Original subtitles

Most of us love going on a journey.

I've been incredibly lucky,

exploring countries on six different continents.

Now that travel has become a bit tricky,

it's not a bad time to have a look back.

In this series, I'm going to be showing you some of

my most memorable adventures.

WHISTLE BLOWS

SIREN BLARES

We're on the way.

The landscape is incredible!

The vegetation, everywhere you look -

green, all different shades of green!

If you're going to try and imagine paradise,

that's it.

And this...

This is the real treasure of Haiti.

I've met hundreds of incredible people.

Hello, my friend.

Welcome to Libya.

MUFFLED: Welcome to El Salvador! Thank you, mate.

Welcome to Uzbekistan.

SHE LAUGHS

I'll be catching up with some of them.

ON PHONE: Because they're cheap, they have nimble fingers.

Oh, mate.

This is a land of utter extremes.

This is where Heaven and Hell are said to collide.

And I'll be sharing what I've learned on my travels...

I have no words, just good luck, OK?

Good luck. Thank you. Good luck.

Whatever you do. Good luck.

..about the challenges and the solutions for our incredible planet.

There are buffalo once more in the American plains.

And that's a bloody wonderful thing.

It's absolutely stunning, isn't it?

It's the coast of Devon.

I'm taking a bit of time to explore closer to home.

I'm heading to an island that's one of Britain's

oldest wildlife reserves.

I've been so lucky on my travels to see some of the most beautiful parts

of the planet, and some really stunning wildlife.

In this programme, we're going to look more at our wild world.

Have we arrived? Yeah.

HE VOCALISES

There's still so much wildlife and beauty out there.

Oh, this is... this is really quite...

..quite breathtaking.

Travelling around the Equator back in 2006...

Poor thing, look at you.

..took me through the jungles of the island of Borneo...

Do you like that?

You seem to.

..and up close with orangutans.

Bit more?

These orphans had been rescued from poachers,

but dedicated conservationists were battling to protect and train them.

This forest is like a practice for them,

to the real forest.

To the real jungle.

Yeah. Here we go.

Off you go.

There he goes.

Around the world,

there's some colourful characters protecting wildlife.

Hello, big boy!

Hello, big...

Don't get too close, he'll get cross. OK.

Hello, big...

SHE VOCALISES

You're talking with him. Does that work?

Sometimes.

THEY LAUGH

Yet, from the start of my journeys, I've seen how human activity

threatens even the most iconic creatures.

Look at its back leg.

So, trapped...

Trapped? Yeah.

Look what's happened to this, it literally...

This is the cost of the human-animal conflict here, unfortunately.

Off the north-west coast of Australia, in 2007,

I had an encounter with giant wildlife that I'll remember forever.

HE LAUGHS

Look at them!

I just got some spray over me from them.

Humpback whales are some of the biggest creatures on the planet,

weighing as much as three double decker buses.

Exmouth Gulf in Australia is a crucial sanctuary,

where mothers bring their young to rest, feed,

and put on half a tonne of fat

before heading further south on their great migration.

Look at the size, look at this!

In the 1960s, humpbacks were hunted to near extinction.

Their numbers have crept up, thanks in part

to crucial sanctuaries like this.

But, like almost all marine life, they still face major threats.

That is incredible.

It makes tears well up, that's just such an awesome sight.

My guides were Curt and Mich Jenner,

marine biologists studying these huge animals.

It's a privilege on this planet, in this day and age,

to have a place like this that is so unique, so undisturbed.

These are baby animals that need some place to rest and to grow.

But, like any nursery, there's silly things that go on.

These are precocious, young little animals.

They'll be rolling over Mum's nose one moment, falling off backwards

the other way, getting their blow holes full of water.

They'll come up...you know. HE BLOWS

There's a lot of just, sort of, playing that goes on.

To be able to see that in a place like this, and literally one whale

every square mile in this gulf, it's phenomenal.

