Rewilding the World with Ben Goldsmith

"Eighty percent of the world’s population lives underneath a light polluted sky of some kind. 

When you look specifically at Europe and North America that statistic rises to ninety nine percent. So basically almost nobody can see the Milky Way, or can see a truly dark night’s sky." 

Most of us in Britain can no longer see the Milky Way from our homes, and we have barely noticed the loss. My guest on this edition of the Rewilding the World podcast is Megan Eaves-Egenes, author of the wonderful new book Nightfaring: In Search of the...

"Come to Africa, find who should be responsible to carry out conservation and support that. Don’t take away the responsibility of Africans, because that hasn’t given us the results we need, and it’s very expensive. 

Find those government institutions, community institutions, those households that must carry out this work, and support them to do that."

For too long the story of conservation in Africa has been told by outsiders. In the latest episode of the Rewilding the World podcast Ben Goldsmith talks to Kaddu Sebunya of the African Wildlife Foundation. Kaddu argues brillia...

"Nature would like to change all the time, and that's guided by those landscape architects like large herbivores, but also other processes; wind, storm, disease, fire, flooding - you name it. Anything can change a landscape if we allow it." 

According to the European Commission as of 7 September, 650,458 hectares of land has burnt since the start of 2026, the worst year on record. 

Restoring big herds of wild herbivores such as bison and wild horses is one the keys to managing wildfire in Europe. 

In this episode of Rewilding the World Ben Goldsmith is joi...

"This is a natural progression of how to protect your borders. And the other advantage is that it's cheaper; it's already there. So I can see that as demands on the defence budgets go up and up and up, that warWilding will become more and more prominent because it's a cash win-win situation for the beleaguered defence budgets." 

Ben's latest guest is Jasper Humphreys, director of programmes for the Marjan Study Group in the department of war studies at King’s College London who has coined a new phrase: warWilding, “using nature in warfare”. 

In the earl...

"For me, the driver has always been love. It's been a love of thriving nature, it's been a love of rich and interesting landscapes and it's been this despair at seeing so few of them in our own country." 

Reading George Monbiot's book 'Feral' a decade ago opened Ben Goldsmith's eyes to the truly dire state of nature in Britain, and to the notion that rewilding is the big idea which has the potential to turn things round.

George is a truly brilliant and articulate nature campaigner. He emphasises that many of the landscapes in t...

"This was very much an aesthetic concept in renaissance Italy; the three natures. The sort of ornamented nature, the cultivated nature and then the wild. So I've always thought about that as a fairly key principle. There comes a point where you've just got to sort of let up on the tiller a bit, and that it's lovely to grow dahlias and tulips outside your door but for God's sake there comes a point where you've just got to stop!"

Legendary garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith is Ben Goldsmith's latest guest on Rewilding the World. Tom and Ben...

"Our aim is to re-create that sort of biosphere level peat land on a massive scale and unsurprisingly everything begins with water. And we need flowers and of course with flowers we’ll build insects so really straight and extraordinary complex botany on site and that’s gonna be really very difficult."

"The aim in any rewetting project that we might do, and Emblehope is one of them, is to restore the dynamism and a natural function of that landscape."

A big announcement on Rewilding the World! In the latest episode, visionary nature writer Benedict MacD...

"The bison will stay, no matter what happens here, and we will pursue all legal remedies for appealing this decision... but we will continue to manage a herd of bison, we will continue to open these lands to the public, we will continue to grow American Prairie." 

Ben Goldsmith is joined once again by Alison Fox, CEO of American Prairie, the ambitious conservation organisation working to protect and restore one of the world's great remaining wilderness landscapes across the Northern Great Plains of Montana.

Since Alison's last appearance on the podcast, the ground has shifted d...

"We are in an abusive relationship with nature and we all know what abusive relationships look like. They are when one part always takes, takes, takes and never gives anything back. That is the relationship we have with nature right now and that will not end well - for us - so it has to change."

In the latest episode of Rewilding the World Ben Goldsmith is joined by Tim Christophersen, the former UN Environment leader who pioneered the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. 

Now the Vice President of Climate Action at Salesforce, Tim recently w...

"Our dream is that children growing up in Newcastle should be able to stand on those terraces, look out and see this wonderful sort of wild landscape, and be able to go to it and spend time in it and see how food is produced naturally and be part of all that. Why would anyone want to deny that future for children in Britain?"

In this episode of Rewilding the World, Ben Goldsmith is joined by Craig Bennett, chief executive of the iconic Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts. Under Craig’s leadership, the Wildlife Trusts have become on...

"The work that I'm involved with is more at catchment, at river basin scale. So it's trying to do the best we can - for us it's within the Thames - to hold as many eels in it as possible within that can grow up and migrate back to the Sargasso."

