Original subtitles

We live on a crowded planet.

But there are still vast areas...

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

..where nature has the upper hand.

It looks like another planet.

I'm heading to the last great wildernesses.

I'll try to cross four of these rugged landscapes...

Oh, my God!

..on my toughest journeys yet.

I have to be honest - things are not going brilliantly.

A bit of a medical situation.

Help is a long way away.

- Well done.

- I want to meet the people for whom the wilderness is home...

Testicles for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

..to see how they live alongside nature.

Whoa!

I can stay down there for a minute or so.

He's still down there now walking around.

And in this critical time for our world...

Huge carcasses of great trees.

..seek out the rare and majestic creatures that still survive...

My heart is racing.

THUNDERCLAP

..in some of the most hostile environments.

Are you OK, Jonathan? - Yeah, yeah.

- ..and the remotest regions...

Bloody hell!

..of our wild planet.

Ssh!

- Coo-coo! - Coo!

Big cats roaming free.

This surely is the absolute definition of a real wilderness.

I'm travelling across the Kalahari Desert,

a huge area of wilderness that stretches across Southern Africa.

It's one of the wildest places on Earth.

I'm heading into a very remote region.

For mile after mile here,

there's just scrub, shrub and dusty dry land.

Everything here is growing in the largest

basin of sand on planet Earth.

At points here, the sand sinks 1,000 metres deep.

But despite the harsh terrain,

the Kalahari is bursting with life.

- Simon, close, elephant.

- Elephants!

Wow!

LOW GROWL

Here in the Kalahari,

in this very dry part of the continent,

there are still giant beasts walking through the sandy desert.

A vast wilderness the size of Germany, long eulogised

and romanticised, the Kalahari is a semi-desert

where seasonal rains ensure there's now food for wildlife to thrive.

But the Kalahari is just as famous for its people.

I'm travelling with Darm Debai.

He's one of the San - the indigenous people of the Kalahari.

There's a jackal.

- Cairee.

In our language we call it cairee.

Cairee. Say cairee.

- One more time. - Cairee.

- Airee. - Cairee.

- I can't do it, Darm, I can't!

HE LAUGHS

The San have been in the Kalahari for tens of thousands of years

as trackers, hunters and gatherers,

famous for their extraordinary survival skills.

Humans have always live here shaping and protecting the Kalahari

as much as any wilderness on the planet.

The Kalahari sits in the middle of Southern Africa,

straddling six countries.

I'm travelling through its dry centre

heading for the spectacular wetlands of the Okavango Delta.

I'm starting in the north-west, in Namibia, on my way to

a traditional San village.

Then I'll journey east into Botswana, travelling through

the vast emptiness of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

I'm hoping to end my journey at one of the greatest

concentrations of wildlife on this continent.

I'm heading to a remote village that is home to some of the last

great wildlife trackers and hunters

in any wilderness on the planet.

Denui is a small San village in Namibia's Nyae Nyae Conservancy.

People here live mostly in traditional San dwellings

made of wood and clay.

They have some livestock and crops,

but, far from any town, they also hunt to survive.

Darm has brought me to meet an old friend.

This is old Tui? - Yeah!

- HE LAUGHS

DARM: - But he's still young.

- He's still young.

You're not that old!

Tomorrow we'll head into the bush.

But now the sun's going down, it's time to rest.

Oh, my goodness.

TRANSLATION:

I'm all right, thank you.

Oh, my God.

It's like being in the forest.

Look at this.

It's like a work of art.

Oh, right, I'll get my little mozzie net up and sort my stuff

and have a little... a little camping faff,

while I organise my things. - Yeah.

- BOWSTRING TWANGS MELODICALLY

Tui and the hunters have offered to take me deep into the Kalahari.

It's still wild out there.

THEY CHEER AND APPLAUD

The San have been a crucial part of this eco-system

for tens of thousands of years.

Old Tui and the other trackers have an intimate understanding

of the wilderness and wildlife here, learned over endless generations.

We head out.

First task - hunting for a beetle.

For the San, the Kalahari is a pharmacy, pantry and armoury.

Tui is searching for the larvae of a beetle that lives only under

a certain type of bush.

Do you want me to do more of this?

Yeah?

The larvae contains poison they need for their hunting arrows.

Is that one?

Oh, my gosh.

