears nonchalantly wandered along the local high street and preserving nature was hardwired into community life. It might have seemed an ideal situation for a dedicated naturalist giving her life to conservation. In reality, many years of struggle, discouragement and isolation were to follow, before...

To halt and reverse the terrible trends in nature loss and climate change requires collaboration at international levels. With every country coming to the table with its own interests and agenda, it is no small task to agree joint commitments that stand a chance of changing the global outlook. Thankfully, there are good people in the room equal to the challenge. Among them is Dr Cyriaque Nikuze Se...

The choice to start a family is always a great act of faith, hope and courage. In these unprecedented days of biodiversity collapse, climate change and societal upheaval, all the more so. Doro is a marine biologist from Germany, whose love of the ocean goes back to her earliest memories. She is all too familiar with the state of the planet and yet she has recently become a mother. In this honest a...

Is carbon offsetting just something to make us feel a bit better about our climate-harming behaviours? How does it actually work and is there good science behind the numbers? Caroline leads Climate Stewards, one of the organizations in the A Rocha family. She talks us through the principle of the downward spiral underlying their measure, reduce, offset process and tells some captivating stories wh...

Raised in Southern Chile in a family of farmers, teachers and pastors, Cristina never realized how all those areas could be linked with God's purposes to bring redemption to all his creatures. For most of her life, she worked as a staff member in a church in the big city, leaving her love for nature for holidays.  In this delightful conversation, she shares the story of how some unexpected fr...

Most of us live largely disconnected from the production of our food, but whether or not we give it much thought, each mealtime puts us in relationship with our fellow creatures, the soil, the air and the water. Abby and Carly are farmers at A Rocha Canada’s Brooksdale, BC site. They tell us why a conservation organization grows, eats and gives away so much food, why they love to welcome inexperie...

In 2023, Rui, his wife Debora, and their two young children moved their life from a campervan to Cruzinha, A Rocha Portugal’s field study centre in the Algarve. It is hard to imagine a more radical change but it is one their family has embraced wholeheartedly and with delight, notwithstanding the challenges. In this honest and inspiring conversation, Rui tells stories and reflects on how it feels...

More and more Christians acknowledge God’s call to care for his creation, and yet resist taking action. Kuki has preached, taught and written on creation care to audiences around the world for decades, and believes the main barrier is our love of convenience. From Mizoram in North East India and recently appointed as A Rocha International’s first Director of Church Engagement, she tells us about h...