The European eel is a truly fascinating creature, spending its life in freshwater rivers, streams, and even ponds, before turning silvery blue and swimming all the way to Bermuda’s Sargasso Sea to breed. Eels are disappearing fast. 

In this episode Joe Pecorelli of the...

"There's no silver bullet. It's a combination of efforts and it's a moving target. We constantly have to be adaptive, we constantly have to try and get ahead of the game and looking at it at a population level and not at an individual level is really, really important for the long term success here." 

African Parks made the astoundingly bold move of buying out a bankrupt white rhino farm in South Africa to rescue two thousand of these endangered giants. 

Now they’re busy translocating them across parks and reserves in Africa, often to plac...

"It's very important to remember - for the same reasons we bought back many of these other species like beaver, river otter, fisher, bald eagle - that all these species have a role ecologically in these ecosystems. And so the same questions should be asked for species like large carnivores to help restore those ecological interactions and ecosystem services."

America’s apex predator is the cougar, or mountain lion. They’re thriving in the West, but were wiped out two centuries ago in the East, where talk of restoring them has simmered for decades. After spending time in N...

"The amount of times I've been and just for a brief moment you almost sort of lose track and forget ... and you're just looking at this marvel on a really good migration day and the number of birds... and it's absolutely incredible and then the next thing you know, all of a sudden, you'll hear the gunshots start."

The massacre of migrating birds each spring and autumn around the Mediterranean is ecocide. It’s done mostly for fun, status and selfies; sometimes for delicacies. Nightingales and passerines of all kinds, turtle doves, kestrels, hawks, raptors and even st...

"I was driving once with my ranger - and we were in the car - and in front of us was a big, grey wolf. He was astonished. Both of us, we just stopped breathing."

In the latest episode of Rewilding the World Ben Goldsmith interviews Croatian conservationist Marija Krnjajic of Rewilding Europe. 

Marija Is leading an effort to restore and protect one of Europe's greatest wild places, the Velebit Mountains. After speaking with Marija, Ben found himself longing to visit this magical place, and so will you.

Ben Goldsmith is a British f...

"This place went from zero percent possibilities to sight a jaguar in two or three days to 100 percent possibility to see jaguars. This change in perception of the people, because now 'the jaguar is not a problem' is an opportunity."

Rewilding champion Deli Saavedra joins Ben Goldsmith again on Rewilding the World. 

Formerly Head of Landscapes at Rewilding Europe, Deli is now in Argentina leading the great Jaguar Rivers Initiative, one of the most ambitious rewilding initiatives in the world.

Ben Goldsmith is a British financier and rewilding enthusiast. Join him as he s...

"Myself and my colleagues were not fooled, we knew exactly what the were intending to do, and so we got the band back together and we rose up to build an army of activists and advocates to fight them over the last seven years."

Last year, Ben Goldsmith was lucky enough to visit the great Okefenokee swamp in Georgia; the largest federally protected area east of the Mississippi. The place is pure magic, full of birds and fish, alligators and the singing of frogs; dark night skies like he'd rarely seen. But it's a landscape under threat...

"If you give rivers more space to flood the lands, to bring sediment - sand, clay - they not only bring sediment, they also bring life!"

In this episode of Rewilding the World, Ben Goldsmith interviews one of the most impactful architects of rewilding in Europe, Dutchman Wouter Helmer. Despite being the most densely populated, intensively farmed and heavily developed country in Europe, The Netherlands is a rewilding powerhouse. 

Wouter's key insight is simply that rewilding offers the most effective way to protect communities from flooding which has blighted the Netherlands for centuries. As a r...

"The animals are already existing in a mindful, non-thinking state and it's us who have to experience that moment where everything stops and you're just being, you're just experiencing in the most direct way the absolute beauty that the natural world contains."

Like Ben Goldsmith, the latest guest on Rewilding the world, Dave Mountjoy, found deep solace in nature following an appalling family tragedy. 

Nestled in the foothills of the Pyrenees, Dave wrote a book about the profound connection he developed with his herd of native cattle and with the landscape that sustains them. Dave's b...

"What are the things that really might just make a difference that take us out of a conventional nature conservation headspace and start to really push the boundaries of what can be done? And of course of one of the huge advantages we have is we've got the land to do it."

In the latest episode of Rewilding the World Ben Goldsmith speaks to Bev Nichols, Forest Wilding Programme Manager at Forestry England, the largest landowner in Britain. 

Bev is overseeing a process of weaving wild nature back through England's national forestry estate. Few people h...

"I don't want to make a zoo. I don't to take care of those animals for eternity, I want them to live on their own and in order to have a sustainable ecosystem it's extremely important to have all niches filled in this ecosystem." 

In the place of the vast Siberian tundras were once great grasslands teeming with wildlife, until early humans hunted them out. 

