The Rewild Podcast finishes on a excessive

Spreading a hopeful message

Constructing engagement with individuals of all ages is a central part of rewilding efforts. By connecting individuals with nature, rewilding may also help domesticate generations who worth and perceive the worth of preserving and restoring pure habitats and wildlife populations, and who wish to assist and develop into concerned in nature restoration themselves.

Over the course of the final 18 months, James Shooter’s Rewild Podcast collection has proved a massively profitable means of partaking individuals with rewilding, bringing sounds and tales from 18 main European rewilding initiatives to a worldwide viewers. With the ultimate installment of the collection launched in August, James’s inspirational and informative productions have now been downloaded over 125,000 instances, by individuals in additional than 160 international locations.

“After I got down to make the collection, my final goal was for it to be a hopeful place,” says James. “By showcasing the actions of individuals engaged in nature restoration proper throughout Europe – and giving them a platform to talk so passionately about rewilding and its advantages – I’d wish to assume these podcasts have given listeners hope that we are able to flip issues round for wild nature. That message of hope actually will get into individuals’s veins, because it does mine, which I consider is a significant factor in what number of instances they’ve been listened to.”

An immersive journey

To create the Rewild Podcast collection, James Shooter bought his home, left his job, and travelled round Europe in a motor residence along with his spouse, two kids, and canine. Overcoming quite a few vehicle-related points, the Shooter household managed to go to a variety of rewilding initiatives, together with each considered one of Rewilding Europe’s rewilding landscapes, and numerous members of the European Rewilding Community. Every of James’s 30 to 40-minute-long podcasts – which have been launched on a month-to-month foundation and concentrate on a single initiative – function a variety of conversations with rewilding practitioners, in addition to on-site sounds, pure soundscapes, and music samples.

“Fairly than utilizing a easy question-and-answer format, I needed to make these podcasts in additional of a documentary type,” explains James. “I needed to make them actually immersive and convey individuals alongside for the experience, with loads of pure backdrop. Listening to your complete assortment, I feel they hit the correct observe – informative, however nonetheless light-hearted and simply digestible.”

Optimistic suggestions

The Rewild Podcast collection attracted a really worldwide viewers. Whereas two-thirds of listeners have been from the UK, there have been additionally many from international locations such because the US, the Netherlands, Eire, and Germany. There have been even downloads from as far afield as Greenland and the Falkland Islands.

“I discovered that individuals have been very loyal to the collection,” says James. “As soon as they’d listened to 1 podcast, they then listened to them each month. I’ve had a number of actually optimistic and heartwarming suggestions, and other people have left some good opinions on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.  Some have stated they wish to go to the locations I’ve been speaking about, whereas others stated they goal to get entangled and volunteer with among the organisations whose work I’ve lined. That’s one thing I discover immensely gratifying.”

Private highlights

From flamingoes honking within the Camargue in southern France and white-tailed eagles hovering over the Wadden Sea within the Netherlands, to seeing grazing bison in Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountains, James Shooter displays on many highlights from his prolonged journey throughout Europe’s rewilding panorama.

“I feel what stood out for me probably the most was the wonderful degree of coexistence these rewilding initiatives are supporting. All of them are demonstrating, in a method or one other, that it’s doable not just for Europeans to reside alongside nature in a harmonious means, however to be higher off for it. In my thoughts, this isn’t simply coexistence, however co-prosperity. I feel these podcasts present that rewilding actually is a holistic, people-oriented method to conservation.”

James’s podcast specializing in the LIFE Lynx initiative in Slovenia – which has pulled collectively experience from throughout the continent to convey the nation’s endangered Eurasian lynx inhabitants again from the brink – exemplifies this inclusivity.

“The initiative right here has concerned many native hunters, who’ve really pushed it forwards with vitality and dedication. They’ve collaborated alongside the opposite companions and helped to make lynx comeback a actuality. Returning this predator to the panorama hasn’t been a case of appeasing the looking group. These guys have actually purchased into rewilding as one thing they wish to see occur.”

Seeking to the longer term

James Shooter is now working alongside the staff at Scotland the Huge Image, an NGO working to drive the restoration of nature in Scotland. As a gifted photographer and videographer, he’ll proceed his work to assist the scaling up of rewilding throughout the nation. With the addition of a brand new member of the family, his life – for now, not less than – has develop into much more sedentary. Nonetheless, the Rewild Podcast collection has given him one other degree of motivation and optimism for the longer term.

“It seems like persons are actually getting on with rewilding, and the momentum behind nature restoration is constructing. Even whereas we have been away on our journey, beavers and wildcats have been reintroduced in Scotland. There’s a protracted, lengthy solution to go, however I really feel like Europe is step by step getting wilder, which has given me hope and a renewed sense of goal. If I find yourself doing one other Rewild Podcast collection a decade from now, I’m satisfied the progress it showcases can be spectacular.”

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