The Importance of Small Things

By Cam Molland

Cam Molland is studying Politics and International Relations at the University of Exeter’s campus in Penryn, Cornwall. His passion, however, is marine mammal rescue and conservation. Cam is a trained Marine Mammal Medic with British Divers Marine Life Rescue, where he regularly takes part in the medical assessment and rescue of marine mammals in distress.

Cam is currently moving his studies from humanities to biosciences, and his main interest in the field is cetaceans. In addition to his work with BDMLR, Cam also works with the Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute in Galicia, Spain, and Falmouth Marine Conservation in Cornwall. Cam is an Education and Outreach Coordinator with FMC, where he and two other coordinators lead a dedicated and enthusiastic team of volunteers who visit schools and youth groups across Cornwall, with the aim of passing their shared love for the oceans on to the next generation, teaching environmental responsibility, and inspiring positive change. He also leads on FMC’s participation in the Cetacean Acoustic Trend Tracking Project.

In this talk, Cam will be speaking about the rarest and most threatened marine mammal of all: the Vaquita. He will be discussing the threats faced by this critically endangered species (of which less than ten remain in the wild!), and the actions that can be taken by the government to halt its march towards extinction.

The Saving Species Conference

We invite you to join our annual winter conference which takes place every October half term.

Conservation Chat UK LTD are a specialist in organising events where the environment is always at the heart. We are passionate about the environment, especially in our local area, the southwest of England.

This event will bring together a range of guest speakers who are involved in species conservation. If you are passionate about the environment, be sure to join us.

The day will be filled with presentations, discussions and networking opportunities and will be aimed at those who work in the conservation sector, students, early career researchers, and anyone with a passion for the environment.

Light refreshments will be provided, but to keep ticket prices low, this is a 'bring your own lunch' event. We challenge you to go plastic-free!

This event must be attended in person, however, we can guarantee full refunds if we must cancel due to the Coronavirus. Click here to buy your tickets.

Our Saving Species Conference is due to commence this October! This year our theme is reconnecting, restoring and rewilding, but what do these mean?

reconnect

to join or be joined with something else again after being separated.

The conservation of nature and wildlife can only be achieved if we reconnect that which is disconnected, whether that be planting trees to create corridors between fragmented habitats, or by reconnecting peoples’ relationships with nature.

restore

to return something or someone to an earlier good condition or position.

There are areas in nature that are depleted and even barren. To save species these areas must be restored to their previous state by introducing habitats and species. Only then can these areas be rich, productive, and biodiverse.

rewild

to protect an environment and return it to its natural state, for example, by bringing back wild animals that used to live there.

This is the large-scale restoration of ecosystems to the point where nature is allowed to take care of itself. Rewilding seeks to reinstate natural processes and, where appropriate, missing species. Rewilding can be achieved by planting trees and wildflowers and with the reintroduction of species such as pine martens, beavers, and even wolves.

At our Saving Species Conference, all of these topics will be explored, and we can guarantee that you will come away feeling inspired and ready to save species yourself! Keep scrolling to see our lineup of speakers!

2023

Join us for this year's conference at South Devon College, Paignton.

You can see our growing schedule of presentations below.

Buy your tickets here

Saving Species Conference 2023
Schedule of Talks

The Two Moors Pine Marten Project: Could pine martens return to the southwest?

By Dr Tracey Hamston

Dr Tracey Hamston has over 15 years’ experience managing conservation projects including species reintroductions and associated research. She worked with the British and Irish Association of Zoos as part of a Reintroduction Advisory Group. Woodland restoration is one of her passions with the return of lost species to our nature-depleted landscape being vital to restoring ecosystems for wildlife and people. Tracey took up the exciting position as project lead for the Two Moors Project early this year and will be speaking about pine martens and why they are important to our woodland as well as giving an update on the project and next steps.

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Conservation & Empathy: easing awareness of our relationships with non-humans through transformative learning and embodied ecology

By Dr Marie Hale

Dr. Marie Hale is a lecturer in Social Sciences at South Devon University Centre and lecturer at Schumacher College on the MA Movement, Mind and Ecology. Her PhD thesis focused on social change in protected areas of England. As a human geographer, Marie’s research interests focus on people and their relationships to place across a range of contexts (specifically in protected areas) and the interweaving of social and ecological landscapes. Her teaching explores how places are transformed by contemporary processes of (im)mobilities, and entanglements between humans and more-than-humans, as well as understanding how places, nature and societies are (re)shaped. She is deeply interested in transformative learning and how embodied practices can lead to a deeper understanding of our world.

Marie’s interest in rewilding emerged through her research on social change in protected areas of England and how different representations of nature can (re)shape protected areas such as England’s National Parks. More recently, her work has been focused on embodied practices to understand nature’s connections and how rewilding plays a role in fostering positive nature relationships between humans, non-humans, and more-than-humans.

She is interested in comparative studies of rewilding to unpack the complexities of placed-based rewilding projects. She is the programme lead for the newly created FdSc in Global Change, Sustainability and Society at South Devon University Centre, including a 30 credits/short course on rewilding practice and protected areas.

Care for Bats

By Carla Dunne

Carla works at a special needs school in Torbay, specialising in autism and speech, language, and communication interventions. Carla’s love though, is animals. She has rescued many pets in need of new homes for various reasons, from cats to snakes and even snails.

