marketing and PR

INTERVIEW: CHRIS PACKHAM

Why do you think wildlife events like the Lee Valley Spring Wildlife Weekend are so important?

They bring together two sides of a community - those that are already interested and those that are interested enough to roll up - community conservation I suppose. Firstly and perhaps less importantly, they're a reason for bearded and unbearded geeks like me to meet up and chat...learn about new projects and initiatives taking place. There's a degree of social unity there which is healthy.

So far, what do you think of the 'new look' event?

This is a fantastic new building. These days, having a hut in the middle of a muddy field doesn't appeal to people...we've got to up the quality. Kids expect the highest standards of interpreted material - that's what they get everywhere else. So you do need a great focus like this. I have come here before when I was looking at green sites in London. It's a great wildlife corridor. The strength of the Lee Valley is that it laces right from the City up to the other side of the M25 so it's accessible to a vast number of people - millions. But familiarity breeds contempt - the nature reserve round the corner is the one you don't go to, but you're booking a holiday in the Serengeti. I think it's really important for sustainability that wildlife-rich areas are of value to the community that they are in.

What have you got on the cards for the rest of 2008?

We've finished a series for BBC2 called Nature's Top 40 which will be on soon. It's a countdown of Britain's best wildlife spectacles. People can vote via BBC local radio and the website and the sites are all publicly accessible. At the moment I am doing a lot of writing. I have to write a book in the space of a month which sounds impossible but it's principally photographically-led, so I'm writing extended captions, but there are one hundred of them! I'll get it done - I'm not worried about it - said from the comfort of the WaterWorks!

Is there any wildlife you haven't seen but would like to?

There are masses. I've been extremely fortunate to travel all around this country and the world and I continue to do that. I like to travel with my little girl. Travel can be quite a selfish process - that whole experience and special moment can be so much more rewarding when you're with someone you genuinely want to be with. I've never been to Japan particularly in winter to see the cranes displaying. That would be fantastic. And as for individual species - I could go on all day talking about birds. I'd love to see Egyptian Plover, but Philippine Eagle would be the one...amazing predator and stunning to look at.

What is your favourite spot in the UK or abroad for wildlife or open spaces?

My back garden, to be honest with you. I have a really keen vocational urge to get people to get to know the wildlife they share their space with. We're drawn by the celebrity of big flashy animals on TV and we tend to forget that dragonflies, butterflies...they can all be interesting to us. So my garden is quite important to me. I get a bigger thrill seeing a Bullfinch in my back garden than I probably would seeing something in a nature reserve. My big thrill last year was a really good butterfly count in my garden in one hour - I bored everyone with that! Home is where the heart is.

What is the most exciting wildlife moment you've shot?

I've been very, very fortunate - there have been so many. I've been to the Rift Valley to see vast numbers of Flamingos, Antarctica to see penguins. What can I say? I am one of the luckiest blokes on earth. Recently I went to see some Wallcreepers on an awful day in December and by the end of the day I was fed up of waiting; cold and wet. I thought I would check one last cliff and I finally managed to have 40 minutes of Wall creeper. I had a two hour drive home and opened a bottle of wine and thought: yeah, that's proper birding!

What do you think about global warming and what can people do to help - how can they play their part in nature conservation?

I'm not a catastrophist, I'm an optimist, because I think we've got the answers. What we don't have is the political willpower to do anything about it - and I don't mean just politicians, but all of us. All the work we've done with conservation means nothing. We can just kiss it goodbye if we don't get on top of this issue. We won't do anything, then there will be catastrophes and only then will we do something - the human species responds to catastrophes. When people talk about saving the earth, they mean for us, not all the other species too. Alongside infrastructure issues, the long term solution is controlling population growth.

What job would you have done, if not this one?

Astronaut. Absolutely no question. I grew up in the 60s when the Apollo programme was on. I watched Neil Armstrong step onto the moon. It staggers me. In terms of our technological revolution, that was our zenith - remarkable achievement. I'd give anything to be able to look down on the planet.