Conservation and Science

What has shifted in rewilding over the past five years? Why do recovery of species like lynx, beavers and wolves trigger reactions that go far beyond the animals themselves? And what is the real obstacle to bringing lynx back to Scotland, the ecology, the bureaucracy, or something much harder to name? In this episode, our returning guest is Peter Cairns, co-founder and former Executive Director of SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, board member of Trees for Life, public voice for the Lynx to Scotland partnership, wildlife photographer, and now host of the new podcast 'At the Edge'. Peter last appeared on the show back in 2021, and many things have shifted on the ground since then. More beavers, more red kites, more sea eagles and habitat restoration that has grown significantly. Peter argues that the conversation around land use is also maturing, even when daily progress feels like wading through treacle.
Our conversation moves through the long road of the Lynx to Scotland project: years of education, consultation and community engagement sessions, all building towards a licence application that will ultimately land on a politician's desk. Peter is honest about the sticking points around livestock predation and what level of impact society is prepared to support and compensate. We get into the cultural chasm between rural and urban Scotland and why a lynx or a beaver rarely represents just an animal. For many people, these species symbolise change, loss of control over the landscape and the imposition of urban values on rural communities. We also discuss the illegal release of four lynx in the Cairngorms and Peter's measured view on what that incident says about an over-bureaucratic system and what the government would be wise to learn from it.
In the second half of our conversation, Peter shares why he started 'At the Edge', a podcast designed to host the difficult conversations sitting on what he calls the human-wildlife faultline. We talk about social media as an accelerator of polarisation, the impossibility of shouting people into agreement and the Finding Common Ground initiative that is quietly reshaping how deer management is discussed in Scotland. We also get into wildlife photography and the rise of what Peter calls the 'Instagram trophy hunter', along with his concerns about ecotourism becoming too central to rewilding's economic case. Towards the end, Peter offers a thoughtful, almost stoic answer to my ‘crystal ball’ question, focusing on what each of us can actually control in our own physical, community and philosophical space. It's a generous and quietly hopeful conversation, and I think you'll get a lot from it.
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What makes farmers reluctant to talk about climate change, even though they see its effects first-hand? Can a trip to the Arctic change how you look at a small river in Kerry? And why might 'community first, environment second' be the right way round? These are some of the questions we explore in the second episode of the series following the Community Climate Adaptation and Resilience Programme in Kerry. This episode is a progress check on how the programme is unfolding, with Catríona Fallon from Transition Kerry giving an overview of the sessions run so far, covering community mapping, nature-based solutions and food. We also hear from three participants, each bringing a different background and reason for signing up. For the full context of the programme, have a listen to episode 218 where it all started.
Our conversation brings in Kieran Cotter, Project Officer of the Knocknagoshel Environmental and Angling Association, who is also known for restoring his grandmother's 200-year-old cottage on RTÉ's Great House Revival. Chris Barrett, a professional photographer and PRO of the same angling association, has taken part in two Arctic expeditions and saw glacial melt, plastic pollution and dead fulmars in otherwise pristine environments. Mary Murphy, who wrote and produced a children's television series on climate and sustainability, recently joined the steering group for a Sustainable Energy Community in Kenmare that is currently tendering an energy masterplan. Each of them talks about what drew them to the programme and what they hope to bring back to their own communities. Kieran and Chris also share how the angling club is being used as a vehicle for environmental work on the River Owveg, a tributary of the Feale, where fish stocks have dropped sharply within their lifetime.
A thread running through our chat is the idea of adaptation as a positive project rather than a doom-and-gloom one. The participants talk about the difficulty of communicating climate issues with farmers, the value of humour in those conversations and the Rob Hopkins idea of 'falling in love with the future' that the group can work towards. We also touch on practical ideas being shared across the programme, from community energy masterplans and shared solar installations to an anaerobic digester on Cape Clear that turns food waste into cooking gas and fertiliser. The next sessions take the group to the Maharees Conservation Association and to the Fenit Wild Mind festival, where Transition Kerry will host a skills share tent. I'll be following up with more participants once this phase of the programme wraps up in June.
To sign up or find out more, contact [email protected]
or go to www.adaptationkerry.transitionkerry.org
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How many wolves is enough? Is that even the right question to ask? And will the recent lowering of wolf protection status in the EU actually reduce the conflict between wolves and people? These are some of the questions we tackle in this episode. After the previous wolf episode generated a lot of feedback, including detailed emails from scientists, one of those scientists is our guest today. Joachim Mergeay is a senior researcher at the Research Institute for Nature and Forest in Belgium, an associate professor of conservation genetics at Leuven University, Flanders, and a member of the IUCN Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe. He reached out after listening to the podcast and I was immediately interested in his deeper perspective on wolf coexistence in Europe.
During our conversation, Joachim makes a compelling case that if we solve the conflict, the number of wolves becomes far less important. He shares practical examples from Belgium where electric fencing, supported by volunteer teams and full subsidies for farmers, has virtually eliminated livestock predation in some wolf territories. We also discuss why shooting wolves, even under the new lowered protection status, is unlikely to meaningfully reduce conflict because the requirement to maintain favourable conservation status leaves very little room for lethal management. Joachim is clear that he is not against hunting in principle but stresses that we need to be honest about the goals behind it.
We also get into the broader picture of rural abandonment, shifting baselines and the urban-rural divide. Joachim challenges the assumption that rural and urban people are worlds apart in their attitudes towards wolves, pointing to research showing the differences are smaller than most of us think. He also offers an optimistic observation about shifting baselines working in the opposite direction for once, with children growing up in countries where wolves are simply part of the landscape. We finish with a look at how European-level policy can work alongside local solutions and what the future might hold for wolf populations across the continent.
Further reading:
Perspectives on wolves after their recolonisation in Flanders, Belgium
Continuing recovery of wolves in Europe
Estimating the Effective Size of European Wolf Populations

