Escape from Extinction: Rewilding

- We must act now. The Earth is in crisis.

- We're facing a sixth mass extinction event,

with up to a quarter of all species on the planet

threatened with extinction.

- What is the cost of indifference?

We've identified

around 40,000 threatened species.

- Where is our point of no return?

Thirst for consumption-

Deforestation and overfishing.

Fossil fuel addiction.

- The growing threat to our natural world.

- When are self-inflicted wounds

too deep to heal?

- We cut down old growth forests.

We pollute our water.

- Numerous vulnerable species

targeted by poachers.

- We have done so much harm to nature.

If nature is not healthy, we won't be surviving this.

If Earth is our home,

how many windows can we smash?

How many bricks can we remove?

Populations are dwindling-

- How much can we crack the foundation

before it all comes crumbling down?

The house is on fire.

We really only have about

a decade to turn things around.

It's time to take action.

Rising global temperatures-

Drought, storms, and floods.

- It's the life support system of people

and the whole planet.

Ocean dead zone.

- Things are bad and it's getting worse.

Habitats vanished.

- We waited until it was too late.

To eventual human extinction.

Extinction.

Extinction.

1 million species.

1 million species.

- And we are losing 1 million species within the next year.

- And the biggest question of all,

can we still win this war

when so much has already been lost?

An international army of wildlife protectors says yes.

- Chief Veterinary Officer and animal ethicist.

- I'm the animal and plant director-

- Director of science- - Global director

of Humane Conservation. - President

and chief executive officer.

- Honorary Professor of the university.

- PhD. - PhD.

- Neuro- - Physiology.

- The world's leading animal experts,

veterinarians and scientists are fighting

to save our planet,

standing up to misinformation.

- Our fossil fuel use has protected us.

It's taken an unsafe climate and made it safe.

- And choosing facts...

- The world's hottest day on record...

Over fear.

Solutions over slogans.

Science over special interests.

- We're in a war and most people don't even know

this war even exists.

This is a lifetime battle,

a multi-generational battle.

No mistake, we're fighting a war

to keep these animals alive.

- When you think of animals in the wild,

it's a term we all use all the time, right?

But there's very little wild left.

- What does wild truly mean?

When every corner of the globe is connected and mapped

and touched by human hands?

Is wild a pure state of nature,

self-generating and beyond human control?

Every acre of wild lands requires expertise

and stewardship, from a mix of government,

indigenous and private management.

- There's no place on Earth which is not

under human control.

We control the whole globe,

so there's nothing that is not artificial

all over the world.

Farms, fishing, mining

and logging penetrate ever deeper

into tropical rainforests and national parks

from Southeast Asia to South America and Africa.

- One of my worst experiences was a visit on Madagascar

and then I was almost crying when I saw what is gone.

Now we're standing in a forest without trees

and no chance for animals to survive.

- Not even Antarctica can escape our grasp.

Considered the last true wilderness on Earth,

over two thirds of the South Pole's

land mass is now affected by human activity.

- And that's the reality. There is no nature or wild left.

- We have 8 billion people living here on the planet.

We take so much space and there's only

a little bit space left.

- The human being is the only organism

on the Earth today that can make a difference.

They either can screw it up or fix it.

The animals can't do that.

- A bold new approach to conservation science

asks us to dream bigger, and wilder.

Instead of just preventing the extinctions

of our favorite animals,

what if we could rebuild the patterns and connections

that support entire ecosystems?

- Rewilding is about bringing back a natural habitat

to its original form.

- I think rewilding in a more general sense

is about leaving things messier,

leaving nature to regenerate.

- Like shifting pieces of a living puzzle,

the addition or subtraction of one new piece can impact

the fates of so many others.

- Rewilding is a relatively new concept where we try

to restore nature

and reintroduce the natural processes

that got lost many years ago,

giving space for the biodiversity that

we need to get back.

- Rewilding projects have taken root

on every continent, in every biome.

Restoring of the lush kelp forests

of the California coast,

rebuilding the intricate webs of life in the rainforests

of Bolivia, renewing the human-wildlife connection

across the vast and varied climates of Africa.

In this quest for successful biodiversity models,

no nation has engineered a more remarkable turnaround

than Rwanda, a country that rebuilt its ecosystems

and its economy from the ashes of tragedy.

For most of the 20th century,

Rwanda was a biodiversity hotspot,

but in 1994, Rwanda erupted in violence.

- In 100 days, 800,000 people were killed.

With basic survival at stake,

it's easy to understand why wildlife conservation

was a low priority.

The Rwandan government was in dire need of land

to shelter hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

Their only option was to open the doors

of the country's largest wildlife preserve,

Akagera National Park, shrinking the park's protected area

to one third of its original size.

New conflicts exploded,

this time between humans and animals.

Desperate Rwandans poached bush meat to feed

their starving families.

Rhino horns were an easy source of illegal revenue,

one that caused the extinction

of the region's entire rhino population.

Lions died off, poisoned by angry cattle herders

in retaliation for killing the livestock so crucial

to their survival.

The conflict was clear.

The locals needed land and food security,

while the nation needed to revive its ecotourism economy.

But Rwanda was quickly losing its most precious resource,

the animals themselves.

- Rwanda has moved forward since those dark days,

both politically and economically.

- The new government recognized the importance

of restoring wildlife to rebuilding the Rwandan economy.

Akagera had the potential to be the economic engine

of the entire Rwandan nation,

a global attraction on par

with the iconic parks like Kruger in South Africa.

But the benefits had to outweigh the costs

for the people most directly affected.

- The public opinion is critically important

for wildlife conservation.

- You cannot protect and save species against people.

You have to do it together with the people living there.

- We have to show them that Akagera National Park

is their assets.

- And valuable assets need protection.