All my life I've worked for the planet and the wild creatures we share it with. The way we react with nature has changed over the millennia. Our ancestors were intimately connected with nature, but today many people's everyday lives are divorced from nature, so they have a very limited understanding about the environment. The way we 'conserve' nature is changing too and that is what I looked at in my Fellowship. There is a gradual move away from government-led initiatives towards community and grassroots initiatives, and these are what interest me. I prefer helping bottom-up initiatives led by local people, and I shy away from top-down initiatives imposed by big organisations with lots of money, because all too often money equates to power and control.

I believe it is preferable not to destroy the environment which provides us with food, clean water and clean air. Repairing the damage we do is much more costly in the long run. We knew this 50 years ago, but business models chose profit over planet. Respect for the planet is growing, but there is a long way to go before we can truly talk of sustainable development. I live in hope.