Reflections of a wildlife guide

Anne-Sophie Pagé (right) and other researchers at the Cabo Dos Bahias Magellanic penguin colony in Patagonia. Photo / Anne-Sophie Pagé

Looking back over the past year, we see many expanding threats to nature's integrity.

A changing climate, leading to increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather events; rampant forest fires in Australia, Brazil, Siberia and the western United States, the magnitudes of which have likely resulted in the loss of billions of organisms; increasing evidence of a massive loss of biodiversity globally; rising environmental pollution; and continued encroachment of human activity into hitherto natural areas.

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

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

How are these 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 changes be regarded by the species experiencing them? And what of the future: can they be reversed and if so how?

In this month's Nature Talks, 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, as seen through the lens of her 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.

Annie, as she likes to be known, is uniquely qualified to talk in this regard. She is a member of the Lower North Island Conservation Board, as well as being the advocacy co-ordinator for the Manawatū branch of Forest and Bird and the acting president of the Massey University Wildlife and Conservation Club.

She has represented New Zealand at various global conferences and leadership events, including the APEC CEO Summit and the prestigious Harvard National Model United Nations.

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.

Her talk, Reflections of a Wildlife Guide, will be given in the Davis Lecture Theatre, Whanganui Regional Museum, on Tuesday, October 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 Museum Botanical Group, and the Whanganui branch of Forest & Bird—in conjunction 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 each month.