It's a fantastic place.

They're that close.

And hello to you! Look!

Mich had spent years compiling a photographic record

of thousands of whales to help identify individuals.

We've got a cow-calf escort pod here and an escort is believed

to be a male whale that is accompanying the female.

Now, you may think it's a noble... For what purpose? What purpose?

Well, really, only because she is deemed successful,

she has a calf already.

And the breeding season means to pass on genes. Ah...

So, she might be able to have another one? He realises... Exactly.

One of his...men, eh? That's it.

She invests two years of her life.

And the male... He invests two hours?

Two hours or two days, yeah.

Exmouth Gulf is one of the world's most important sites for whales.

But, that night, the Jenners told me they feared for the future

of the sanctuary.

In the last six-to-12 months, there's been plans put forward

to develop a salt mine, an evaporative salt mine,

on the eastern side of the gulf.

It's a huge area, from north to south.

It's an extensive range... Of salt pans? That's right. Yeah.

Apparently, the world has an amazing appetite for plastic these days,

as if we hadn't noticed, so this is the key use for salt

these days, is in making plastics.

We all have an evil hand in this,

in the need for this sort of a product.

How worried are you about the impact on the whales who are coming here?

Basically, what we're looking at as a key threat, erm,

in this resting area is noise.

Shipping noise.

And that sort of noise is not compatible with resting.

Imagine if you were trying to rest with your newborn baby

somewhere in a quiet spot,

and dump trucks were going by and people were banging

garage doors shut...

I'd want to move. You'd want to move.

And that's what we're worried will happen with these whales.

It's a critical habitat for them, they have to rest here.

If they can't do that, erm, it's a population-threatening event.

It's that serious? Exactly.

If these calves cannot rest,

they'll probably perish on the way to the Antarctic.

And that'll be the end of them.

The pregnant female's been lying on her back,

and slapping her fins...

..on the surface of the water.

It creates an incredible sound, and it's just an amazing sight.

We've been so fortunate.

Getting up close to humpback whales was an incredible privilege.

But it was upsetting and worrying to hear about the threats to them.

I can understand why people want development and the jobs,

and the wealth that comes with that.

But at what cost?

We don't want a planet of... a planet empty of life, do we?

Curt and Mich are still very much involved in trying

to protect the whales.

And they sent me a little video message.

Hi, Simon. Hello!

When you were last filming with us, the issue for Exmouth Gulf at

the time was the threat of industrialisation.

The public awareness that was raised with that programme

was very effective,

and that particular project was halted.

Our population of humpback whales continues to grow...

SIMON GASPS ..as a result.

And it's still the largest humpback whale population on the planet.

And we'll hope that you'll come and visit us again, Simon,

that would be great.

Come and see us in Oz soon!

Bye! Bye for now. God, I'd love to!

Oh, wow.

That's brilliant.

What heroes they are.

Still out there, researching and campaigning to protect

those magnificent beasts.

And, oh, my goodness, to think that our little telly show

might have played even a small part in protecting that sanctuary.

They did say that, didn't they?

They said it helped.

One of the aims of my journeys is to capture not just the beauty

and glory of our wild world, but also the issues.

You can definitely find both that light and shade on the

Indian Ocean island of Madagascar.

It's a gem of a place,

one of the world's great wildlife hot spots.

Cut off from the rest of the planet for an age,

life on Madagascar evolved to be unique and spectacular.

Where else in the world do you think they'd let us do this?

Madagascar is a favourite for natural history documentaries.

So, we've come to one of the most famous wildlife reserves

on the island.

And we're looking...

Well, we're creeping through the bushes,

looking for Madagascar's lemurs.

HE WHISTLES

They're just on the trees over here.

Did you see them up there?

The Berenty Reserve is well known as a home to sifaka lemurs...

Such a cute scene.

..and their more famous cousins, the ring-tailed lemurs.

