Rewilding the World with Ben Goldsmith

"Our dream is quite simple and that is to achieve co-existence between people and nature." This episode focuses on one of the grandest, most vast rewilding efforts anywhere on the planet. Join Ben Goldsmith as he speaks with Werner Myburgh of Peace Parks, an organisation dedicated to establishing immense trans frontier protected areas across southern Africa. The rehabilitation of these v...

"It's now been seven years since we removed the rats and goats and I just walk around with my mouth open, it is beautiful. There are so many trees on the island - when we started there was only two - now I can't count them." The Caribbean is a magical place; but it’s also one of the most ecologically degraded regions in the world. In this episode Ben Goldsmith speaks with Jenny...

"Engaging with nature in that urban space can be so beneficial and if we scale those micro actions up to a macro level, imagine the change that would seed." More and more urban rewilding projects are engaging growing numbers of citizens in local nature restoration. In this episode of Rewilding the World Ben Goldsmith is joined by Elliot Newton of Citizen Zoo – an organisation which is br...

"All of us involved in the project are driven by the opportunity to make a real difference for this special part of the planet." Eradicating giant mice from South Africa's Marion Island, a vital haven for seabirds. The vast, wild Southern Ocean is home to albatrosses, petrels and other remarkable seabirds which wander for years on end in search of food. Only to breed do the seabirds...

"A lot of Costa Rica's success on forest cover hasn't been emulated in terms of active rewilding. That's what I'm trying to start the wheels turning in Costa Rica; when do we need to use more of an active approach?" In this episode Ben Goldsmith is joined by Andy Whitworth of Osa Conservation, an organisation which is busy rewilding Costa Rica's ever wilder Osa P...

“I would be very excited if I found a grasshopper on the balcony and my parents would put it in a jar for me to observe.” In this episode Melpo Apostolidou from BirdLife Cyprus tells Ben Goldsmith about the remarkable ongoing effort to return the vital, majestic Griffon vulture to the skies of Cyprus, in the eastern Mediterranean. Melpo and her team have achieved this extraordinary feat against a...

This episode’s release coincides with World Rewilding Day 2024, with this year’s theme being Hope Into Action. A great example of this in practice is the work being carried out by Jonathan Thomson who has created the twenty-two acre wild paradise Underhill Nature Reserve on the border of Wiltshire and Dorset in southern England. A lot of people wonder how to go about rewilding smaller patches of l...

“We’re already starting to see dramatic habitat and water quality improvement across that Kissimmee valley.” The Everglades, North America’s largest and most vital wetland, is a place of extraordinary beauty but is facing enormous problems. The immense ‘river of grass’ has been desperately disfigured, principally by ill-considered hydrological engineering and heavily subsidised industrial sugar pr...

“Feral cats are the primary driver of the decline of small mammals. We’ve lost more than 30 mammal species in Australia over the last couple of hundred years and the primary driver of that is cats.” Australia has a mammoth problem with invasive species brought by European settlers to the country which had been isolated from the rest of the world for millennia. Now, major efforts are underway to re...

“Think globally, but act locally. We need to start putting some of that stuff back locally otherwise we don’t pass on anything great to our future generations.” The Scottish Highlands is one of Britain’s most beautiful and ecologically degraded landscapes. Change is in the air, however, as long lost keystone species such as wild boar, wildcats, white-tailed eagles and beavers are returning. In thi...

“With abundance comes resilience and with abundance these animals and the wildlife populations can thrive and can survive these climatic changes.” Andreia Pawel is from ORKCA, the Orange River-Karoo Conservation Area, based in the south of Namibia. The country is made up primarily of desert but once was a the place where springbok migrations dwarfed those of modern day zebra and wildebeest. Andrie...

“What we are doing is to create the conditions, ecological and sociological, for the return of these two large predators that are present… but we need to find conditions for them to settle and to grow.” Drive through Portugal and you will see vast plantations of non-native species like eucalyptus and pine. But with these plants comes the demise of the ecosystem and a huge risk of fire; in 2017 mor...

“Our hallmark is the reintroduction of the Scimitar-horned Oryx… It’s a beautiful, beautiful beast and it was a tragedy that it was allowed to go extinct in the first place.” The Scimitar-horned Oryx, the animal symbol of Sahara Conservation , was driven to extinction in the wild in the 1990s due to a lethal combination of overhunting, drought and habitat loss. In this episode Ben Goldsmith is joi...