In the latest episode of Rewilding the World Nikita Zimov explains how his Pleistocene rewilding project in remotest Siberia is using wild horses, muskox, yaks and even camels to restore th...

"If it quacked like a Duck, to be honest I don't think we’d be that excited about it but because it sings like an angel and it looks so beautiful and it lives in liminal spaces - these wetland areas where we don’t really feel at home - all those things add together to make the Curlew a very mysterious and very loved bird."

In this episode Ben Goldsmith is joined by Mary Colwell, Director of Curlew Action. She is also a writer, producer and a giant of Britain's conservation movement.

Mary has devo...

"We thought the project was over... We would lose the trust of the public and they were sceptical to begin with. We stuck together."

Michigan's mighty Boardman-Ottaway River has been liberated by the removal of four huge concrete dams, thanks to decades of hard work by Frank Dituri and Brett Fessell. In this episode you'll hear all about this staggering story of restoration.

Ben Goldsmith is a British financier and rewilding enthusiast. Join him as he speaks to people from all over the world who champion nature and are helping to restore habitats and wildlife...

"Our seas around the UK are so busy. There are so many different activities that happen on it, from fishing to offshore wind, to cabling, to shipping... so looking after and building space for restoration and regeneration and reseeding the sea is so important."

On this episode of Rewilding the World Ben Goldsmith is joined by Sandy Luk about the Marine Conservation Society's ambitious Wild Atlantic Coast campaign. It aims to restore seagrass meadows, kelp forests, oyster reefs and abundant wildlife along Britain's wildest coast.

Ben Goldsmith is a British financier and rewilding enthusiast. Join...

"They don't hate wolves, they just hate the idea of losing their livelihood. So for me, if we can prevent the conflict, and we can empower rural areas and rural land owners and ranchers to be the best stewards of the land that we can, that's the best way to keep conservation alive in the West."

In the latest episode of Rewilding the World Ben Goldsmith talks to range-rider Daniel Curry who works with cattle ranchers to foster coexistence with wolves and other wildlife. Daniel is doing vital work in a complicated situation. Until we find harmony...

"Something like 27 million people in Britain consider themselves gardeners. If you can harness those people, if you can get them thinking about their relationship with the natural world; with wildlife, with invertebrates, with bugs, with biodiversity, you're getting quite a big chunk of Britain heading in the right direction." 

In this episode of Rewilding the World Ben Goldsmith talks to Dr. James Canton, author of Renaturing: Small Ways to Wild the World. 

Discover how James transformed a humble two acre field into a buzzing haven by digging ponds, sowing meadows, and inviting wildlife back. Learn ac...

"What we really need to do, and what we're really trying to do with our work, is bring back that old forest condition and the main ingredient for that is time - we're buying these forests time." 

In this episode of Rewilding the World Ben Goldsmith talks with Shelby Perry from the Northeast Wilderness Trust. 

New England's vast and majestic forests have recovered greatly in the last century. Shelby and her colleagues are doing all they can to protect them into the future. 

Text Rewilding the World here. Let us know what you thi...

"Sea otters are the best long term solution for the health of the ecosystem and resiliency off of the coast as a keystone species." 

The release of this episode of Rewilding the World coincides with Sea Otter Awareness Week. Ben Goldsmith talks with Chanel Hason of Elakha Alliance, working to reintroduce vital sea otters to their former Pacific north-west range. 

Sea Otter Awareness Week is organised and sponsored by Defenders of Wildlife, Sea Otter Savvy, California Department of Parks and Recreation, the Elakha Alliance, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Text Rewilding the World he...

"The wolf is the devil in hundreds and hundreds of years of storytelling. If you're talking about the devil's right hand it's very difficult to talk about proper population sizes or quotas; you just want to get rid of him."

Imagine the reaction if the headlines proclaimed that Sri Lanka was to kill half its leopards, or Costa Rica half its jaguars. Well, here in Europe, Sweden is doing just that – downgrading or removing protections for vital, iconic species such as wolves, brown bears and lynx. 

In this episode of Rewilding the World Ben Goldsmith tal...

"These tortoises are absolutely the ecosystem engineers. They are incredible grazers, they are nutrient cyclers, they are seed dispersers, also just mechanically they are the largest creatures on these islands." 

In the latest episode of Rewilding the World Ben Goldsmith talks with Aldabra tortoise champion Celina Chien. 

The islands of the Indian Ocean once teemed with giant tortoises but European sailors harvested them nearly to extinction. Now the Indian Ocean Tortoise Alliance is carefully bringing them back, translocating them from island to island, and championing their cause. 

Ben Goldsmith is a Bri...

