As the global climate crisis intensifies, it is more important than ever that people engage with protecting the natural world. For many young people, particularly those that live in urban areas, there are limited opportunities to experience wildlife directly. At the same time, there are many conservation NGOs that do fantastic work but cannot fully share the exciting progress they are making to protect biodiversity. Wild-Live Streaming is an initiative set up by the Eizaguirre Lab at Queen Mary University of London that aims to address these issues by using video footage of wildlife conservation to connect secondary school students with NGOs around the world.
On November 22nd, students from Hatch End High School came to QMUL to participate in the first Wild-Live Streaming event, which featured Project Biodiversity, an NGO based in Sal Island, Cabo Verde. Project Biodiversity aims to protect the unique fauna and flora of Sal through community-driven programmes. The students watched a short documentary about turtle ecology and conservation before discussing a range of topics with Kirsten Fairweather, Project Biodiversity’s scientific coordinator, live from Cabo Verde. During this Q&A a number of topics were addressed such as how to enter the field of conservation and the role of a scientific coordinator in such an organisation. Kirsten Fairweather and her team also gave a guided tour of their hatchery - a protected area to increase baby sea turtle survival. The videos were popular with the students and will be a big part of Wild-Live Streaming going forward. Finally, the students tried out the award winning 3D app ATLANTIS, an immersive virtual reality experience that allows users to swim with turtles.
The students were engaged throughout the event, and their interactions with Kirsten and the scientists in the room were one of the key aims of Wild-Live Streaming. We used pre- and post-event surveys to evaluate whether the session had been successful in providing information about NGOs and wildlife conservation. While only 13% reported knowing what an NGO was at the start of the event, this figure rose to 93% at the end, demonstrating the potential for Wild-Live Streaming to inform young people about frontline conservation.
The teachers also enjoyed the afternoon and praised the enthusiasm of their students for nature conservation. In 2023, we hope to introduce more young people to the excellent work of conservation NGOs by running Wild-Live Streaming events at QMUL and developing a session that can be delivered in schools. With positive feedback from the students and teachers, and more footage to show, we are looking forward to the next Wild-Live Streaming activities.