This place is beautiful, but - and it's a huge "but" -

this reserve contains a large chunk

of the only remaining forest of its kind in Madagascar.

And this place is actually tiny!

It's not much bigger than some London parks.

And this on an island that's the fourth largest on the planet.

The lemurs have really got nothing left.

Are you all right? Are you lost?

Hm, no, hopefully not.

Chances are, if you've seen lemurs filmed in Madagascar,

it was shot here.

And it turns out, we're reliably informed that almost

all of the shots are generally filmed in an area around

these buildings, bungalows,

with the cameraman straining to keep the buildings out of shot.

We're not going to do that,

because I think you should see the reality here.

I think, if you take the buildings out of the shot,

in fact, this place generally might give the impression that

there's a lot of wilderness of wild paradise left in Madagascar.

And that is not the case.

Wildlife documentaries have helped cultivate our love of

the natural world, but some still give us glorious shots

of animals in pristine wilderness

without showing the surrounding reality of how humans threaten

the existence of many species - through climate change or

the destruction of habitat on an industrial scale.

Ooh, this is what's outside.

Vast, vast plantations of sisal.

My goodness.

Far as the eye can see...

..thousands and thousands of acres of it.

In some instances, it's used for making environmentally-friendly

packaging for Europe.

I felt like a veil had fallen,

and, suddenly, I could see an unvarnished reality.

Yes, the wildlife of Madagascar was magical,

but the threats were more imminent and overwhelming than I'd understood

from wildlife films.

The Berenty Reserve was a token sanctuary for a small

number of lemurs.

The truth was 90% of the original forest of Madagascar

has been destroyed,

and nearly every species of lemur is threatened by extinction.

I mean, it's ironic, really, because the reserve is now seen by

conservationists as a huge success.

But if anyone had said, back when this place first started up, erm,

I think in the 1930s, erm,

that what the owners were going to do was going to cut down thousands

and thousands of acres of pristine forest and replace it with millions

and millions of sisal plants,

and leave one tiny little area of forests for the lemurs,

I think the conservationists would have been

absolutely up in arms.

Well, that's what's happened.

That experience in Madagascar was really eye-opening.

It reminded me of the power of travel that, to sometimes really

understand a place or a situation,

you do have to go there and see it for yourself with your own eyes.

I never take a journey for granted.

For me, they're all meaningful.

I'm getting on a boat down there, in just a moment.

In terms of all of us getting more out of our travel experiences,

the best advice I can offer anyone - for what my view's worth -

is when you take risks in life, it can lead to the greatest rewards.

Taking chances creates the best memories.

We all need pushing out of our comfort zones, including me.

Life would be so much less interesting if we never faced

a challenge or a fear.

In 2011, I was off the coast of South Africa

with dive guide Gail Addison,

about to face one of humanity's primal fears.

It was my first proper scuba dive - and I was in at the deep end,

dropping into a cave with wildlife pretty much everyone

is at least wary of.

Within minutes, there they were.

Six-foot-long oceanic killing machines.

Our great enemy.

Except, of course, they're not.

These ragged-tooth sharks, like most sharks,

weren't interested in humans.

But they were inquisitive, ancient, and elegant.

It was a privilege to be close to them.

Gail, we saw sharks! We did.

You got me to swim with sharks! I did!

HE LAUGHS

The dive help change my attitude to sharks forever.

Gail, my dive instructor, was from the group Shark Angels.

She'd spent years campaigning to make more of us understand

why sharks matter,

and taking all ages into the ocean.

Do you know that I take my little eight-year-old?

She comes swimming with us, with the sharks.

We're very specific about when we put her in the water and how

she goes in the water with us. And it's the same with divers.

Some people might think that's a bit mad,

to put your eight-year-old in the water. SHE LAUGHS

Do you know what? She's grown up with it.

She's grown up swimming since she was one-year-old,

when she learned to swim.

Sharks have an image problem.

