Tony Juniper on parrots, princes and environmental protection
The Life Scientific
BBC
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2026
⏱️ 29 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.
Presented by Jim Al-Khalili Produced by Lucy Taylor for BBC Studios
Transcript
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| 0:56.5 | Hello, today's guest is an environmentalist whose career has taken him to some remarkable places, |
| 1:02.4 | from searching for parrots in the Brazilian rainforest to writing books with royalty. |
| 1:07.6 | Tony Juniper is the chair of Natural England, the public body that advises the government, |
| 1:12.5 | and indeed the rest of us, on how to protect and revive nature. Over the years, he's tackled |
| 1:17.8 | that problem wearing different hats, from fieldwork, documenting endangered species, to campaigning |
| 1:24.1 | on global climate issues, to advising advising British policymakers and indeed the monarch. |
| 1:29.6 | More on that later. Tony has also held senior roles in some of the world's leading environmental |
| 1:34.5 | organisations and has never been shy about plain speaking when it comes to warning both the |
| 1:40.3 | public and the powers that be about the deepening crisis facing our planet. |
| 1:45.1 | Threaded throughout his whole story as a lifelong passion for the natural world and a determination |
| 1:50.3 | that we should protect it. Tony Juniper, welcome to the Life Scientific. |
| 1:54.5 | Thank you very much, Jim. It's a great pleasure to be here. |
| 1:57.3 | Now, as I just said, you've been an advocate for nature your entire life. So tell me, |
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