It looks like the size of a jelly bean,

and it does look as though there's something...

..larvae or something inside.

- Yes, see this is the larva. - Yeah, just there.

- Yeah. - Wow!

Historically, the complex San language,

with its dozens of click consonants wasn't written down,

so knowledge and skills are passed down through the generations

by word of mouth.

Tui is keen to teach the younger lads the skills

and the secrets of making deadly poison arrows.

So, Tui, how many of these could kill a human being?

Wow!

You've got to stop to think how the hell did people discover this

in the first place?

And then he's going to squeeze it out like a pimple or something.

To avoid accidentally cutting and poisoning themselves,

the hunters don't apply the toxin directly to the sharp arrowhead.

It's coming out in droplets now.

So, that is now a very potent poison arrow.

It's a gruelling trek across the desert to reach the hunting grounds.

We're getting ready and we're heading out.

All right?

We're off.

The Kalahari is full of wildlife,

everything from small birds to spindly antelope

and burly wildebeest.

But animals here are wary.

They've spent thousands of years dodging human predators

and they know to keep well away from the San villages and San hunters.

So, we need to trek to reach the best hunting grounds

in the burning heat.

Yeah, make no mistake, this is a very harsh environment.

At last, there's signs of animals.

The tracks of a kudu - a large antelope.

So, can we see the tracks? - Yeah, it's this one.

- You can see, it's very distinct here,

but they can see so much more than just the track,

they can see the direction,

the weight and they can tell that it came through here this morning.

With evidence of wildlife all around,

old Tui decides it's time to hunt.

They've decided they're going to put a snare, a little trap, here,

to see if they can catch anything.

Traditional hunting methods used by indigenous wilderness people

generally have a tiny impact on the environment.

They're eating true free-range meat, and only occasionally,

and they're often in competition

with other four-legged apex predators.

- Because it hasn't got nails here,

the cheetah is the one with only have got nails while he's running.

Like it's faster at running.

- This was a running cheetah that came through here? - Yeah.

- So, a cheetah came through here

and now they want to know if it made a kill just over here.

So, the guys think a cheetah came through here and it had

spotted a kudu that was coming through there.

Maybe it took it.

You can just imagine the scene playing out here, can't you,

as they recreate it

using their skills and their imagination.

- It's finish.

This is the end of the story.

And a piece of bone... - It's right here. - ..is from a kudu.

- Where's the rest of the carcass?

- After the kill there is others who also come

and it's why we cannot find the whole body.

- The entire carcass of the animal,

bones and everything,

has been chomped and eaten

not just by the cheetahs, of course,

but other scavengers that have come in and gnawed and nibbled

and destroyed the rest of the animal.

That's all they found of it.

All right.

We're going to go and find somewhere to camp.

All right, let's do it.

- Simon. - Yes.

Fire, OK.

Go on, see if I can.

Team work.

Ready?

It's going.

And that is quite a sunset.

Look at that through the flames.

I wonder if we should film that.

Just a suggestion.

What are you drinking? - Coffee.

- How can you drink coffee at this time?

You will be awake all night.

But this is sounding extremely dangerous.

It's a wonder any of you are here.

I mean, everything out there it seems to be...

..to pose some sort of a threat.

We're up at first light.

The hunt is on.

So, the plan is that I'm going to follow them while they hunt,

and I'll carry a little camera

and hopefully then we'll get a more realistic picture of

what they have to do to put meat on the table.

Let's go.

The hunters find a fresh trail.

They've seen something.

WHISPERS:

They're not using high-powered rifles.

They've just got lightweight bows.

To increase their chances,

the hunters need to get as close as possible.

Ssh!

They'll only know for sure if they've hit the wildebeest

by checking for their arrows.

If they strike the target, the poisoned head breaks off

leaving the shaft on the ground as evidence of a direct hit.

So, this is where the wildebeest were.

They think they've shot arrows successfully into

two or three wildebeest.

The poison they use doesn't work instantly

so they now need to follow signs on the ground and track

and hunt those wildebeest down.

For thousands of years in this cradle of humanity,

this is often how we've tackled large, powerful animals,

pursuing them from a distance until they succumb.

It is strange even after just a short time with them,

you do start to see the landscape in a completely different way,

and obviously I'm like a toddler reading a picture book,

as opposed to them taking in the whole encyclopaedia.