Gail was trying to change our minds about them,

getting people to realise that, far from being feared,

they need to be valued for the critical role they play

in maintaining the health of our oceans.

Why are they the most important fish in the sea?

Because they're apex predators.

And, unfortunately, that means that they're not used to being hunted,

they're not meant to have natural predators.

They are the top of the food chain.

So, they keep everything else underneath them

balanced and healthy.

So, it controls the ecosystem, really?

That's exactly what it does. It keeps it balanced.

And, without that balance, everything starts crumbling.

To find out more about the challenges facing sharks,

I headed north along the Indian Ocean coast to Mozambique,

where I met up with conservationist

and all-round good guy Carlos Macuacua.

We've got a few more hours on the road, though, haven't we?

Maybe three more hours.

Three more hours. OK.

Hopefully we're going to get there during daylight.

All right, slow, slow, slow, slow!

Mozambique wasn't exactly famed for its roads.

HE SIGHS We're stuck in this.

Best to let some air out. OK.

Shall we give it a try?

Eventually, we bounced our way to our beds for the night.

7.35 on a Wednesday morning.

Standing on a remote beach in Mozambique.

Such a thing of beauty.

HE SPEAKS IN PORTUGUESE

We'd arrived at a village near where Carlos grew up,

and we headed out to sea with some of the local fishermen - just lads.

It's a tiny boat, eh?.

The leader of the group was a young man called Nelson.

They're going.

We followed Nelson and his crew

to where they'd laid baited lines the previous night.

They're pulling now the line...

Yeah. ..to see if they got any catch.

HE SHOUTS IN PORTUGUESE

I think they've got something.

Yeah, you can see it.

You can see it. It's massive. Wow. Wow. Oh, my goodness. Wow.

Oh, my good Lord. This is big!

Wow, it's a massive shark, huh?

It's huge, isn't it?

It was shocking to see this.

Sharks have to keep moving to breathe.

Caught on the line for hours,

this adult female bull shark had no chance.

Back on the beach, rolling in the surf,

the shark became a pathetic and upsetting sight.

Whoa.

Look at that.

And this sorry situation had an especially bitter twist.

Nelson and his crew were fishing for sharks to harvest

just one particular bit of them.

One of the most valuable fish products in the world.

They're not interested in the meat on this creature.

They're just interested in the fins.

Nelson, how much money will you get for the fins?

Uh-huh.

Do you know who buys the shark fins?

Do you know who... what's done with them eventually?

The tasteless fins are turned into shark fin soup -

a traditional Chinese dish considered a luxury

and supposed to demonstrate wealth.

China's economic growth meant there was huge demand for fins.

Even with a small boat, these fishermen could catch

hundreds of sharks a year.

Much more damage is done further out to sea, where industrial fleets

catch millions of sharks a year,

slicing off the fins and throwing the remainder back into the sea.

More than a quarter of the world's shark species

are threatened with extinction.

Without a critical apex predator,

our oceans face catastrophe.

My whole view on sharks

has completely changed in the last couple of weeks.

I've gone from being fearful of them

to fearful FOR them.

They're an apex predator.

They keep a lid on all other marine life in our seas and our oceans...

..and we're annihilating them.

We're wiping them out.

And, in doing so, we're threatening the entire marine ecosystem.

Because sharks are the most important fish in the sea.

We have more than 40 species of sharks in British waters.

Sharks have been around for more than 400 million years.

And, just in the last few decades,

some populations have collapsed by up to 90%.

Life is a connected web established over eons of time.

Remove an element from the web and you fracture it,

you lose balance.

Apex predators aren't even just an element - they play a vital role.

They control numbers, disease, and they promote biodiversity.

The rate at which unique life is being lost now

is completely breathtaking.

Scientists think that, every year,

thousands of species are going extinct.

On my journeys, I've met some really heroic and often maverick

conservationists who are battling to save and to protect

the wildlife glory that remains.

