The Life Scientific: Tony Juniper
Discovery
BBC
4.3 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tony Juniper is an environmentalist who has worn many hats, over the course of his career. After developing a passion for birds in childhood, his first job saw him working to save endangered parrots - including a successful effort to bring back the Spix's macaw from the edge of extinction. Tony went on to hold leading campaigning roles with some of the world's best known environmental organisations, from Friends of The Earth to the World Wildlife Fund. He also acted as an advisor to King Charles's International Sustainability Unit and co-authored three books with the monarch. Today, Tony has swapped lobbying and campaigning for advising the government, as head of the advisory body Natural England: not without its challenges, but he says they are still outweighed by the positives. Talking to Professor Jim Al-Khalili about his enduring love for nature and hopes for the future, Tony explains his optimism that we can and will recognise the urgent need to protect and restore our planet; and why ultimately, that means saving ourselves.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Hello, I've just nipped in before your BBC podcast starts to tell you all about |
| 0:09.4 | You're Dead to Me. We're the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Also from the BBC |
| 0:13.9 | and presented by me, Greg Jenner. I should have told you that at the beginning. Sorry. |
| 0:17.9 | Anyway, like many other BBC podcasts, such as Desert Island Discs, Evil Genius, or In Our Time, your dead to me is available first on BBC Sounds, |
| 0:26.3 | a whole month earlier than anywhere else, in fact. So if you can't wait another day to hear |
| 0:31.2 | the very latest in history and loads of other good stuff, then listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.5 | Hello, today's guest is an environmentalist whose career has taken him to some remarkable |
| 0:41.5 | places, from searching for parrots in the Brazilian rainforest to writing books with royalty. |
| 0:47.6 | Tony Juniper is the chair of Natural England, the public body that advises the government, |
| 0:52.4 | and indeed the rest of us, on how to protect and revive nature. |
| 0:56.5 | Over the years, he's tackled that problem wearing different hats, |
| 1:00.1 | from fieldwork, documenting endangered species, to campaigning on global climate issues, |
| 1:05.9 | to advising British policymakers and indeed the monarch. |
| 1:10.0 | Tony has also held senior roles in some of the |
| 1:12.1 | world's leading environmental organisations and has never been shy about plain speaking when it comes |
| 1:18.0 | to warning both the public and the powers that be about the deepening crisis facing our planet. |
| 1:23.9 | Threaded throughout his whole story as a lifelong passion for the natural world |
| 1:28.0 | and a determination that we should protect it. |
| 1:31.3 | Tony Juniper, welcome to the Life Scientific. |
| 1:33.2 | Thank you very much, Jim. It's a great pleasure to be here. |
| 1:36.0 | Now, as I just said, you've been an advocate for nature your entire life. |
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