But you do start to get a sense that there is this whole other dimension

to the landscape here.

They can see it, they can read it all.

One of the wildebeest has separated from the herd.

For hour after hour, we track it.

They think it's close.

HE WHISTLES SOFTLY

They can see the wildebeest ahead.

WHISPERS: Is that it in the grass?

Man, this is intense.

For now, the wildebeest is still too strong.

They're powerful and dangerous animals.

The hunters have to be patient.

Well, that...

..that was a herd of wildebeest

and to creep up on them like that,

that is one of the most primal experiences

I feel like I've ever had.

I'm totally invested in these...

..these guys, their community, their hunt for food.

The hunters have been unlucky.

The wounded wildebeest has made it back to the herd.

Well, that is really the end of the hunt for the wildebeest

because the herd have completely scattered the prints all around.

So, the guys have lost the track of the injured wildebeest

they were trying to follow.

So, that is a wildebeest they have lost that is probably going to

be taken by lions and hyenas.

So some of the wildlife out here will benefit from it,

but not their community.

This is a bloody hard way to provide for your family.

Dejected, Tui and the hunters

begin the long journey back to the village.

They have one last chance to avoid returning empty-handed.

A small game bird. What's it called?

- It's called francolin.

- A lot of effort for this little bird.

They are not guaranteed success.

Even the best tracker and hunter

does not have an astonishing hit rate

because this is the wild

and life is unpredictable here.

Meat, protein, does not come easy,

and they eat far less of it than people in higher income countries.

With the odds often against them,

perhaps it's not surprising there aren't many traditional San hunters

left in the Kalahari, but Tui and the trackers believe

hunting is about even more than putting food on the table.

Should we be worried there are so few master trackers left?

Across the wild Kalahari,

it's getting harder for the San to live traditionally.

In some areas they've been banned from hunting.

Many youngsters are being drawn and driven away to towns and cities.

Old Tui could be one of the last great master trackers

of the Kalahari.

Come on, mate.

It's been an honour.

I've loved every moment I've spent in your company.

You've got an infectious joy. - Yeah.

- Oh!

Thank you very much.

It's been an absolute joy.

I'm travelling on across the Kalahari,

from Namibia into Botswana

heading towards the Central Kalahari Game Reserve,

one of the largest protected wildlife reserves

in the whole of Africa.

A vast wilderness of more than 20,000 square miles.

- If you don't have the room then you can come.

- I know, I'm going to be trapped in here, in the luggage compartment!

- Yeah, we need you outside.

- This is Ali and Robson... - One last bag.

- ..and they're going to be taking me a fair old distance

across the Kalahari. - Yes.

Let's do this, Simon.

- Let's get running.

- So, this track takes us into the very heart of the Kalahari.

We're heading into the CKGR - the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

The CKGR brims with wildlife.

This part of the Kalahari was turned into a wilderness reserve

in the 1960s.

Originally it was set up to protect the people here, not animals.

The idea was to provide a wild land and sanctuary for the San...

..but since the 1990s, that's changed.

This area of the Kalahari has been home to the San

for tens of thousands of years.

But in the last few decades,

the San have been relocated or transferred out of the reserve.

It's been hugely controversial in Botswana, in Southern Africa

and around the world because one of the oldest of human

civilisations has been moved from one of its core historic areas.

The Botswanan government banned hunting and blocked drinking wells.

Many of the San were moved here to a purpose-built settlement

called New Kandwane.

It has roads and small concrete dwellings

and is now home to more than 1,000 people.

Some officials said the San shouldn't be

living in the wilderness without access to schools and health care.

Good morning. - Hey, good morning.

- Sorry.

Where are you off to?

- She's going home.

- Marsao Harasemi was just five years old

when she and her mother Mantisho left the Central Kalahari.

Can I sit here, Mum?

You don't remember the bush... - Yes.

- ..the way she does, of course.

- I grew up in New Kandwane and she grew up in the Kalahari.

- What were you feelings and emotions

when you were required to leave the Kalahari?

It sounds as if you find quite difficult here?

Can the San people be San

without hunting and tracking in the CKGR?

Does it feel to you as though the San were seen as less important

than the wildlife in the Kalahari?

Moving out of the wilderness hasn't been easy for the San.

Many adults here are unemployed,

living from subsistence farming and state welfare benefits.

