Success from the Seychelles - Dr Nirmal Shah

03/24/21 • 41 min

Going halfway around the work this week to the beautiful Seychelles archipelago talking to Dr Nirmal Shah, Chief Executive of Nature Seychelles. Nirmal is a well-known figure in the Seychelles conservation scene. A biology heavy upbringing in the Seychelles and education have earned him having an encyclopaedic knowledge of Seychelles biodiversity. He was formerly the Assistant Director of Fisheries Research, the Director of the Seychelles Conservation and National Parks service as well as the Managing Director of an environmental firm, ENVIRO where he worked on projects covering almost every aspect of environmental management. Nature Seychelles boasts some incredible conservation success stories, along with incredible programs and initiatives that are at the forefront conservation management. Check out everything Nature Seychelles involved with in the links below:
Website: http://ww.natureseychelles.org/home
Twitter: @NatureSey
Instagram: @naturesey
Facebook: @natureseychelles

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Best Things About Bats - Dr Hernani Oliveira

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This week I am joined by my friend Dr Hernani Oliveira to talk about bats! Hernani is a tropical conservation ecologist with fieldwork experience across different environments, including: the savannahs and rainforests of Brazil, the dry and rainforests of Costa Rica, the lowland and pre-montane forests of Cameroon, and the limestone forests of Rota Island. During his expeditions, Hernani worked with a range of techniques (DNA barcoding, mist nets, radio telemetry, and camera recording systems) and statistical analysis (geometric morphometry, network analysis, and ecological analysis) to understand the response of bat communities and populations to natural and anthropogenic changes in their environment. Bats have been one of the main groups that he has studied, but he has been involved in research and publications across a variety of mammalian species. He has a big passion for environmental education and bringing awareness into the conservation issues that the world is facing nowadays. Hernani’s photos and videos of rare species of bats he has encountered, are being used to bring people closer to the species and places that he works. Check out the links below to learn more about Hernani’s work and the wonderful world of bats.
Website: https://hfmoconservationandscience.weebly.com/
Twitter: @HernaniFMO
Instagram: hernanif77
Articles: Protecting the Cerrado: where should we direct efforts for the conservation of bat-plant interactions?- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-019-01793-w
- The Response of Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) to Habitat Modification in a Neotropical Savannah - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1940082917697263
- Improved survival for an albino - https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fee.2302?af=R

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Let's Talk Other Conservation - Daniel Ward

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I am very happy to introduce Daniel Ward this week, a fellow Bangor Alum and friend. We discuss different approaches to conservation - what works, what isn’t and what direction could we go in. Change maker, big picture thinker and solution finder Dan is a forward thinking ecologist based in the UK. Dan has worked for the last decade across on the ground action, landscape scale projects and government policy and now works as a micro Think and Do Tank to drive the thinking and conversation around what successful conservation and ecosystems look like and how to get there. Over his time in conservation Dan has realised that conventional conservation thinking and models aren’t working, and that large scale ecosystem restoration/rewilding, using nature based solutions and challenging shifting baselines is the way forwards. Dan is a systems thinker that helps people and organisations understand these big systems so that they can make decisions and choose sustainable solutions that help people and planet. Check out his social media to find out more @danward_org