Travelling across Russia,

in the remote far east of the country,

I journeyed deep into the forest with Alexander Batalov.

Simon. Yes?

His remote lodge is the HQ for a wildlife reserve that,

it's fair to say, is Alexandre's life.

I'm sensing, Alexander, a little bit of an obsession.

It's all tiger in this household.

Fantastic.

THEY CHUCKLE

Look at this.

Alexander keeps an eye on tigers in the area using hidden cameras.

Oh, my goodness!

THEY LAUGH

There was a leg-biting going on there.

These are Amur tigers, the largest big cats in the world.

In the millions of square miles that make up Siberia,

there are just 500 wild tigers.

Bit of a spray from the back there.

We headed out into the forest.

What the hell am I getting into the back of?

With much of their habitat under threat,

Alexander's 80-square-mile reserve is a vital sanctuary

for these astonishing animals.

Look just here.

Bloody hell.

Th-those are...that's a...

Tiger prints there.

Big, big tiger.

You mean it's still there, eating?

CROWS CAWING

WHISPERS: So, I can hear crows.

So, this is a massive tiger poo.

It's tiger poo.

Protect the habitat, that's the absolute key.

Tigers have long been protected in Russia,

but vast areas of forest are being cleared.

It's only been a couple of years since I filmed with Alexander,

but his reserve now faces a serious threat.

The Russian government has approved plans to mine it for gold.

Prospectors have already arrived,

and mining could start in the next few months.

Thousands of miles away in Namibia,

I went to see another conservationist protecting big cats.

when I travelled around the Tropic of Capricorn in 2007,

Frenchman Olivier Houalet had created a sanctuary for some of

Namibia's iconic cheetahs.

We have a wonderful project with five male cheetahs,

which were all orphans from...

Their mum has been shot by hunters when they were very small.

And the concept, the project, was to raise them all together.

Olivia was rehabilitating and training the big cats

how to survive in the wild, and how to hunt.

Here they come.

No. Oh, my God.

That's not supposed to be like that. Come, come, come.

What the BLEEP?

They're all here. They're all here. CHEETAHS GROWL

It's time to go. Maybe a little bit quickly.

Th-They're being quite serious.

They are wild guys.

They are able to hunt and kill for themselves.

And it's all about, now, body language and no fear at all.

Look, there's all five of them.

Look at them, I mean, these are really wild creatures.

This one is the biggest one of the group.

He's the power of the group, with his brother.

He is the one who put down the prey.

Across Africa, cheetahs are dying out because of increasing farming.

There's only 7,000 left in the wild.

Namibia is one of their last strongholds.

Everything's fine now.

It's thanks largely to national parks and reserves

where tourists pay to go on a safari.

If people come all over the world to see that beautiful country,

to see wildlife, to see something unique in the world where there are

so few people and so many animals.

So, I believe that would be a very interesting thing, to protect them

and be able to see them in a free environment.

The very important thing is to convince government

to help us to do that.

Conservationists come in all shapes and sizes.

Travelling around the Indian Ocean in 2011 took me to the Seychelles.

My guide, Rita Gay, took me to one of the hundred or so

paradise islands that make up this stunning country.

DOG BARKS

I'm Simon, Simon Reeve. You're Simon. And you are...?

This is Kray. Kray. And who's this nice young lady?

And this young lady is Rita. Rita.

Nobody neater. Aw! THEY LAUGH

Yorkshiremen Brendon Grimshaw bought Moyenne Island in 1962

for the princely sum of £8,000.

He ended up sharing it with some unusual neighbours.

So, this is your... this is your home.

Oh, there's a giant tortoise... on the steps to your house.

Well, they come in sometimes.

They? How many have you got?

120. 120?

And they're totally free, they go where they like.

Giant tortoises are indigenous to the Seychelles,

but have been killed off on most of the islands.