Many claim they've lost their way of life without being given

new purpose and meaning through enough jobs or training.

It's clear the wilderness still holds a powerful allure.

But I am quite struck coming here

by how many of the homesteads

have still got a traditional hut, effectively, built outside them.

- That shows that we are still a cultural people,

and we are still into our culture.

Even if you put a bushman or a San in this house,

he or she is not going to change anyhow... - Yeah.

- The change, it's that structure,

but the heart of a bushman is not easy to just change.

- Marsao doesn't remember life out in the bush.

She's had a formal education

and became one of relatively few San to go to university.

- I got the inspiration right here in New Kandwane

because that's where we met different people here.

We met the teachers, we met the police, the nurses.

That's where we got the inspiration. - Mmm.

Marsao believes there have been advantages to life in New Kandwane.

She's keen for more of the San to have the same access to schools,

jobs and modern health care that the rest of Botswana enjoys.

So, this is the clinic? - Yes.

- Yeah, that's a much more modern facility, isn't it? - Yes.

As you can see, that side is there,

the maternity ward, and here's the consultancy area.

I believe, even as San, there is a time that we also have to

adapt to the life of today.

- The Botswanan government has been accused of human rights abuses

for evicting the San,

some campaigners say

because they thought there were diamonds in the Kalahari.

The government denies this

and insists the San were moved to provide them with modern facilities

they can't get out in the bush.

But at times they have also claimed the growing San population

was destroying wildlife in the Central Kalahari

and that conservation should come first.

Whatever the reason or reasons why the San were moved out of the CKGR,

it did spark a wider debate about what are wild places for.

Is a wilderness only a wilderness if there are no humans living there?

Often, indigenous people are absolutely central to a wilderness.

Often, they're the ones who help to shape it, create it,

tend it and protect it.

But here, I think there was a feeling

that to have a proper conservation area, that required the human beings

who'd lived there for thousands of years to be moved out.

However, on my wilderness journeys I've been realising that

humans are actually an integral part of many remote areas.

I'll see that more as I travel further across the Kalahari

towards a giant oasis in this great desert - the Okavango Delta.

Robson grew up in the Kalahari,

absorbing everything there is to know about the landscape

and wildlife around him.

He's like a walking guidebook.

- Aardwolf, you see it? It's here.

Oh, my God!

- It's a hyena. - No, aardwolf.

- Aardwolf?

It's an aardwolf, very rare.

- OK, the head is up there.

You can see two.

So, this is a pair.

You don't often see two.

- The aardwolf is a species of hyena which eats mainly insects.

Its favourite snack is the termite.

A single aardwolf can gobble down 300,000 in a day.

Have you seen these before? - Well, I only have seen them twice.

But that is after 18 years of guiding. This is very rare.

So, I'm so impressed that you get to see two.

And these are often more active at night.

Oh, look, wow!

I am a touch impressed. - Hey!

- It's hard to believe.

Very nice.

- So, this case should be safe out here.

Hyenas are not going to get into that,

but I need to take my shoes inside, cos apparently they like

stealing them from outside tents and having a chew.

I'm sure I can hear lions.

LOW GROWLS

There are lions going past my tent.

ENGINE STARTS

- We are going to the water hole.

Thank you.

- Lions.

They're here...at the water hole.

There he is.

The king of the Kalahari.

HE ROARS

You feel it so deep within you,

that primal, terrifying,

awe-inspiring roar.

HE ROARS

Kalahari lions are magnificent creatures.

The sheer volume of all wildlife here is truly awe-inspiring.

- That's a young jackal.

- Species that face near extinction in other parts of Africa

are still common here in this area of Botswana.

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

- There are elephants, elephants on the left

and at ten o'clock or 11, there's a herd of elephants.

- There's a herd of elephants!

- It's so unique.

The grassland is amazing.

- There were once 25 million elephants in Africa.

Now that's down to just 400,000

because of habitat loss and ivory poaching.

Across the continent, the population is still shrinking

but Botswana has almost a third of all the African elephants

left on the planet.

Botswana is home to the world's largest population of elephants

and that is such an achievement when you think how poachers have

targeted this animal in recent decades.

But conservation here has come at a cost.

The treatment of the San - truly the people of the wilderness -

is hugely controversial.

And on the edges of the Kalahari,

wildlife is coming into direct conflict with people.

