Description

This session was held on 8 April 2021 - 9:30AM CST// 3:30PM BST

Dr. Claire Wordley studied Zoology at the University of Sheffield. After a year studying birds in the Australian outback and working on a dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef, she went back to study at the University of Leeds, researching the impact of agricultural practices on bats in the Western Ghat mountains of India for her PhD. She went on to study the evidence base for ways to protect seabirds at sea with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the UK, before moving on to the Conservation Evidence project at the University of Cambridge, where she focussed on explaining the science behind conservation solutions to non-scientists. In 2018 she became active with the environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion, and continued to be active with the German branch of the group after moving to Berlin in 2019. She currently works as a freelance environmental writer and editor.

Dr. Charlie Gardner is an interdisciplinary researcher, conservationist and activist with a particular interest in societal responses to the climate and biodiversity emergencies. From 2005 to 2015, he was based in Madagascar, where he worked with WWF and other NGOs on the country’s ambitious ‘Durban Vision’, to triple the extent of the protected area network. Charlie has also worked in conservation and natural resource management in Mauritius, Kenya, Ghana, England and Scotland.

Having completed a BSc in Zoology at the University of Leeds, Charlie studied for an MSc in Conservation Biology at DICE in 2002. He returned to Kent to carry out his doctoral research in 2009, submitting his thesis entitled ‘Reconciling conservation and development in Madagascar’s rapidly expanding protected area system’ in 2014. Having completed his PhD, he returned to the School of Anthropology and Conservation at Kent in 2016 in a part-time teaching and scholarship role, but he continues to pursue collaborative research projects (largely focused on Madagascar) and work as a consultant to Blue Ventures and other organisations, alongside climate activism work.

Charlie enjoys communicating conservation and climate issues to broader audiences and has written for The Guardian, The Conversation, The Ecologist and Mongabay, as well as appearing on a range of TV and radio broadcasts. His book Life Amongst the Thorns – Biodiversity and Conservation of Madagascar’s Spiny Forest (co-authored with his wife, the photographer Louise Jasper) was published in 2015 by John Beaufoy.