Creation is groaning with ever increasing distress. Those at the frontlines of the fight to reverse the frightening trends need strategies for staying strong. Each episode of Field Notes concludes with our guest sharing practices they have adopted in pursuit of a life lived hopefully and in a departure from our usual format, Rick and Jo revisit some of their favourites. Listen and be inspired by the creative, profound and wise ways conservationists around the world embody hope in their daily ...
Plastic has a rather dirty reputation these days. There are few places on land or underwater where you won’t find discarded plastic waste causing harm and havoc. Thomas Chhoa has spent his life in the petro-chemical industry creating plastic, and he still believes this is a wonder-material and overall a force for good in the world. Now a Senior Advisor with the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, he is working at the highest levels to develop a circular plastics economy, and argues we need to retu...
Peter Harris founded A Rocha in the early 1980s and has given his life since to the cause of nature conservation. He has long known the vital importance of the question of how and why to value nature. In this conversation with Rick and Jo (his daughter!) he explores the different explanations he has encountered for the worth of the non-human world and why he believes money lies at the heart of it all.
Verónica is a transplant to the USA from Argentina. As a plant molecular and cellular biologist and a plant lover, she soon began getting to know the fora of her new home, discovering the extent to which native plants were suffering as invasives flourished. As Texas Conservation Project Director for A Rocha USA, she now spends much of her time killing Glossy Privet in many ingenious ways, and as a result the Bull Creek Watershed is full of diverse life again. We talked to her about the nitty ...
Rev Jacynthia Murphy is of Māori descent and serves in a Pākehā parish. In this conversation with Rev Silvia Purdie and the Field Notes hosts she discusses her indigenous perspective on faith and her passionate environmentalism. She is one of the women featured in “Awhi Mai Awhi Atu: Women in Creation Care,” edited by Silvia (Philip Garside Publishing, 2022). Silvia is a counsellor and pastoral theologian who offers training for environmental sustainability and is communicates extensively abo...
There is little in life with more direct environmental impact than food - how and what we produce, where we source it and how it gets there, how we prepare it and what we do with the waste. How do we balance sometimes competing factors and make food choices that honour God and the world he loves and has tasked us to look after? Food is a passion for Jasmine Kwong. As a creation care advocate for OMF International and a Catalyst for Creation Care for the Lausanne Movement, she also cares deepl...
Jayaprakash Bojan (JP)’s photo of a giant male orangutang peeping at him from behind a tree in a Borneo river won him National Geographic’s Nature Photographer of the Year in 2017. The image was seen by over 3.5 million people, propelling both him and the plight of Red Apes into the spotlight. In this conversation with A Rocha co founder Peter Harris and Jo Swinney, JP talks publicly for the first time about his burgeoning faith in the Creator of All, the values that underpin his approach to ...
While the outlook for biodiversity is rather bleak, all the evidence says conservation works - we just need to do it well and do it more. It sounds simple, but often well-intended interventions have unintended consequences, or aren’t very effective, or become unmanageable over time. How do we learn the important lessons, what does success mean in this context, and how does someone in Jeremy’s line of work remain hopeful? Jeremy Lindsell has been working on globally threatened species and trop...
Growing up, Sylvia spent a lot of time on the family farm just outside Nairobi, Kenya. Where she remembers a wide open landscape, there are now blocks of flats and a hospital. Reliable rains have been replaced by four seasons of drought and the land can no longer support the herds of livestock it once did. We talk to her about the role of media in addressing the catastrophic loss of biodiversity and climate change in Kenya and how her generation are rising to the challenges of their uncertain...
Jo and Rick are joined by Jo Herbert-James to discuss the themes in Jo Swinney’s Lent book, “The Whole Easter Story: why the cross is good news for all creation.” What does our relationship with God have to do with how we live on this earth? How is the death and resurrection of Christ relevant to the current crises of biodiversity collapse and climate change? And are us humans really all that matters to God or just part of the picture?