As human populations grow, and areas that were once wild in the Kalahari

become farmland, the frontiers of the wilderness area can become

something of a battleground.

I've left the Central Kalahari

and arrived in one of the frontier areas where human/wildlife conflict

is having dramatic, even tragic consequences.

- How are you? - Very nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you, Simon.

- Ooh, let's go. - All right.

- This is Tata Monsentwa,

a conservationist who's tried to help keep the peace.

- And this is where the river passes when we get floods.

It's the river that separates the community with the wildlife.

- So, the community here is right on the edge of the wild?

- Yeah, true. - The wilderness? - Yeah, true.

It's a village called Kumaka Village.

- Are you from this community? - Yeah, I'm from this community.

- You grew up here? - I grew up here. - Hey!

- And we have cows and we have goats.

- Yeah. - Yeah, and also we do crops too.

It's more like a family, a family thing.

- COWS MOO

Cows.

There's cows wandering around.

So, Tata's taking me to see a farmer

whose lost some of her crops to elephants.

Are we here? - Yeah.

- We're here.

Oh, bloody hell!

It's a bit barren, isn't it? - Yeah.

- Ancoletsan Bablalefee is typical of many farmers here.

She grows crops to feed her family

and sells what she has left over for just a few pounds a day.

Oh, my goodness.

How do you feel about elephants now?

To protect their crops, farmers have been known to shoot elephants.

But Tata works for the charity Elephants for Africa,

and he tries to stop conflicts from escalating.

He helps farmers like Ancoletsan keep elephants out of their fields

using some pretty unorthodox methods.

He's cooking up a chilli bomb.

That is a lot of chilli.

So, that is now in operation, working? - Yeah.

- And, look, you can see the smoke spreading out across the field.

- Yeah.

- How effective is this at clearing a field of elephants?

- Imagine how you can feel it.

Elephants do feel it ten times more than you do.

So, that's why it is very effective against elephants.

- Local farmers are being encouraged to grow chillies

which produce the same chemical you find in pepper spray.

We're a good 20 metres away and I...

HE COUGHS

..can definitely feel the effects.

And imagine if they've got...

HE COUGHS

..several of them set up around the...

HE COUGHS AND SPLUTTERS

..set up around the field.

HE COUGHS

If I'm an elephant, I'm getting out of here.

The population of Africa is growing rapidly.

It's predicted to almost double by 2050 to around 2.5 billion people.

Providing food for everyone while conserving wildlife

and wilderness will be a huge challenge.

For Tata, it's an issue that's deeply personal.

An amazing scene here

with the elephants moving off as the sun sets.

- Yeah, it's a beautiful view.

- So, we've got within our sight at the moment

two, four, five, six, seven, eight,

nine, ten, 11, I think, elephants.

- Yeah.

- So, they are watching us quite warily, aren't they?

- Yeah, and you have to think of them as wild animals

because they are killing people.

- So it's not just elephants raiding crops,

it's taking lives? - Yeah.

- How many elephant fatalities have you had in your community?

- I would say around...

..maybe around four or five.

- Wow!

Elephants can be highly protective of their young,

fighting off predators.

When they're startled, they can see people as a threat,

and they can really lash out.

- My cousin was, er...

He went to see his friends and he unfortunately met an elephant

which... It was unfortunate that he saw it from a short distance.

He tried to run away from it

but because elephant is big,

it was able to see him running away even behind the bushes.

So, it kept chasing him until, you know,

it was able to hit him.

- I'm so sorry.

Tata's cousin died from his injuries.

In Botswana, elephants now kill more people than lions.

I think some people, perhaps many people,

would turn against elephants as a result.

- Yeah, they will. - But you don't?

- Er, I don't because it's a wildlife area.

You don't want to see elephants killing people,

but, you know, we can't push them away,

so it's more of finding a way to co-exist with them.

- I've travelled for weeks through this dry, parched wilderness

and I've hardly seen a drop of water.

But I hope that's about to change.

I'm leaving the arid areas of the Kalahari behind now

and heading towards the end of this part of my journey.

We're on our way towards the Okavango Delta.

The Okavango Delta is the largest freshwater wetland

in Southern Africa.

It's home to one of the most spectacular concentrations of

wildlife on Earth.