For the last 5 years, she has been a registered bat carer and member of the Bat Conservation Trust and Devon Bat Group. Her love for bats started when watching the fruit bats at Cotswold Wildlife Park before she could talk. Then, a few years ago she attended a talk by The Greater Horseshoe Bat Project at Paignton Zoo and Carla knew she wanted to do more to help bats. She rang the Devon Bat Group, thinking she would be standing in fields counting bats flying overhead all night, but after a chat with the wonderful Sylvia, Carla started her journey of becoming a Volunteer Bat Carer.

In this talk, Carla will talk about the species of bats that we have in the UK, how to help them, and what to do if you find one in need of help.

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Mitigating Barn Owl-Vehicle Collisions on the South West Trunk Road Network: Where and How?

By Dr Mateo Ruiz

When previous inhabitants of the British Isles cleared woods and scrub to establish farmland, they inadvertently benefited Barn Owl populations, because this species hunts over open habitats. However, there were so few UK Barn Owls left by year 2000 that a similar rate of population decline could have driven it to extinction by 2035. Intensifying agriculture, increasing road deaths, and widespread barn conversions were key contributors to this situation, and remain as threats today. Yet the Barn Owl is not expected to disappear from the UK by 2035, and this may be linked to conservation efforts. Managing land as optimum foraging habitat and providing nestboxes help improve nesting success, while mitigating hazards can reduce mortality rates. Although species-level intervention may have conserved the UK Barn Owl so far, many problems persist. Furthermore, Barn Owls and other species will be impacted by extreme weather events and flooding associated with global warming.

In this Talk, Dr Mateo will present research that he is working on that aims to mitigate Barn Owl-vehicle collisions on the South West Trunk Road network.

Emergency in Scandinavia!

By Cam Molland

Cam is currently moving his studies from humanities to biosciences, and his main interest in the field is cetaceans. In addition to his work with BDMLR, Cam also works with the Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute in Galicia, Spain, and Falmouth Marine Conservation in Cornwall. Cam is an Education and Outreach Coordinator with FMC, where he and two other coordinators lead a dedicated and enthusiastic team of volunteers who visit schools and youth groups across Cornwall, to pass their shared love for the oceans on to the next generation, teach environmental responsibility, and inspiring positive change. He also leads on FMC’s participation in the Cetacean Acoustic Trend Tracking Project.

In response to the recent appalling events taking place in Iceland with the return of commercial whaling, and in the Faroe Islands with the 2023 Grindadráp season well underway and relentless in its horrific brutality, Cam Molland’s talk on the critically endangered Vaquita porpoise has been postponed, and he will instead be speaking on this subject. His new talk (Emergency in Scandinavia) will discuss the events currently taking place in Iceland and the Faroes, the dark history and twisted politics behind whaling and Grindadráps, and he will float ideas and possibilities for stopping this senseless slaughter, and how the theme of our conference (Saving Species) can truly be put into practice, to save the endangered Fin Whales and Pilot Whales, who are coming under more threat than ever.

Britain's Lost Wildlife

By Stuart Collier

Stuart has over 15 years of lecturing experience and teaches extensively about wildlife conservation. He has also written new modules built around rewilding. Stuart is passionate about communicating environmental issues in a way that inspires people to act and change the world for the better. He also has a particular interest in Britain's lost megafauna.

In this talk Stu will reflect on some of the amazing species that used to roam our lands and pose the question, will it be possible for some of them to return?

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Habitat Connectivity or Reconnecting Wildlife: no patch is too small.

By Ali Santin

Ali is an ecologist working at a consultancy in Bristol. She is originally from Ontario, Canada, but moved to the UK in 2021. Before becoming an ecologist in the UK, Ali worked with her local Land Conservancy and volunteered in wildlife rehabilitation for freshwater turtles. In addition, she volunteered as a group leader for her local Field Naturalist Youth Group. She has a passion for habitat conservation and public education.

In this talk, Ali will talk about the importance of habitat connectivity for a variety of species in the UK and beyond.

Potential Biodiversity Opportunities (PBO) tool

By Stephanie Rowe

Steph is an ecologist working in an ecological consultancy in London called Ricardo, and her favourite UK species is the hazel dormouse. She is passionate about protecting wildlife and is currently studying for an LLM in Environmental Law.

Ricardo – through working with numerous clients on BNG assessments – has developed an opportunity detection tool. Initially designed to enable local planning authorities to map out Local Nature Recovery Strategy opportunities, the tool has subsequently been enhanced to encompass wider net gain needs. Designed by geospatial experts and ecologists, the PBO tool is designed to detect suitable sites that could provide habitat creation and enhancement opportunities based on a range of parameters.

In this talk, Steph will be discussing this new PBO tool created by Ricardo Ecological Consultancy which essentially selects sites for habitat creation and restoration.

Learn with us!

The SWMF Conference offers a great opportunity to learn about the marine environment. We cover topics such as marine mammal monitoring, marine engineering, conservation-conscious business and the impacts of humans on wildlife (to name a few). We can guarantee that you will learn a lot at our conference and will come away feeling inspired!

Sponsor us!

Advertise your business by sponsoring the SWMF conference. We offer a variety of packages which you can use to promote your business to passionate, marine-loving people!

More information will be available soon.

Present for us!

Do you have a project or passion that you wish to share with our audience? Promote your research, organisation, or vision at our conference.

Even if you dont want to speak at the event, you can host a stall and showcase your organisation and sell your products during refreshment breaks.

To apply to be a speaker at the next SWMF Conference or to host a stand, simply email us at

conservationchat@outlook.com.