Brendon had been gradually reintroducing them to his corner

of the Indian Ocean.

These are one-year-old.

Oh, my goodness.

What I can't... I can't find is my little one.

He's disappeared. Where?

In here? Where?

You've got an... THEY LAUGH

You've got another tortoise that's so small, it's vanished.

Yes. Is it in there somewhere?

I think it's...

How the hell did it get in there?

What're you doing in there, you silly thing? Huh?

HE SMOOCHES LOUDLY

You're one of my favourites.

How old would this one be?

He's about two...two weeks.

He was born in my bedroom.

Over the decades, with graft and local help,

Brendon created a one-of-a-kind sanctuary.

There were only four trees in this area. Four.

I brought in, altogether,

16,000 trees.

We were not doing it to make it a national park,

or anything like this. No, no, no, no.

We're doing it to make the place habitable for me.

Look at this! Yeah.

It's rather beautiful, eh?

You've created paradise here, Brendon.

Oh, people say that - I don't go as far as that.

What would you call it?

Hard work, but... THEY LAUGH

Brendon, would you ever sell the island?

No. The only reason somebody would want to buy this island

is to build a big hotel.

And have you never been tempted?

You must've been offered millions, surely.

I have been offered millions. Yes.

And you've said no every time? And I've said no.

All the best. Bye! Thank you very much, indeed.

Bye-bye!

All the very best!

Brendon passed away a year after I met him,

but the paradise he built was secure.

His island is now a national park,

thought to be the smallest in the world.

National parks are home to much of the planet's biodiversity.

But as I discovered in Belize in 2019,

the large national parks face giant-sized challenges.

The Chiquibul Forest covers 400 square miles,

and is home to a stunning array of wildlife.

Conservationists here have been forced to carry weapons to protect

the national park - and themselves.

Their leader, Rafael Manzanero, had studied, lived,

and worked here in the Chiquibul Forest since he was a teenager.

Rafael, what is out here?

All the big things occur here.

I mean, they call it the big five.

You know, here, we're looking at all the five species of cats,

ranging from the jaguars to the mountain lion, to the jaguarondi,

to the ocelot, to the margay.

What you're talking about is a global treasure.

Exactly.

Rafael and his men have been trained by the British Army to protect

the park and its creatures.

And they were deadly serious.

We're with armed conservationists.

It's astonishing that it's come to that, but it has.

The threats here come on two legs.

From poachers, wildlife traffickers, farmers and loggers,

crossing the border illegally from neighbouring Guatemala to plunder

and chop down the forest.

OK. Just going to check if everything is clear.

Or if anyone's there? Mm-hm.

WHISPERS: Down, down, down.

There's people up ahead... who shouldn't be here.

INDISTINCT SHOUTING

GUNSHOT

SHOUTING CONTINUES

GUNSHOTS

Go, go, go, go!

GUNSHOTS

The guys are now chasing people on horseback.

Straight to Guatemala? Straight to Guatemala, yeah.

So, is that where you think they've come from?

I mean, these guys are good and young...

..but they can't keep up with people on horseback.

And what was incredible about that is they were firing warning shots

in the air right next to these people, and they took off.

They knew that, if they were captured, they would be prosecuted.

And, for them, taking the risk of running for it

was better than the jail.

That's already Guatemala.

Where they attach the posts... Yeah. ..that's in Guatemala.

So, we are now basically at the border?

Yes, we are on the border.

On the horses. Can you see them?

Wholesale deforestation like this

and the destruction of national parks and wild habitats

is a truly global problem.

One consequence is that wild animals are being forced into

closer and closer contact with human beings.

I've seen it all over the world.

Straight ahead. One just went over the top.

Look at that!

My God!

There's a huge, beautiful brown bear.

Look at the size of that.

So, in eastern Turkey, the loss of forests had pushed bears

into foraging at a town rubbish dump.

It's a tragedy for these magnificent animals,

but a situation that also has huge potential implications for humanity.

