Tag Archives: conservation today

The Open Ground – Biodiversity, Science & the Imagination

In June last year, Conservation Today ran a one day public conference – The Open Ground – to raise awareness of issues around biodiversity.  The event aimed to provoke discussion by combining a range of scientific and artistic perspectives.

Will Pearse

The conference write-up by my colleague and fellow science communicator Emma Quilligan has is at Nature Network.  Here I present the audio from the event, endorsed by the organiser Will Pearse, for those unable to join on the day.

As Emma says, The Open Ground itself is something of an exercise in diversity.  As such, the panelists range from academic to activist, and include well known public faces such as the scientist and TV presenter Armand Leroi, and the prize-winning poet and Charles Darwin descendant Ruth Padel.

The proceedings are split into three sessions, each comprising three speaker presentations followed by a panel discussion with audience Q&A.   Without the speakers’ slides, some of the audio isn’t going to make sense; but for the most part it does, and much of the most interesting discussion comes in the panel sessions.

In conclusion, all the participants are speaking for themselves, and the views and opinions expressed don’t necessarily represent my own take on things.  That said, if anyone wants to strike up a comment thread on any of the content, feel free.

Introduction by Will Pearse (Conservation Today)

Session 1 – The Necessities of Conservation

Dr Sam Turvey, Dr Emily Nicholson and Caspar Henderson on the challenges conservationists face.

Caspar Henderson, Dr Sam Turvey, Dr Emily Nicholson (photo: Tim Jones)

Presentations – Session 1

Panel Discussion – Session 1

Session 2 – Biodiversity and the Imagination

Prof. Ruth Padel, Dr Jamie Lorimer, and Melanie Challenger look at biodiversity from the perspective of literature, culture and society.

Dr Jamie Lorimer, Prof.Ruth Padel, Melanie Challenger (photo: Tim Jones)

Presentations – Session 2

Panel Discussion – Session 2

Session 3 – Biodiversity Futures

Prof. Armand Leroi, Prof. John Fa, and Steve Roest on topics ranging from the trade in bushmeat to depletion of the oceans.

Prof. John Fa, Steve Roest, Prof. Armand Leroi (photo: Tim Jones)

Presentations – Session 3

Panel Discussion – Session 3

Few more photos……

Armand Leroi
Ruth Padel
John Fa
Felix Whitton
Tom

(photos: Tim Jones)

Related Links

Guardian Blog on The Open Ground (pre-event)

Announcement on Zoonomian

‘The Open Ground’ – Conservation Event in London

Some of you may know that in addition to Zoonomian, I’m a contributing editor at ConservationToday.org, the conservation group run by post-graduate students from Imperial College under the leadership of Will Pearse.

Open Ground - come along on 20th June
Open Ground – come along on 20th June

It’s therefore a great pleasure to introduce this first one day conference organised by ConservationToday, and encourage you to go along.

The Open Ground conference will explore the common ground between the wider arts and sciences in conservation – taking place on the 20th of June in London.

Featuring:

John Fa – Director of conservation science at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust

Armand Leroi – Professor at Imperial College London and BBC presenter of ‘Darwin’s Lost Voyage’

Sam Turvey – involved with the Yangtze River Dolphin, ZSL

Ruth Padel – former Professor of Poetry at Oxford and prize-winning author of ‘Darwin: a life in poems’

…and many more!

UPDATE Feb 2010

The audio of proceedings is here.

It’s Gibbon Time!

(This piece originally appeared as an editorial in Conservation Today. You can see/hear it elsewhere on this blog by clicking HERE.

Check out my latest editorial for Conservation Today for a more manageable (=edited)  form of the Jones-Mootnick gibbon interview at the Gibbon Conservation Center in Santa Clarita, California.

Young White Cheeked Gibbon
Young White Cheeked Gibbon