Margot Raggett has spent the past decade raising money for conservation efforts around the world, but now she’s feeling nervous about the future. “It feels like we’ve taken a step backwards,” she said.
The wildlife photographer has raised £1.2 million for the cause in the past 10 years through her Remember Wildlife series, an annual not-for-profit photo book featuring images of animals from the world’s best nature photographers. The first edition was published in 2015, when the Paris Climate Agreement was being drafted, but in the years since, efforts to address the climate crisis have declined.
Under Donald Trump, the United States withdrew from the agreement in 2020. Joe Biden reversed the decision the following year, but on the first day of his second presidential term, Trump announced that the United States would withdraw again. In the United Kingdom, both the Conservative Party and the UK Reform Party have pledged to scrap the net-zero target by 2050 if they win power.
“Compared to the last few years, there has been a desire for renewable energy sources rather than oil exploration all over the world,” Raggett said. “I think the importance of nature is something we should all embrace.”
Despite this, she has some hope. “I’m nervous but also encouraged by the fact that there are a lot of people who still seem to care. I’ll do everything I can to uphold my side of the deal and keep fighting. I know there are a lot of other people who feel the same way, so time will tell, but we certainly can’t be complacent.”
In a timely reminder of how dire the outlook is for wildlife right now, this year’s edition, titled Ten Years of Remembering Wildlife, is published alongside original and edited images of animals including polar bears, leopards and pangolins living in, and then being cleared of, their natural habitat.
Raggett said the images are intended to be “provocative” and give a glimpse into the future if we stay on our current path. “The rate of wildlife decline is very rapid around the world, and there is a lot of work to be done to reverse it. We can really look forward to a future where these landscapes will be without these wild animals,” she said. “That’s why we created it, to make people stop and realize what could happen if we don’t take action.”
While she has spent most of her photography career away from the UK in Kenya, Tanzania and Bhutan, she has some concerns closer to home. The government pledged to build 1.5 million homes by the end of its first term in Parliament.
As part of this effort, ministers have asked the Environment Agency to wave off planning applications in England with minimal resistance, a move that has upset environmental campaigners. Earlier this month, The Guardian revealed that Rachel Reeves bragged about lifting a ban on the development of 20,000 homes held back because of “some snails on the site that are a protected species or something.”
Raggett called for a “broad pause” on the government’s “short-sighted” plans to speed up house building. “What everyone needs to understand is that we are all intertwined with nature,” she said. “It is very easy in an overcrowded country like ours to not understand the role each species plays in our ecosystem, how they keep our trees growing and the impact this has on removing carbon from the atmosphere.
“I feel that there are enough sites in this country that can and should be redeveloped before we lose any more of the countryside. We have lost too much already. I think there has to be a big pause.”
Raggett was inspired to create the Remember Wildlife project after he came across an elephant that had been the victim of poaching in Kenya. “There was a poisoned arrow in it and then the hyenas started eating it. I was absolutely terrified and felt so helpless… so I was determined to try to do something about it,” she said.
Efforts to combat poaching have been mixed, she said. “The impact of poaching rhinos for their horns in South Africa is still horrific,” she said. “I have friends who live there and the poaching rate is shocking, but there have been some victories as well. China’s ivory ban a few years ago certainly had an impact, but it has since emerged in the illegal trade elsewhere in Asia.”
Addressing demand, especially in Asia where poached products are used in traditional medicines, is one of the most important ways to reduce the practice, Raggett said. “Poaching is still a huge criminal industry and it’s not going anywhere. It’s still very widespread.”
Earlier in October, world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall passed away at the age of 91. Ragit met her in 2018. “I was blown away by her work ethic and determination,” she said. “I had just gotten off an overnight flight from Tanzania. At my age, I was taking a nap the next morning, and yet she had a queue of people waiting to make appointments with her. She was completely inspiring and encouraging and had a real humility in the way she spoke.” “She has a wonderful legacy full of wisdom and humor as well.”