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Josh is one of the first ‘50 people changing the world’
6 June 2021
Award by the NY-based Explorers Club
Joshua Elves-Powell, UCL Geography and London NERC DTP PhD researcher, has been named as one of first The Explorers Club 50.
The Explorers Club was established in New York in 1904 to promote scientific exploration by supporting research and education in the physical, natural and biological sciences. In 2021 it has launched The Explorers Club 50: Fifty People Changing the World the World Needs to Know About. This aims to reflect the diversity of modern exploration and help amplify the voices of 50 trailblazing explorers, scientists, artists and activists from around the world.
Over 400 nominations were received from 48 countries, and awards were made for work that inspired a greater understanding of the world around us, impacted the communities where they lived in innovative ways, and expanded the definition of exploration, promoting the Explorer Club's mission.
Josh is the founder of Rangers without Borders and of the #WWFVoices Campaign. The award citation notes his work in NE Asia, focusing on the conservation of the endangered Amur Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), and on conservation policy in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji. His current PhD research, at UCL Geography and the Zoological Society of London, focuses on opportunities and challenges for the transboundary conservation of the Amur tiger in north-east Asia
In response to the award, Josh summarised his hope that humans can protect the Earth’s amazing biodiversity and avert the threat of a sixth mass extinction. This will involve greater understanding as we learn how to live better with other natural world species.
Josh also had a short conservation film out in January, Saving Britain's Islands. This looks at the pioneering development of island conservation practises in New Zealand and the lessons for biodiversity conservation in the extended British Overseas Territories. The film was produced by Josh and wildlife filmmaker Matt Jarvis, with New Zealand-based cameraman Ben Sarten and narrated by Benjamin Harris. It was funded by the British Ecological Society.