The event was hosted by Honorary Director, Dr Lee M Durrell and joined by HRH The Princess Royal the Trust’s patron. Pictured above.
David Bond, celebrated filmmaker, started the lecture with a high impact film about getting more children back into nature, the outdoors and spending less time on ipads! Visit The Wild Network for more information.
Dr Lesley Dickie, CEO for Durrell talked about the Trust’s global ambition to ‘Rewild our World,’ the full illustrated strategy can be found here. Thrive’s MD, Matthew Clayton, described how both organisations share a vision to allow individuals to come together and address some of our greatest challenges, climate change and habitat destruction.
The Thrive team were on hand during the evening to talk about renewable energy and how it is making a difference to climate change and greenhouse emissions. Overall, it was an inspiring evening that captivated our desire to be the change we wish to see in the world. Here’s more about Durrell’s strategy for 2025.
About Durrell’s vision
The extinction of species is the most poignant symbol of people’s destruction of nature which is making our planet less colourful and less resilient to damaging change. Durrell’s mission is to reverse this trend through our ‘intensive care’ conservation approach. We have achieved much and can prove that, with enough time, conservation works. But, nature around the world continues to be degraded at an alarming rate.
In eight years, the trust’s founder, Gerald Durrell would have reached his 100th birthday; Dr Lesley Dickie, CEO will lead the lecture and explained what difference Durrell wants to make to the world by 2025.
“We have a bold vision of a ‘wilder, healthier, more colourful world’ and want to bring about a step-change in global efforts to recover endangered species and ‘rewild’ degraded ecosystems. We will restore species and ecological functions to create more diverse, beautiful and resilient landscapes, where local people will better connect with nature, thereby improving the quality of their lives.” Said Dr Lesley Dickie, CEO.
As well as rewiliding species and ecosystems, Durrell is also going to rewild people. David Bond, Director of Project Wild Thing and self-appointed Marketing Director for Nature spoke at the lecture on the importance of ‘Wild Time’ for children, especially those living in urban areas.
Durrell’s 2025 Goal
Durrell has set their sights on delivering significant change to the fortunes of threatened wildlife through a positive and bold vision for conservation. By 2025, Durrell wants to see:
10 Ecosystems across the world’s major biomes bring rewilded
100 Threatened species on the road to recovery
500 Endangered species projects working more effectively
1,000,000 People better connected with nature
We wish Durrell all the very best in this bold vision for a better future. Visit www.durrell.org for more information.