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Working in conservation? Take the survey: CONLAB survey
Who are the people doing the actual work of conservation? How many of them are there and what are their working conditions? And whose labour remains invisible in the process? These are not questions that conservation science has spent much time on. Yet without understanding the people behind the work, we lack a complete picture of how conservation functions and who it affects. Today, we take on this largely neglected subject with Dr Anwesha Dutta, principal investigator and project lead of CONLAB (Conservation Labor Project), and Dr Nick Harvey Sky, postdoctoral researcher on the project. Their work sits at the intersection of political ecology and conservation science, and their work is opening up an entirely new line of inquiry.
During our conversation, Anwesha and Nick explain how labour theory can offer important insights into conservation. We discuss the power dynamics between employers and workers, the role of unpaid work, and how race, class and gender shape who gets opportunities in the sector. We also talk about the global survey they are running to capture the big picture of conservation labour worldwide. Nick explains why the survey casts a wide net, seeking responses not just from rangers and biologists but also from IT staff, hotel workers, farmers and anyone whose work supports conservation in some capacity. In fact, one of the aims of the project is to challenge our assumptions about who counts as a conservationist.
We also get into some difficult but necessary territory. Anwesha shares her fieldwork experiences from national parks in India, where a ranger told her that if a ranger is hurt it takes two days to get medical help, but if a rhino is hurt a helicopter arrives instantly. We discuss the militarisation of conservation, the commodification of nature, and the troubling reality that in many parts of the world conservation labour is informal, seasonal and precarious. Nick talks about the so-called 'passion tax', where love for nature is exploited to justify poor pay and conditions. Both guests leave us with a clear message: conservation must be compassionate, careful, and embedded in an ethics of care for people and for the planet.
Further reading:
An international scoping review of rangers’ precarious employment conditions | Environment Systems and Decisions | Springer Nature Link
An Exceptional Strike: A Micro-history of 'People versus Park' in Madagascar
The Low-Wage Conservationist: Biodiversity and Perversities of Value in Madagascar
Conservation labour geographies: Subsuming regional labour into private conservation spaces in South Africa
Psychological distress and workplace risk inequalities among conservation professionals
Supporting conservationists’ mental health through better working conditions
Not Just Participation: The Rise of the Eco-Precariat in the Green Economy
Labour perspectives on frontline conservation work | Current Conservation

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What does it take to bring wild nature back to a country that has forgotten what it looks like? Can rewilding truly benefit local communities and rural economies or does it come at their expense? And is Scotland really thirty years behind the rest of Europe when it comes to restoring its landscapes? This is a Podcasthon episode and this year I've chosen SCOTLAND: The Big Picture as my featured charity. Founded by nature photographers and filmmakers it has grown from a single employee to a team of twenty-four in just a few years. Today I'm joined by Lisa Chilton, CEO, and Stef Lauer, Rewilding Training Lead.
Lisa and Stef walk us through the extraordinary scope of what SCOTLAND: The Big Picture has built. At the heart of it all is the Northwoods Rewilding Network, a string of over a hundred land partners spanning the country from the Solway Firth to Shetland. The research backing this work is striking. Rewilded sites within the network have recorded more than 250% more bird species and a tenfold increase in pollinator abundance compared to control sites that weren’t rewilded. Beyond the network, the Loch Abar Mòrr poject brings together fourteen landowners across 120,000 acres, working to a fifty-year vision that stretches from the summit of Ben Nevis right down to seagrass beds and native oysters on the seafloor.
Our conversation also covers the long and careful effort to bring lynx back to Scotland. Lisa explains how Lynx to Scotland, a partnership involving SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, Trees for Life, and the Lifescape Project, has spent years engaging over fifty national stakeholder organisations and is now conducting one-to-one consultations in the communities most likely to be affected by any future release. The process is slow and deliberate. But as Stef puts it, the question is really about what kind of ecosystem we want to leave for the next generation. On that front, the ambition and the optimism coming from Lisa and Stef are genuinely infectious.
Further reading:
Working to return lynx to northern Scotland | Lynx to Scotland
Rewilding training | SCOTLAND: The Big Picture
The Big Picture Conference | SCOTLAND: The Big Picture
Donate | SCOTLAND: The Big Picture
Our Big Picture Community | SCOTLAND: The Big Picture

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