- The peaceful co-existence of our species
and other species has been a
passion of mine for my career.
I'm absolutely thrilled
that I'm the 2019 winner
of the International Cosmos Prize.
It's a prize that
celebrates the co-existence
of nature and humankind.
I'd like to think that the
reason I got this prize
is because I view science
in a very effective way
to recommend practical
conservation actions.
There's a lot of good science out there
that's interesting, and it's important,
but it isn't immediately
actionable, and one of the things
that I'm very proud that
I've been able to do here
at the Nicholas School at Duke University
is develop this program of
developing science that can make
an actual difference to
whether species survive or not.
(birds squeaking)
12 years ago, I founded an organization
called Saving Species, and
it grew remarkably quickly.
We have reformed ourselves
in terms of saving nature,
and it's dedicated to helping communities
and conservation professionals
around the world,
typically in developing countries,
so it's a very rich and bi-diversity,
Columbia and Ecuador and
Brazil and India, Sumatra,
places where there are a lot of species
at risk of extinction, and we're there
to help those local
groups do what they can
to help preserve nature
and help the people
who live in those communities
have sustainable lives,
help them have better lives
so they're compatible with
the co-existence of nature and humankind.
Even after sometimes a few years,
there is enough forest coming back
that a wonderful variety
of birds and mammals,
otters and foxes and
pheasants and pigeons,
a whole variety of
species are moving through
the corridors that we have recreated.
I think the challenge of this new century,
this new millennium, is
whether we are gonna continue
to destroy the planet in
the way that we have done,
or recognize that we can
make some smart changes.
We do not need to
destroy tropical forests.
We do not need to be careless
with how much pollution
that we put into our
rivers and into the oceans.
We do not need to put
billions of billions of tons
of carbon dioxide into
the atmosphere each year.
I think my contribution is
to bring cutting edge science
and technology into the very practical
aspect of saving species from extinction.
There are particular places in the world.
The Northern Andes,
Coastal Brazil, Madagascar,
Southeast Asia where there
are places that just have
enormous number of species that are
still hanging on by their fingernails.
I'm proud of the fact that we
can go from statelite imagery
through quite complicated
statistical analysis mapping
right down to the point
where I decide that I'm gonna
dig a hole and I'm gonna
plant a tree right there
because that's the best
place to regrow a forest,
to reestablish connectivity,
to save by diversity.
