\n<\/p>\n
Margot Raggett has spent the past decade raising money for conservation efforts around the world but now she feels nervous about the future. \u201cIt does feel like we\u2019ve taken a backward step,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The wildlife photographer has raised \u00a31.2m for the cause in the past 10 years through her Remembering Wildlife series, an annual, not-for-profit picture book featuring images of animals from the world\u2019s top nature photographers. The first edition was published in 2015, when the Paris climate agreement was being drafted but, in the years since, efforts to tackle the climate crisis have been rolled back.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Images from Ten Years of Remembering Wildlife.<\/span> Composite: M Van Oosten\/Remembering Wildlife<\/p>\n Under Donald Trump, the US withdrew from the agreement in 2020. Joe Biden reversed the decision the following year but, on the first day of his second presidential term, Trump announced the US would be withdrawing yet again. In the UK, both the Conservatives and Reform UK have pledged to scrap the 2050 net zero target should they win power.<\/p>\n \u201cCompared to a few years ago, there was a desire for renewables instead of drilling for oil across the world. I think the importance of nature is something for us all to cling on to,\u201d said Raggett.<\/p>\n Despite this, she has some hope. \u201cI\u2019m nervous but equally I\u2019m encouraged by the fact that there are so many people that do seem to still care. I\u2019ll do everything I can to keep my end of the bargain and keep fighting. And I know there\u2019s lots of other people who feel the same, so time will tell, but we certainly can\u2019t be complacent.\u201d<\/p>\n In a timely reminder of how fraught the outlook is for wildlife at the moment, this year\u2019s release, titled Ten Years of Remembering Wildlife, is being published alongside original and altered images of animals including polar bears, cheetahs and pangolins living in, and then scrubbed out of, their natural habitats.<\/p>\n Raggett said these images were intended to be \u201cprovocative\u201d and to give a glimpse of the future if we remain on our current track. \u201cThe rate of wildlife decline is so rapid across the world and there\u2019s a lot of work to be done to reverse it. We really could be looking at a future where these landscapes would be without these wild animals,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we created it, to make people pause and realise what could happen if we don\u2019t take action.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Raggett said the images were intended to give a glimpse of the future if the world remained on its current track. <\/span> Composite: Paul Goldstein\/Remembering Wildlife<\/p>\n While she has spent most of her photography career far away from the UK in Kenya, Tanzania and Bhutan, she has some concerns closer to home. The government has pledged to build 1.5m homes by the end of its first term in parliament.<\/p>\n As part of this effort, ministers have told the Environment Agency to wave through planning applications in England with minimal resistance, a move that has dismayed environmental campaigners. Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed that Rachel Reeves boasted about unblocking a development of 20,000 homes being held up by \u201csome snails on the site that are a protected species or something\u201d.<\/p>\n Ragett called for a \u201cmassive pause\u201d on the government\u2019s \u201cshort-sighted\u201d plans for accelerated housebuilding. \u201cWhat everyone needs to understand is that we are all intertwined with nature,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s very easy in a built-up country like ours to not understand the part every species plays in our ecosystem, how they keep our trees growing and the impact that has on clearing carbon from the atmosphere.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like in this country, there\u2019s enough brownfield sites that could and should be redeveloped before you lose any more countryside. We\u2019ve lost so much already. I think there should be a massive pause.\u201d<\/p>\n Ragett was inspired to set up the Remembering Wildlife project after coming across an elephant that had been a victim of poaching in Kenya. \u201cHe had a poisoned arrow in him and then he started to be eaten by hyenas. I was so horrified and I felt so impotent \u2026 so I was determined to try and do something about it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She said efforts to clamp down on illegal poaching had been mixed. \u201cThe impact of poaching rhinos for their horns in South Africa remains horrific. I have friends who are based out there and the rate of poaching is shocking but there have been some wins too. China banning ivory a few years ago definitely has had an impact but then it pops up in the illegal trade elsewhere in Asia,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Tackling demand, especially in Asia where poaching products are used in traditional medicines, is one of the most important ways to reduce the practice, Raggett said. \u201cPoaching is still a huge criminal industry and it\u2019s not going anywhere. It\u2019s still very much rampant.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier in October, the world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall died aged 91. Raggett had met her in 2018. \u201cI was blown away by her work ethic and determination. She had just gotten off a night flight from Tanzania. At my age, I\u2019d be having a nap the next morning and yet she had a queue of people waiting to have appointments with her. She was totally inspirational and encouraging and had real humility in how she spoke,\u201d she said. \u201cShe has a remarkable legacy full of wisdom, and humour as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Margot Raggett has spent the past decade raising money for conservation efforts around the world but now she feels nervous about the future. \u201cIt does feel like we\u2019ve taken a backward step,\u201d she said. The wildlife photographer has raised \u00a31.2m for the cause in the past 10 years through her Remembering Wildlife series, an annual,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[3699,186,187,17135,6848,4565,10183,1714,4742],"class_list":{"0":"post-28926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-climate","10":"tag-crisis","11":"tag-devoid","12":"tag-landscapes","13":"tag-nature","14":"tag-photographer","15":"tag-wild","16":"tag-worlds"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}