Full People for Planet Summit programme released

Join us on 8 October at London’s Royal Institution for Whitley Fund for Nature’s second People for Planet Summit.

Ahead of the milestone COP30 in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, this one-day event brings together Whitley Award-winning conservationists and global experts to share solutions to protect and restore nature.

Hear from 18 speakers from 10+ countries across 7 flagship talks, panels, interviews and an evening of storytelling. From tracking species from space to looking at how Big Finance can close the $700 billion annual nature finance gap, explore solutions to save biodiversity around the world.

UNMISSABLE PROGRAMME

Hear updates from the field from Award-winning conservationists working together with communities in some of the world’s most biodiverse countries: Farwiza Farhan, Dr Fernando Trujillo, Dr Rachel Graham, Dr Munir Virani, and Anjali Watson.

Dr Dino Martins, entomologist, WFN Trustee and 2015 Whitley Gold Award winner, will explore what makes a modern-day conservationist in his lightning talk and Q&A.

Dr Drew Purves, Nature Lead at Google DeepMind, will explain how AI is helping to map the biosphere to better identify which areas of the world need the most protection and Professor Alexandre Antonelli, Executive Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, will join a panel on the future of forests and make the connection between nature and climate.

Professor Martin Wikelski of ICARUS, will discuss how tracking thousands of species from space using tiny AI sensors will help conservation. The “Internet of Animals” will deepen our understanding of species’ behaviour and their response to challenges, including climate change. Oliver Withers, Standard Chartered’s Head of Nature, will discuss how to balance the interests of the planet with the interests of investors.

We’ll also be joined by moderators Tom Heap, broadcaster, author and WFN Trustee; Luxmy Gopal, BBC News presenter and reporter; Dr Anjana Ahuja, science writer; Maeve Campbell, climate journalist; and Lara Williams, climate change columnist.

End the day with an evening of storytelling that will take you from the Amazon rainforest to Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem, the last place on earth where elephants, rhinos, tigers and orangutans co-exist. Join our award-winning conservationists, WFN Ambassador Alastair Fothergill OBE, and Amir Nizar Zuabi and members of THE HERDS for an evening of storytelling with a theme of ‘Turning the Tide: the stories that inspire change’.

host

LIZ BoNnin

Liz Bonnin is a renowned science and natural history broadcaster, celebrated for her work on award-winning programmes like ‘Drowning in Plastic’ and ‘Blue Planet Live’. With over 40 primetime credits, her work spans wildlife behaviour to urgent environmental issues.

In Galapagos, Liz joined scientists for groundbreaking research, including a 1km submersible dive – the deepest on the archipelago and in her most recent series ‘Liz Bonnin’s Wild Caribbean’ saw her return to her roots to explore the region’s unique biodiversity and conservation efforts. She is a lead presenter on ‘Our Changing Planet’, a seven-year project documenting the fight to protect Earth’s ecosystems. In ‘Arctic from Above’, Liz examined climate change’s impact on Arctic wildlife, and in Secrets of the Jurassic Dinosaurs, she explored a fossil site transforming our understanding of the Jurassic period.

Liz also hosted the BBC podcast ‘What Planet Are We On?’, featuring guests like Sir David Attenborough and Christiana Figueres, and recently fronted award-winning podcast ‘Dead River’, a series on Brazil’s worst environmental disaster and the UK’s largest-ever environmental court case.

She holds a master’s in wild animal biology and is a passionate speaker on science, conservation, and systemic sustainability. In 2024, Liz became a National Geographic Explorer and received the Society’s Wayfinder Award. She is also the first female president of The Wildlife Trusts and an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association.

Guest speakers

alastair fothergill obe

Alastair Fothergill OBE co-founded Silverback Films in 2012 after a long and highly acclaimed career at the BBC’s Natural History Unit. He has been at the forefront of natural history programming for over 30 years, including the BAFTA award-winning ‘The Really Wild Show’, BBC1 series ‘The Trials of Life’ with Sir David Attenborough; and Series Producer of BBC’s landmark series ‘The Blue Planet’ and ‘Planet Earth’; Executive Producer of ‘Frozen Planet’.

