Upcoming Nature Talks: Reflections of a wildlife guide

Anne-Sophie Page (right) and penguin research team in Patagonia. Photo / Supplied

In the past few years, many environmental threats have manifested themselves as never before.

These include mounting evidence of changing climates, leading to increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather events; rampant forest fires in Australia, Brazil, Siberia and the western United States, threatening people, property and wildlife; growing evidence of a massive reductions in biodiversity globally; rising environmental pollution; and continued encroachment of human activity into hitherto natural areas, diminishing nature and creating new frontiers for emerging infectious diseases.

Recent reports such as the latest UN Global Biodiversity Outlook from the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, compiled by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, illustrate starkly the increasing extent of these problems.

Covid-19 aside (and the emergence of this virus has been viewed by some as a manifestation of such changes), these ultimately pose a threat to human economic and social wellbeing.

How are these changes viewed by those who live and work at the interface between wildlife and people? Even if it is not easily knowable by people, how might these be seen by the species impacted by them? And what of the future: can the changes be reversed and if so how?

In this month's Nature Talks, rescheduled from one that was to have been given in October 2020, Anne-Sophie Pagé, a former wildlife guide and current veterinary science student at Massey University, will describe the hidden realities of what happens when humans channel whole ecosystems' productivity to themselves.

With experience stretching from Antarctica to Africa, from the coast of Patagonia to the expanse of the Pacific Ocean, she is well placed to explore these issues, having conducted research in these areas.

Embracing her green angst and expressing her hopes for the future, she aims both to spur action on climate change, perhaps the greatest existential threat to the world as we know it, and to highlight the importance of preserving our last wild spaces.

She has conducted climate-change research on coral reefs in the Pacific as a Sir Peter Blake Ambassador; ventured to the Sub-Antarctic Islands as an Enderby Scholar; helped combat the rhino poaching crisis in South Africa; and worked as a researcher on Magellanic Penguins in remote Patagonia.

As veterinary science graduate, she hopes to promote changes to animal welfare and encourage sustainable management of agricultural systems, both through public outreach and through policy change.

Annie, as she likes to be known, is currently a member of the Lower North Island Conservation Board and has represented New Zealand at various global conferences and leadership events, including the APEC CEO Summit and the prestigious Harvard National Model United Nations.

Her talk, Reflections of a Wildlife Guide, will be given in the Davis Lecture Theatre, Whanganui Regional Museum, on Tuesday, April 20, starting at 7.30pm. Entrance is free, although a koha is always welcome from those who can afford it.

Nature Talks is a series of bi-monthly talks offered by three local environmental groups—Birds New Zealand (Whanganui Region), the Wanganui Botanical Group, and the Whanganui branch of Forest & Bird—together with the Whanganui Regional Museum, on topics related to New Zealand's environment and natural history, and their conservation.

The talks are held on the third Tuesday of the month. For more information, please contact Esther Williams (06 347 8456).