This is the United Nations Decade of the Ocean, bringing an increased focus on caring for the ‘blue’ bit of the planet. Governing marine and coastal areas involves convening a multitude of groups - often with competing interests. Agreeing a management approach that works not only for the humans but the many other living things in the ecosystem may be difficult but it isn’t impossible, as Environmental Geographer Dr Tim Stojanovic can testify. Over his 30 year career, Tim has researched how n...
Cindy Verbeek left her city life for a rural Eden in northern BC, Canada, where the air was clean, bears nonchalantly wandered along the local high street and preserving nature was hardwired into community life. It might have seemed an ideal situation for a dedicated naturalist giving her life to conservation. In reality, many years of struggle, discouragement and isolation were to follow, before she learnt how to speak the heart language of her adopted home and everything changed. If you ha...
To halt and reverse the terrible trends in nature loss and climate change requires collaboration at international levels. With every country coming to the table with its own interests and agenda, it is no small task to agree joint commitments that stand a chance of changing the global outlook. Thankfully, there are good people in the room equal to the challenge. Among them is Dr Cyriaque Nikuze Sendashonga, who has worked in the policy and politics of biodiversity conservation for over forty...
The choice to start a family is always a great act of faith, hope and courage. In these unprecedented days of biodiversity collapse, climate change and societal upheaval, all the more so. Doro is a marine biologist from Germany, whose love of the ocean goes back to her earliest memories. She is all too familiar with the state of the planet and yet she has recently become a mother. In this honest and raw conversation, she brings us into the adventure of motherhood and marine biology and her ho...
Is carbon offsetting just something to make us feel a bit better about our climate-harming behaviours? How does it actually work and is there good science behind the numbers? Caroline leads Climate Stewards, one of the organizations in the A Rocha family. She talks us through the principle of the downward spiral underlying their measure, reduce, offset process and tells some captivating stories which bring to life the wholistic benefits of offsetting to habitats, species and human communities.
Raised in Southern Chile in a family of farmers, teachers and pastors, Cristina never realized how all those areas could be linked with God's purposes to bring redemption to all his creatures. For most of her life, she worked as a staff member in a church in the big city, leaving her love for nature for holidays. In this delightful conversation, she shares the story of how some unexpected friendships and an internship with A Rocha Canada gave her a new purpose and a community. She co-fo...
Most of us live largely disconnected from the production of our food, but whether or not we give it much thought, each mealtime puts us in relationship with our fellow creatures, the soil, the air and the water. Abby and Carly are farmers at A Rocha Canada’s Brooksdale, BC site. They tell us why a conservation organization grows, eats and gives away so much food, why they love to welcome inexperienced helpers who often slow them down, and what the rhythms of the seasons have taught them about...
In 2023, Rui, his wife Debora, and their two young children moved their life from a campervan to Cruzinha, A Rocha Portugal’s field study centre in the Algarve. It is hard to imagine a more radical change but it is one their family has embraced wholeheartedly and with delight, notwithstanding the challenges. In this honest and inspiring conversation, Rui tells stories and reflects on how it feels to live in a home with a constantly changing array of people, united by a common love and concern...
More and more Christians acknowledge God’s call to care for his creation, and yet resist taking action. Kuki has preached, taught and written on creation care to audiences around the world for decades, and believes the main barrier is our love of convenience. From Mizoram in North East India and recently appointed as A Rocha International’s first Director of Church Engagement, she tells us about her hopes for the role and what spurs her on despite the challenges.
Federica Marsi is a multi-lingual freelance journalist who has filed dozens of hard-hitting reports from everywhere from Tunisia to Lebanon, Jordan to the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Federica’s life and career were going well and then lockdown happened and everything was taken away. Here she shares her remarkable story about what happened next, and how she left her flat in Milan on an improbable journey to Kenya which eventually leads to A Rocha and Mwamba, its field study centre ...