“The river is not only valuable for its biodiversity but also for the culture and spiritual significance that it has for communities.” The Amazon of Europe stretches across five countries and is one of the places where there are still wild, pristine rivers. Dragana Mileusnic from The Nature Conservancy is part of the United for Rivers project helping to protect these precious freshwater gems for f...

“The first time I saw a tiger pugmark in Cauvery landscape I was totally thrilled, I can’t explain the thrill and the joy I had. That’s what you all work and survive for, right?” Sanjay Gubbi hit headlines six years ago after he was attacked by a leopard that had strayed on to the grounds of a school. Despite being seriously injured, Sanjay has made a full recovery and is very vocal about the prob...

“What we need more than anything now from our landscape is carbon sequestration, flood risk reduction, biodiversity improvement and all those other so-called public goods.” The Lake District is an iconic landscape loved by millions and people traveling from all over the world to revel in its beauty. It’s the land of Beatrix Potter, Wordsworth and one of the country’s most ambitious rewilding proje...

“Even in ten years we changed the entire ecosystem in Gökova Bay and fisheries.”  The world’s oceans have been depleted of many important species through overfishing. Removing parts of the sea’s ecosystem and the introduction of invasive species can have far reaching consequences both in and on the water. Zafer Kizilkaya is an award winning conservationist. In 2012 he founded the Mediterranean Con...

“Affric Highlands is an area of landscape between Loch Ness and the west coast of Scotland, looking over to the Isle of Skye. It’s about 500,000 acres so it’s like a small country.” Scotland’s fabled highlands are not what we think they are. Once upon a time the great Caledonian forests stretched from coast to coast, famed for its wildness and size. It teemed with wildlife and large animals like w...

“When I see things like the crossing that’s just going in north of Los Angeles for mountain lions, bobcats and other species it’s a sign to me that humanity finally gets that it’s impacting nature and, essentially, impacting us.” The shorthand definition of rewilding is the ‘Three Cs’; Core areas, Carnivores, and Corridors. Jodi Hilty is president and chief scientist of Yellowstone to Yukon Conser...

“As Kazakhstan became part of the Soviet Union a whole series of very large transformations took place. 45 million hectares of land within Kazakhstan was simply ploughed under the Virgin Lands campaign.” Mark Day is from the RSPB and part of the team delivering a project covering 180 million acres in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. The Altyn Dala, an area the size of France and Germany combined, is a...

“We call it rooting your identity. That really brings people close to the ground and feeling powerful and connected.” In this episode Ben Goldsmith speaks to Astrid Vargas from Inspiration 4 Action . Astrid has been part of a plan to save one of the rarest big cats from extinction; the Iberian lynx. It was previously thought there were only 90 individuals left. Thanks to the efforts of Astrid and...

“If you combine all of these reserves together they constitute an area of about 200,000 square kilometres... it’s probably one of the world’s largest terrestrial protected areas.” Saudi Arabia is huge - almost ten times the size of Britain - and is well known for its deserts. However, once upon a time it had savannahs akin to those in East Africa, where once lived ostriches and striped hyenas and...

“We really are focused on prioritising those species that are about to blink out. We must make sure that on our watch that doesn’t happen.” Welcome to a new series of Rewilding the World with Ben Goldsmith. In this first episode Ben speaks to Penny Becker, Vice President of Island Conservation . Island Conservation works to remove invasive invertebrate species from island ecosystems. Overwhelmingl...

“We belong here. The challenge is can we be here without impacting detrimentally on the rest of the ecosystem. And the simple answer is yes we can; we know what to do and we know how to do it.” In this special episode join Ben Goldsmith as he speaks to conservationist and author Isabella Tree and Director of Rewilding Britain, Alastair Driver, about the concept of rewilding. Rewilding as a term me...

“If we can restore large scale damaged ecosystems then why don’t we do it?”  Sometimes it’s said that the environmental and rewilding movement is not ambitious enough. Ben speaks to Ties van der Hoeven, co-founder of The Weather Makers , who is working on probably the most exciting and ambitious rewilding idea you have ever heard of. Drawing inspiration from landscape restoration taking place in C...