大象传媒

Nigel Collar has worked in international conservation for 39 years, most of them spent with BirdLife International assessing the status and needs of species threatened with extinction. He also helped develop the modern IUCN Red List criteria and has co-authored books on threatened birds of Africa and its related islands,听the Americas听and听Asia.

In the past decade has co-supervised 18 PhD students at five universities, mostly focusing on threatened birds, seeking simultaneously to build scientific and conservation capacity in developing countries. He is also听chairman of the IUCN Bustard Specialist Group and an honorary professor of biology at the University of East Anglia.

Hugh Possingham is a professor of Mathematics and Ecology at the University of Queensland, Australia where he directs two national research centers devoted to using decision science thinking to pose and solve conservation problems. He also has a Chair at Imperial College London.

The centers are outcome-focussed and have helped stop land clearing in Australia, saving 10 per cent of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. The teams also provided tools and knowledge for the re-zoning of the Great Barrier Reef and Australia's entire exclusive economic zone, creating a reserve system bigger than 2 million square kilometres. Describing his work at the lab, Hugh says: 鈥淚 like making problems 鈥� and getting someone else to solve them for me.鈥�

Miles Barton travels to Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation (AWWP) in Doha, Qatar, home to 60 of the 80 Spix Macaw in the official captive breeding program supported by the Brazilian Government. The program aims to one day release the Spix Macaw back into the wild in Brazil. Miles meets AWWP Head of Birds, Dr Cromwell Purchase.

Pic courtesy of Miles Barton / 大象传媒