"I think what we need now is a new landmark Act of Parliament to set the vision for the coming 50 to 100 years; truly visionary in restoring nature at scale, but doing that in a way which is going to help the country to thrive in terms of public health, our resilience to climate change and to be able to secure our water and food security long into the future."

In this episode of Rewilding the World Ben Goldsmith speaks with Tony Juniper, Chair of Natural England, and a lifelong campaigner for nature recovery. As well as overseeing...

"We're essentially trying to create an AI powered research assistant to accelerate the rate of discovery and support biologists understanding even more and help the biologists come up with new hypotheses from their own data."

Imagine if we could decipher the language of other animals such as whales, monkeys or crows? How would that change our relationship with them? In this episode Ben Goldsmith talks with Katie Zacarian of Earth Species, which is using artificial intelligence to do just this. 

Ben Goldsmith is a British financier and rewilding enthusiast. Join him as he speaks to p...

"Our herd is north of 5,000 so I think it's the largest conservation herd in the country and it may be the largest herd period, even amongst non conservation." 

North America's iconic bison are recovering from the brink of extinction. Millions of bison once populated the North American landscape but by the turn of the 20th century, fewer than 1,000 remained. 

In this episode of Rewilding the World Ben Goldsmith talks with Canadian bison champion Tom Olson about the return of this majestic and vital keystone species to Canada. 

Ben Goldsmith is a British financier and...

"I saw everything that was missing from the sea of my childhood."

If you haven’t seen the latest David Attenborough film Ocean yet, you must. It’s a masterpiece. 

In the latest episode of Rewilding the World Ben Goldsmith speaks with one of the key people behind it, Enric Sala, from National Geographic‘s Pristine Seas campaign. It has secured protection from industrial fishing for millions of square kilometres of seas around the world. Enric is a true conservation hero. 

Ben Goldsmith is a British financier and rewilding enthusiast. Join him as he speak...

"We have to make this crime type too risky and lower the reward. We need to seize all the assets that they gain from their criminal enterprise... it's something I'm very committed to."

The illegal trade in wildlife and the body parts of wild animals is driving many creatures towards extinction; yet governments put little effort into busting the culprits and closing down this vile trade. In the latest episode of Rewilding the World, Ben Goldsmith talks to Olivia Swaak-Goldman, formerly of the International Criminal Court, who now runs a small charity named the Wildlife Justice Commission...

"Go for it. Go into any kind of career even if you don't have that ecological education and change the culture from within. That's just such a powerful moment."

How can rewilding and traditional pastoral farming systems go hand-in-hand? The grazing, browsing and movement of livestock has shaped our landscapes across millennia. In the latest episode of rewilding the world Ben Goldsmith speaks to landscape ecologist Toby Diggens to discuss how the rich agro-ecological history of Britain informs efforts to restore nature today.

Ben Goldsmith is a British financier and rewilding enthusiast. Join him as...

"Oyster reefs do this really special thing; they become a refuge for finfish species, for crabs, for all types of really important species and so it's really critical for all of those species to interact together and oyster reefs make that habitat."   

New York’s Billion Oyster Project is one of the most exciting urban rewilding projects ever. In this episode of Rewilding the World, Ben talks to Katie Mosher about the once vast abundance of oysters in New York and along the whole East Coast of America, the vital ecological role they play, and about plans for...

“You’re going to invest in a fund but this fund is going to own peatlands, sphagnum moss, re-wiggled rivers. It's going to restore farmland, it's going to own oyster reefs.”

How are we going to find the funding needed to restore nature at scale? Protecting communities and infrastructure from flooding, and drought, by rewilding river systems may hold the key. 

In this episode of Rewilding the World, Ben Goldsmith is joined by Rob Gardner of Rebalance Earth, a new initiative which aims to do just this.

Ben Goldsmith is a British financier and rew...

"We fill a law enforcement void that exists in the world's oceans and we'll continue to fill that void until government fills that vacuum. And then we'll hold government accountable."

Sea Shepherd is a truly heroic organisation, with four ships, brave crews and volunteers who hunt down the world’s worst ocean abusers: illegal fishing vessels, and whalers are amongst the word offenders.

Captain Peter Hammerstedt joins Ben Goldsmith to share some white-knuckle stories of environmental heroism on the high seas.

Ben Goldsmith is a British financier and rewilding enthusiast. Join him as he...

“There absolutely is no substitute for just seeing it but also smelling it, feeling it, hearing it. You can read all the books and watch all the films you like but there is absolutely no substitute for seeing it in the flesh.”

The mysterious appearance of seemingly tame lynx in the Highlands of Scotland raised questions about who released them and why. Scotland’s native Eurasian lynx are believed to have suffered extinction more than 500 years ago. 

In this episode Ben Goldsmith is joined by Pete Cairns of Scotland: The Big Picture, one of thre...