That draws in visitors to upmarket safari lodges,

creating a whole tourism industry in this area of the Kalahari

that I'm keen to understand.

Well, we've arrived...

Oh! ..somewhere very fancy.

My goodness.

All right, well, I'm knackered.

I'm going to get a good night's sleep tonight and I'll have a wash.

I will see you in the morning.

Ah, flipping heck.

So, this is the Okavango Delta.

It's known as the Jewel of the Kalahari.

Each year when the Kalahari is at its driest,

rain in the north flows downriver and empties into a huge

inland delta, transforming this part of the Kalahari Desert

into a lush, waterlogged oasis packed with wildlife.

It's been described as the closest thing to Eden left on the planet.

It's like a vast shallow bathtub

into which a river flows, and then wildlife comes

from across Southern Africa to drink and eat here,

which means it is a destination for seriously high-end tourism.

Some lodges in the Delta charge more than £1,000 a night

for a room. Ooh!

The tourism industry can be hugely damaging, but here,

like in so many other wild areas I've visited,

it provides thousands of jobs.

Rather than clearing land for farming or poaching,

tourism can give locals an economic incentive to look after landscapes

and wildlife.

Unless we're all going to start donating billions to provide jobs

and preserve wildernesses,

perhaps responsible tourism has a crucial role.

Is it stable?

- Got it. - Stable enough.

The tourism industry has helped make Botswana one of the richer countries

in Africa and helps preserve the wildlife of the Kalahari.

Koki Makodi is a Botswanan campaigner and conservationist.

- This is called a macuro.

It's actually a dugout canoe

which, traditionally, the people of the Okavango Delta have relied on

as a mode of transport to get from island to island.

- This is exceptional.

Here we are quietly, without an engine,

gently sliding towards two giant elephants close to us

and another three down there.

We've got more in the bushes here.

- I think we're very, very blessed, Simon, to be able to witness this

in our lifetimes.

- One of Koki's concerns is that tourism here hasn't done enough

for ordinary people

and that the indigenous people of the Kalahari have often been

marginalised in favour of the wildlife and the tourists.

How can we protect wild places, wildernesses,

whilst still providing jobs, opportunities

for the people who live there

and are a fundamental part of those places?

- I think tourism could do a better job.

When you have profit to make,

you don't want that profit to be challenged

and it served certain operators to enter this business at a time

when the people surrounding the old indigenous peoples of that area

were not highly educated.

So, it benefitted them in that they could pay cheaper wages.

- So, understanding that indigenous people

who have lived in a place, for sometimes thousands,

tens of thousands of years, they know stuff.

- Yes, and they need to be appreciated for knowing that stuff.

I mean, we've gone long enough without recognising

the importance of the people

who have kept the balance in these spaces,

and we need to listen to them.

- Don Joseph comes from a village where many people make

a living punting travellers around the Okavango Delta.

They've tried to build their business by working independently

from big tour operators.

- I'm part of the Poler's Association.

- So, I've been doing it, like, three years now.

Are you on social media, Don?

- Yes. - And so you get direct bookings that way?

- Yes. You just book to the community.

They will pay those people with them callers.

- So, you're earning the money directly?

It's not going through a tour operator in Europe or somewhere?

- No, it's just going to the community.

- That sounds pretty vital, that local people can have local companies

and earn direct from tourism or any other...

- Absolutely. - ...business. - Absolutely.

It's proving to be possible, but we need to band together to

kind of support one another to make sure that it is long lasting.

- What Koki is campaigning for is a system that could really help

to preserve wilderness areas around the world.

Wildernesses aren't empty.

They are full of life and often very full of people as well.

I think what I've learnt on this journey is that if we are going

to protect this wilderness - the Kalahari -

we're all going to have to get better at protecting

and looking after, educating and engaging with the people

who live here and know it best.

Our remaining great wilderness areas face many threats.

On my journeys I've seen how climate change is disrupting

these eco-systems on which we all depend.

Remote areas are also being targeted by ranchers, loggers and miners.

Our increasing human population is encroaching on the wilderness.

Surely, these wild areas are worth protecting.

They're home to our most spectacular and important wildlife...

..and we need them.

We're not separate from nature...

Whoa!

..we're part of it.

We need to know wilderness exists

and we need it in our lives...

..because living on an extraordinary, wild planet...

..is part of what makes us truly human.

It's been an honour.