I am so glad you could join us. I'm your host Mo Gaudet. This podcast is nothing more than a conversation between two good friends sharing inspiring life stories and perhaps

some nuggets of wisdom along the way.

This is your invitation to slow down with us.

Welcome to slow more. My guest today is an ecologist and a philosopher who has dedicated his life to the management and protection of nature reserves.

He's an expert in biology, Celtic linguistics, literature, comparative religious studies, and Eastern philosophies.

This is a unique range of disciplines that has led him to advocate that a sustainable future for the community of all life beings is more important than just us humans.

He comes from an understanding that the well-being of nature and the earth is inseparable

from our own well-being.

Matias, thank you so much for being with me today.

Thank you so much for being with me today. Thank you very much.

I want to start with your story and how you ended up dedicating your life to fighting for the environment.

After I finished my master study in biology in Holland, I embarked upon a PhD project in Ireland, studying petons, bogs as they call them an island.

And they had been very poorly studied and I was very

enthusiastic about getting more and more information about these not so well-known

peatlands, but while I was doing my research they were simply being cut away from under my feet.

Because in Ireland, there were at that stage quite a big number of beet-fueled energy stations

because about 70% of Irish electricity was burned from bait.

So at a large scale box were disappearing.

And so at a certain moment I had to decide either to move on as quickly as possible to collect the data that I needed for my PhD or to do something about their conservation because at that stage,

Ireland didn't have a very strong governmental conservation.

There was a small wildlife service within the government with very little funding.

And moreover, Irish people felt that bogs were newest,

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