Deadly and dangerous viruses, including Covid-19,

are thought to incubate or originate in wild animals.

Eating meat from wildlife and other forms of close contact

with the wild world increases the risk of pandemics.

You are not happy, are you?

In Indonesia in 2011,

we filmed undercover to expose

an open-air pet and food market in Jakarta.

The conditions they're being held in are totally inappropriate

for any creature.

On sale to anyone with the cash

were reptiles, monkeys...

..even eagles.

The multibillion-pound global trade in wild animals is one of

the factors encouraging new diseases to jump from animals to humans,

making the protection of wild animals and their habitats

all the more urgent.

Back off the coast of Devon, in 2020,

I was approaching my destination.

So, this is Lundy Island.

It's been a protected marine reserve for nearly 50 years.

It's also a haven for sea birds.

Now, that's something that's taken very careful management.

They used to have an enormous problem with rats on the island,

which would eat the eggs and the young of sea birds

wanting to nest here.

And, about 15 years ago, the wardens took a tough decision to

start catching and culling the rats.

The island is now free of rats, and the sea bird population

has trebled as a result.

Rats are often introduced to islands from boats and ships.

And they're a classic example of a so-called invasive species

which enters and then begins damaging an ecosystem.

All around the world,

invasive species can be an enormous problem.

Invasive species are a particular issue in Australia.

Dozens of different creatures have been introduced to the island

continent, mainly by Europeans.

There's a group just coming right here.

Camels were originally introduced to help early settlers move around

the great interior, the Outback,

But, by 2013, when I visited Australia,

they numbered some three-quarters of a million, and they'd become

the largest wild herd in the world.

Farmers told me how destructive they were to fences and watering holes,

but, more importantly, to the delicate ecosystem.

A million animals in this environment do a lot of damage

to the environment, cos they will just take everything

in the landscape.

And, if they destroy the trees, if they eat the grasses,

there's no kangaroos, there's no emus.

There's no small birds if there's no trees, there's no reptiles.

Some of the farmers out here were shooting camels

and leaving them to rot.

But I went to see one cattle herder with a different approach.

Ian Conway had invited me to join a camel round-up

on his huge Outback cattle ranch.

Get a bit of pressure on it.

Are they likely to rip off?

No, you're going to have a helicopter blowing over

the top of this. Right.

So, everything has to be fairly secure.

Ian was throwing everything he had at the round-up.

Heavily-modified Mad Max all-terrain vehicles,

and even putting eyes in the sky.

The area they're operating in is so huge that the chopper

goes up to look for the mobs of camels...

..as they call them here.

And, then, it's going to call in the cars, and we're going to go out

and bring the camels in.

Finding a mob of camels was no mean feat.

They range over a vast country-sized area,

sometimes covering up to 40 miles a day.

So, Ian, what's some...

What's happening?

We've got the helicopter coming in here now and he's got

a herd of camels coming in.

Looks to be about 20-to-30 head.

And they'll just keep moving forwards.

So, the idea is they're going to come up here,

we're going to stay quiet while they go past and, then,

we get the cars in behind them...

We'll get in behind and give him a hand to push 'em along

a little bit quicker than what they are.

Not a great time for a flat battery.

Jump-start, first trial!

So, now, we're going after the camels.

What's that dead ahead? Look.

14, 16, 18, 20...maybe 25 there.

Now, that is a sight.

We go round the corner and, suddenly,

there's a whopping great camel.

Just going to let them go until they get up close to the guards

before we do any forcing, you know?

Ian had kept the camels herded together.

Then it was time for the hardest part of the whole round-up -

getting them into the holding pen.

This is the, sort of, key moment, isn't it, really?

This is the key moment. Yeah.

You're putting your seat belt on?

Yeah, my daughters insist, cos I roll over quite often.

Wonderful.

IAN LAUGHS

OK, let's go, fellas.

