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PROGRAMME INFO |
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Nature offers a window on global natural history. Each week Mark Carwardine rubs shoulders with animals and experts, providing a unique insight into the natural world, the environment, and the magnificent creatures that inhabit it.
nhuradio@bbc.co.uk |
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LISTEN AGAIN 30 min |
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PRESENTER |
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"What I enjoy most about Nature is the incredible variety of subjects. One week we could be fishing for zooplankton off the coast of Iceland and the next we could be hunting for fossils in Dorset. We're also very fortunate in meeting many of the world's experts - all of whom are really passionate about their subjects. It's good being able to bring all of these experiences into one programme that truly explores the natural world."
Mark Carwardine |
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PROGRAMME DETAILS |
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EU Reforms and
African Elephants
Mark Carwardine starts the new series by looking at something that, more than anything else, is likely to determine the fate of wildlife right across the European continent. And, on the African continent, Nature visits Mozambique's greatest wildlife secret - an enormous reserve, virtually unknown to the outside world, that is home to the last great tuskers - Africa's largest elephants.
Since Nature was last on the air, proposals have been announced by the EU that will transform farming across Europe. For years, environmentalists have been calling for the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. In its present form, subsidies which reward farmers for high yields of crops and for keeping large numbers of animals have led to the intensification of European agriculture. Pesticides and herbicides have wiped out wildlife, overgrazing has destroyed entire landscapes, and large areas devoted to single crops have left no room for birds that once thrived in the more traditional mosaic of mixed farming.
Now, Franz Fischler, the European Agriculture Commissioner has proposed reforms that remove all direct production subsidies and that appear to shift the emphasis towards the environmental benefits of farming. But what exactly will they mean for Europe's wildlife? Mark Carwardine discusses the future for British wildlife with Mark Avery of the RSPB, and looks at the consequences for Europe's wildlife hotspots - mostly found in countries with small-scale traditional farming - with Davy McCracken of the European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism.
Then there is an extraordinary opportunity to experience the wildlife of a virtually unvisited reserve, the size of Wales, hidden in northern Mozambique. When wildlife writer and filmmaker Brian Leith was offered the opportunity to visit Niassa, he jumped at it. Despite Mozambique's war-torn history, this enormous reserve has survived virtually untouched. And it is home to a handful of the largest elephants left in Africa.
Brian flies in by long-distance helicopter, over the extraordinary landscape littered with enormous rocky outcrops - inselbergs - to the remote heart of the reserve. He heads off in search of the elephants, meets the chief warden of the reserve who is struggling to keep poachers out with very limited funds and less than 100 men, and finds out why villagers have been helping the poachers in the past and what can be done to reconcile the needs of people and wildlife. There are plans to link Niassa with an even larger reserve just over the border in Tanzania, to create the world's largest wildlife reserve - but is this a pipe dream or a practical reality? |
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RELATED LINKS
BBC Nature
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