He was a Series Producer for Netflix’s first landmark natural history series ‘Our Planet’, co-directed the movie ‘David Attenborough: A Life Our Planet’, and executive produced ‘Wild Isles’, a British natural history landmark for BBC 1.

Dr Dino J Martins

Dr Dino J Martins is a Kenyan entomologist and evolutionary biologist. His work on pollinators and with farmers has focused on the “little things that run the world” and the deep intrinsic connections between human life, livelihoods, and nature. The 2015 Whitley Gold Award winner, Dino is now a Trustee of the Whitley Fund for Nature.

Dino is Director of the Turkana Basin Institute, leading research at the intersection of evolution, genomics, climate change, biodiversity and sustainable development. He has researched insect-plant interactions and worked with farmers on sustainable agriculture. Author of “Our friends the pollinators,” Dino has examples of crops, including passion fruit and eggplant which have seen a tenfold increase in yields thanks to better pollination. Dino has a PhD from Harvard.

DR DREW PURVES

Dr Drew Purves has a 25-year history in quantitative and computational ecology, with a focus on utilising and developing new methods to map, understand, and forecast ecosystems, at scales from local to global.

He also actively encourages and mentors upcoming generations of researchers. In his current role, he has responsibility for a growing portfolio of nature-focused projects at Google DeepMind, a world-leading AI research lab committed to building AI responsibly for the benefit of humanity.

Prior to Google DeepMind, Drew spent 18 years in ecological research and environmental data science at the University of Cambridge, University of York, Princeton, and at Microsoft Research Cambridge, leading and collaborating with different groups of scientists, universities and NGOs. Drew joined Google DeepMind in 2015.

PROFESSOR ALEXANDRE ANTONELLI

Professor Alexandre Antonelli studies the distribution, evolution, conservation and sustainable uses of species and develops methods to speed up scientific discovery and innovation.

He has published over 250 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters and he has been named on the Web of Science ‘Highly Cited Researchers’ list, which identifies pioneering researchers in the top 1% of their field, every year since 2020.

He is also Professor in Biodiversity and Systematics at the University of Gothenburg, a Visiting Professor at the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford and a Distinguished Scientist and Visiting Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

He is a Trustee of WWF International, the President and Co-Founder of the Antonelli Foundations for Biodiversity Research and Conservation, Principal Investigator of the Atlantic Forest Research and Conservation Alliance, Founder of the Hidden Universe: Biodiversity initiative and member of the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits.

His book, ‘The Hidden Universe – Adventures in Biodiversity’, was published in 2022.

professor maRTIN WIKELSKI

Professor Martin Wikelski is the founding Director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and Professor in Biology at the University of Konstanz.

Wikelski investigates global animal migrations with the goal of creating an intelligent sensor network of animals -pioneering a system for continuously tracking thousands of animals from space, ICARUS.

He and his team strive to understand and predict which decisions animals will make on their journey, how animals will interact with their ever-changing environment, and the consequences their migrations have on ecosystems and humans. This insight will enable us to predict the impact that we humans have on these processes and allow us to understand the future consequences.

He previously worked at: University of Washington, Seattle, WA; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Princeton University.

Oliver Withers

Oliver Withers is Head of Nature at Standard Chartered and leads the Nature Finance innovation hub, working with colleagues across the group to further integrate biodiversity and nature considerations into the firm’s business activities and decision-making. In this role he has contributed to the Bank’s inaugural Nature Position Statement, early adoption of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures recommendations, the Bahamas debt conversion for marine conservation and joining the #BackBlue Ocean Finance Commitment.

