'I care passionately about future of all life on earth' - Yorkshire conservationist Ian Redmond on working to protect animals and ecosystems

“[Now] as a biologist studying animals in their natural habitat, my focus is very much on how they fit into that habitat,” he adds, “and increasingly so today in our nature-depleted world where so many habitats have been impacted by human activities.”

Conservationist and field biologist Ian is talking just a few miles from where he grew up in the East Yorkshire town of Beverley. The sun is shining on the University of Hull campus where he has just given a lecture to more than 200 business school students. He was invited in as part of the school’s authentic business learning scheme, an approach designed to help students become ‘business ready’, by working on live projects within organisations and tackling real challenges.

Dr Satomi Kimino, a lecturer at the Hull University Business School, explains: “It is essential for students to get specialist knowledge from external guest speakers for their projects. [These people] are experts in their respective fields, and they bring in real-world experience and knowledge that may not be found in textbooks or scholarly materials. This exposure can help students develop critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and an understanding of how to apply theoretical knowledge in a real-world context.

“In addition, external guest speakers like Ian can also help students expand their professional networks. These events can lead to internships, job opportunities, and broaden collaborations with professionals in various organisations.”

Ian’s focus during his talk was on risks to biodiversity, conservation and the impact of climate change, as well as the illegal wildlife trade. “It’s like the extractive industry of wildlife,” he says of the latter. “People go into ecosystems and extract animals and then sell them, either as pets or sell their body parts for money. Much of the concern about that is driven by people who care about animal welfare, as do I, because animals shipped around the world in containers suffer and then they’re put into strange habitats that don’t match the ones you’ve taken them from and the animals lead, in my eyes impoverished lives, not in their natural society or habitat. Of equal concern is the welfare of the habitat...Ecosystems are impoverished [by the animals no longer being there].”

Ian’s career has spanned more than 40 years, beginning with work to research and protect mountain gorillas in Africa, after studying biology at Keele University. He is best known for his conservation work with great apes and elephants, having witnessed first hand the sad killing, by poachers, of a number of animals he has studied.

Ian has been a conservation consultant and advisor for organisations such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and has led anti-poacher patrols and guided film crews and special interest tours into close encounters with gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, elephants and erupting volcanoes. In 2006, he was recognised with an OBE.

These days, as well as being an ambassador for the UN’s Convention on Migratory Species, he is head of conservation at Ecoflix, a video on demand streaming service dedicated to the protection of the earth and its animals and is the co-founder of Rebalance Earth, which aims to “internalise the cost of ecosystem protection into the economy of businesses”.

He says: “I am a naturalist by birth, a biologist by training, and a conservationist by necessity. But conservation for me isn’t just about saving species. On a larger scale, the planet needs us to save functioning eco-systems; on a smaller scale, we must also recognise that species are made up of individual animals...I have had the privilege of getting to know individual wild animals in the wild... And I can truthfully say that some of my best friends are gorillas, and I care passionately about them and the future of all life on earth."