Beverly and Derek Joubert: Project Ranger
Species Unite
elizabeth novogratz
5.0 • 911 Ratings
🗓️ 23 July 2020
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic's ripple effects are broad; leaving virtually no industry, economy, or continent immune. As travel and tourism has been brought to a standstill, many wilderness areas are left vacant and workers left with the uncertainty of personal income. This "perfect storm" of conditions is leaving many endangered animals highly vulnerable to wildlife crime.
– Beverly and Derek Joubert, Project Ranger
In the last 50 years, Africa has lost 90 to 95 percent of its large predators. We could very well witness the end of many iconic species in the next decade or two. It's that urgent and we are in that much trouble. If we want to live in a world with lions and leopards and elephants and rhinos, then we've got to get behind those who are out there on the front lines.
Beverly and Derek Joubert have spent their lives on the front lines. They are award-winning filmmakers, National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence, and wildlife conservationists who have made over 30 films while researching, exploring, and doing vital conservation work throughout Africa for nearly four decades.
They've been on Species Unite before, and if you haven't heard their episode, go back and listen. Their lives sound like something from an epic film - romance, wild adventures, extreme danger, all fueled by a deep love for the wilderness and one another, and the stories that they tell are absolutely astonishing.
But, today's episode is different.
There is an urgent situation happening across Africa. Since the pandemic started and tourism shut down, there's been a funding crisis for wildlife rangers across the continent, and without the rangers, there will be no one there to protect the wilderness and the animals who live there. It's already bad and on the verge of getting much, much worse.
To prevent a full on poaching pandemic, Beverly and Derek have started an emergency intervention called, Project Ranger, an emergency fund supporting those on the front lines of conservation.
The situation is dire and it's something that we all can behind in one way or another, before it's too late. So, please listen and share this episode, share the powerful PSAs that the Jouberts have created, and if you are able, donate to Project Ranger.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | About a year before this we were in Uganda and with Rafiki and he was the most gentle |
| 0:08.4 | gentle gorilla that we've ever come across and I remember him rolling over and we try and maintain a good |
| 0:16.6 | distance away from guerrillas but sometimes they come towards you and he was |
| 0:20.9 | lying on his back and he rolled over and got a little closer to me than |
| 0:25.4 | perhaps we wanted and he looked up upside down looked up and as I looked into his face and into his eyes I saw something that was |
| 0:37.6 | absolutely terrified me. Me. Hi, I'm Elizabeth Novigrats. This is Species Unite. Today's episode is with two of my |
| 0:59.2 | heroes. Beverly and Derek Jibert are award-winning filmmakers, National Geographic Explorers and Residents, |
| 1:07.0 | Wildlife Conservationists who have made over 30 films, while researching, exploring, and doing vital conservation work throughout Africa. |
| 1:15.9 | And they've been doing all of the above for four decades. |
| 1:19.1 | They've been on the show before, and if you haven't heard their episode, go back and listen. The stories that they tell are astonishing. |
| 1:27.0 | Today's episode is different. There is an urgent situation that they're here to talk about, |
| 1:32.0 | and it's something that every single one of us |
| 1:35.3 | needs to get behind in one way or another because the situation is dire. So let's start with where you are right now and what your life looks like at the moment |
| 1:57.0 | because I want to talk about what your life looks like right now in these past four months |
| 2:01.2 | before we even get into what's happening with what your life |
| 2:05.2 | normally looks like and how drastic this is. |
| 2:08.6 | We're actually in Johannesburg in what we call Mission Control, Edit, Sweets and where we can obviously do all the conservation |
| 2:17.9 | work. |
| 2:18.9 | We were in Kenya, we were filming Cheetas at the time when we realized that all the African borders were going to go into a |
| 2:26.5 | shutdown and I think we really literally had a week to get ourselves organized and settled. |
| 2:36.7 | We were on our route to Botswana but then just decided we better use this base as our key base. Usually we were out in the bush at this time we would be in a tent and going out at |
| 2:45.8 | four in the morning as we usually do working the whole day with lions or leopards or |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from elizabeth novogratz, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of elizabeth novogratz and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.