He was previously Global Head of Biodiversity at Credit Suisse, working on transactions such as the world’s first outcomes-bond, the rhino bond, and sovereign debt for nature swaps. Before this, Oliver was the Head of Conservation Finance and Enterprise at the Zoological Society of London where his remit included outcomes-based financing, conservation-linked economic development through integrated marine protected areas, the spinning out of the Net-Works™ project into an independent social enterprise, Coast 4C, and ESG assessments in key forest risk soft commodity sectors. Oliver began his career in financial services, where he ultimately became the head of asset management for a pan-African investment bank before pursuing a career in sustainability and nature finance.

Oliver has an MSc in Finance from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and a BCom in Economics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. He is a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London.

AMIR NIZAR ZUABI

Amir Nizar Zuabi is an award-winning theater writer and director. He is creating a show for Riksteatern Theater in Stockholm and writing a new play for the Guthrie Theater. Zuabi is the founding artistic director of ShiberHur Theater Company, a member of the United Theaters Europe for artistic achievement and an artistic advisor for the Palestinian National Theatre.

He is also an alumnus of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program and the former associate director of the Young Vic theater in London. His 2021 TED Talk explores his work as artistic director of “The Walk.”

Zuabi has written and directed extensively for festivals and theaters around the world, including pieces such as I am Yusuf, Three Days of Grief and Grey Rock. He directed Jidarriya by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish for the Edinburgh International Festival and The Comedy of Errors for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is currently creating a show for Riksteatern Theater in Stockholm and writing a new play for the National Theatre in London.

moderators

DR ANJANA AHUJA

Dr Anjana Ahuja is a contributing writer on science, offering weekly opinion on significant developments in global science, health and technology. She was previously a feature writer and columnist at The Times in London.

She is the co-author, with Professor Mark Van Vugt, of ‘Selected: Why Some People Lead, Why Others Follow, and Why It Matters’ (2010), on the evolution of human leadership. With Sir Jeremy Farrar, she also co-authored the bestselling ‘Spike: The Virus Vs The People’ (2021/updated paperback 2022), on the inside story of the Covid-19 pandemic. Spike was shortlisted for the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Writing and is shortlisted for the 2022 Royal Society Science Book Prize.

Anjana has a PhD in space physics from Imperial College London, and studied journalism at City University, London.

Maeve Campbell

Maeve Campbell is a climate-orientated journalist and presenter. Having founded the first Green section at Euronews, she led the platform for five years, before going on to have articles published in the Guardian, the Evening Standard and Fast Company.

She is a media advisor for Cambridge University’s sustainability institute and writes a regular column for Forbes, from the quirks of solar geoengineering to whether a billionaire tax could close the climate finance gap.

Maeve is currently a presenter and producer at Channel 4 News in London and an experienced panel moderator and interviewer.

Luxmy Gopal

Luxmy Gopal is a BBC News presenter and reporter. During her BBC career, she has worked in national and regional news, in TV and radio, and for current affairs programmes. She is currently seen hosting weekend shows for BBC Breakfast, presenting live rolling news on the BBC News Channel, and both reporting and presenting for BBC London News.

While broadcasting is her passion, her earliest ambition as a young child was to follow in the footsteps of Sir David Attenborough, sparked by an interest in his documentaries, combined with a love of wildlife. While the documentary-filmmaker ship may have sailed, her keen interest in wildlife – particularly big cats – endures.

Tom Heap

Tom Heap is a broadcaster and author specialising in science, environment and land use. He is a regular presenter for Countryfile on BBC1 and joint host of Rare Earth on Radio 4.

He has made many films for Panorama and a long running environment show for Sky News. He has written two books – ’39 Ways to Save the Planet’ and ‘LandSmart’.

Tom has been a long standing WFN Ambassador and finds co-presenting the Whitley Awards a highlight of the year. 

Lara Williams

Lara Williams is a climate change columnist at Bloomberg Opinion, covering everything from carbon offsets to progress in shark conservation. In 2024, she was one of the winners of the Press 30 Under 30 Awards.

Lara has an MA in Interactive Journalism from City, University of London and a BA in Textile Design from Chelsea College, University of the Arts London. During her undergraduate degree, a trip with Operation Wallacea to Transylvania, Romania helped cement a
passion for wildlife conservation and biodiversity.