On Saturday (21 March), wildlife presenter, environmentalist, animal activist and Compassion Patron, Chris Packham, joined our Global CEO Philip Lymbery at the Oxford Literary Festival to discuss the urgent need to protect the natural world.

Fighting for the natural world

Chris, a vocal animal welfare champion and broadcaster known for presenting Springwatch and Earth for the BBC, spoke to a packed audience at the sold-out event. He talked about his life, what inspires him, what troubles him and what gives him hope.

During the event titled ‘Wild for Life’, Chris explained how he has devoted his life to protecting and fighting for the natural world and that we all need to do our bit too, saying:

I think the one thing to recognise is that we all have a voice and we all have power and we can all take joy from using that voice and that empowerment.

I think too often we imagine that things are beyond our scope of impact. What I hear sometimes is people saying, I can’t do anything, I’m just a drop in the ocean. But my retort is… What is an ocean but a multitude of drops?

An exciting afternoon of discussion

Later in the day, Chris Packham and Philip Lymbery were joined by author, conservationist and co-owner of the Knepp rewilding project in West Sussex, Isabella Tree, and children’s author and Farms for City Children founder Michael Morpurgo, in a session called ‘Why should we care about nature?’

During the session the distinguished panel explored how compassion and nature go hand in hand. Factory farming, the biggest driver of wildlife decline, must be replaced with more regenerative methods that are kinder to animals, and better for our health and the planet.

Nature will bounce back

At the event, Isabella Tree called for the Government to do more to support nature-friendly farmers who are producing food in harmony with nature. She also highlighted that we simply can’t continue with traditional intensive farming methods to the detriment of our environment:

If we carry on conquering nature as we're doing, future generations will not be able to feed themselves – so forget about human health and wellbeing, forget about that wonderful walk out into nature to listen to birdsong on a spring morning. We won't be here… but nature will bounce back if you let it. That’s the miracle.

Michael Murpurgo emphasised how nature inspires him. He set up Farms for City Children, with his wife Clare to encourage children to develop a relationship with the natural world and teach them about the importance of humane and sustainable farming. When talking about his work, he said:

We should care [about nature] because it is us, we're part of it... It's our world, and we've got to look after it.
In the countryside, the earlier you can get children to look, to stand and stare and to think about what it is that they are eating, that's the way it's going to change.

At the end of the discussion, Philip summarised by saying:

We are all in this together, all of our futures are at stake. We must create kindness to animals, to people and to our planet.

Chris Packham is Wild for Life at Oxford’s Literary Festival