Women saving endangered species

女性拯救濒危物种

The Conversation

2025-06-02

26 分钟
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Whitley Fund for Nature 2025 winners from Brazil and Nepal tell Datshiane Navanayagam about their efforts to save the plants and animals they love from extinction. Reshu Bashyal is working to stop illegal poaching of wild orchids and Maire’s Yew trees in Nepal. Both plants are prized for their medicinal properties. Reshu is the research lead at Kathmandu-based Greenhood Nepal and has interviewed hundreds of yew harvesters to understand their motivations and harvest techniques. She is now restoring 1,000 hectares of habitat for orchids and Maire’s Yews, creating a community forest to promote best practices and developing an app for law enforcers to identify 100 plants that are trafficked. Dr Yara Barros has revived jaguars from the brink of extinction in Iguacu National Park in Brazil where numbers plunged to just 11 individuals. Her solutions include setting up a 24/7 rapid response unit where local people can report sightings or attacks by jaguars. Yara started her career working with the last Spix's Macaw in the wild before going to work in a zoo. A face-to-face encounter with a male jaguar called 'Croissant' convinced her to devote the rest of her career to protecting the apex predators. Produced by Jane Thurlow (Image: (L) Reshu Bashyal credit Whitley Fund for Nature. (R) Yara Barros credit Whitley Awards.)
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  • Hello,

  • I'm Dashiani Navanayagam and welcome to The Conversation from the BBC World Service.

  • This is the programme that speaks to two remarkable women doing incredible things around the world.

  • Today we're turning to conservation, an increasingly urgent and topical issue.

  • Both my guests have dedicated their careers to protecting and saving the animals and plants they love from extinction,

  • in particular jaguars and wild yew trees and orchids.

  • When it comes to jaguars,

  • this big cat species has lost around 60% of their historic habitat.

  • In Brazil, 13 years ago, there were just 11 jaguars in the country's Iguazu National Park.

  • But Dr Yara Barros is reviving the population through working with local communities.

  • We'll find out just how many there are later in the programme.

  • And Reshu Bashyal is the research lead at Greenhood Nepal,

  • a non-profit conservation organisation based in Kathmandu.

  • She works to prevent the illegal poaching and trafficking of wild orchids and yew trees,

  • prized for their medicinal properties.

  • Yara and Reshu, a very warm welcome to the conversation.

  • Thank you.

  • Thank you for having us.

  • Thank you so much for this opportunity.

  • I think it's important that we start with understanding a bit more about the animals and plants that you're both trying to save.