What a brilliant interview! I really enjoyed reading about the conservation and human elements you discussed :) 

Hi Chrissy and thanks for your welcoming message :)

Our focus was across species, as our ultimate vision was rainforest protection: plants, animals and the culture of the peoples who lived there. My role as Biodiversity Lead was to make sure that Biodiversity was incorporated into the comms of the organisation (CoolEarth), so that the public and our supporters were aware that the biodiversity crisis is as critical as the climate crises, and that neither should be considered in isolation.

In the Papua New Guinea (PNG), we worked to incorporate indigenous knowledge, use of forest resources, and local languages about wildlife into our plans. Did you know that biodiversity, cultural diversity and even linguistic diversity are linked? And all are at risk of loss. This means there is a lot of work to do to preserve ecosystems, species and cultures. 

Do you have any insights into PNG forests from your Tropical Forest education? It's an amazingly unique landscape in PNG, and over looked (in my opinion!) compared tot he Amazon. 

As for an interesting animal story... one of the PNG office staff, Clifford, was passionate about amphibians. With our research partner, Dr Dahl, he worked with people in a partner village to survey frogs and discovered one of the world's smallest frogs! Have a read here.