Where are you, Alan? Where are you?

Ian had been mustering animals out here for more than 40 years.

His experience showed.

HE WHISTLES

HE SHOUTS

The team had rounded up 15 camels.

Ian's plan was to sell them to buyers in the Middle East -

something that, to me, seemed bizarre.

But few people out here doubt that camel numbers need controlling.

For Ian, the round-up was a more humane and moral alternative

to just being shot by a marksman.

They just shoot them, and they lie on the ground.

That's it. Then nothing's done with them.

We don't know whether there's any system of where they might go along

and check to see if they're dead or whatever they are.

So, they might lay there for a few days.

Since we filmed, the situation with invading camels in

the Outback has worsened.

Experts say their numbers are doubling every ten years or so.

A couple of years later, in Barbados,

I encountered a very different kind of invasive species.

As well as famous white sand beaches,

the Caribbean is home to some of the world's great coral reef systems.

But it's under siege.

Permission to come aboard.

Come aboard. Andre. Simon.

Hello, Simon Reeve. Hello. Very nice to meet you, brother.

Nice to meet you, too. Thank you for having us.

Marine biologist Andre Miller was taking me to see how

the island's beautiful and vital coast was being threatened.

The danger was from an enemy that, at first glance, is stunning.

Lionfish.

Its natural home is the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Scientists think they first got to the Caribbean in the

ballast tanks of ships.

In the Caribbean, they were causing mayhem,

eating other young fish and decimating life on coral reefs.

An invasive species can be like a hand grenade lobbed

into a delicate ecosystem.

They have, when grown, no natural predators.

Every single day, they can eat half their body weight.

Are you really quite worried, then, about what they're going to do?

We are extremely worried.

If we don't do something now, in a few years,

we might just be diving and looking at lionfish.

Across the Caribbean, conservationists like Andre had

begun culling the lionfish to preserve other life on the reef.

Good job, first, I must say. Well, thank you.

You filled up a container. Good job.

This is about 15 less lionfish we have to worry about. 15 less?

It's a start. Cos the more people on shore start eating these,

then 15 becomes 1,500.

Eating them? Yeah, more and more of our Barbadian people -

more of us are eating these.

Instead of just randomly killing them,

Andre was hoping he could persuade locals to develop

a taste for lionfish -

something that would mean fishermen had an incentive to catch them

in large enough numbers to control them.

We are going to, first of all, cut those spines off.

Lionfish have long, venomous spines.

Not the most appetising.

That's the business side right there.

And it is, of course, the venom, which I think really puts people

off the idea of eating them.

You don't actually sell lionfish here? No.

You give it up for free. Yeah.

You give it away for free? Yeah.

Why?

Cos people are scared of it. People are scared of it.

Once you cut these off, it's a normal fish.

If we take these to cook them, will you stay and try it?

Will you try the meat? No, no! THEY LAUGH

Oh, go on! No!

You don't like the idea of it,

or you've got something better to do?

With a bit of careful cutting, the fish was ready for cooking.

So, we headed over to Oistins, a popular local food market.

What happens if you can't get people here eating lionfish,

and control their numbers in some sort of way?

What will the consequences be?

The word I would use is "critical".

We need to do something now. We need to be proactive.

We need to act.

Lionfish has only been in Barbados for two years and, already,

it's on every single reef that I have ever dived on.

We're seeing them everywhere we go.

Thanks a lot. That's lovely of you, thank you very much. OK!

Lionfish. Lionfish.

That's really good.

It's delicious, actually, it's sort of...buttery.

Oh, come on, you've got to get more people trying this.

All the ladies said they're going to try.

Try some! Who's going to try? Come on!

Tell me what it tastes like.

Yes, baby!

Ah? Tastes just like snapper.

Tastes just like snapper.

Just like snapper!

I think that's the best thing you could possibly hear.

SIMON LAUGHS

And you've got to recommend it to people, as well. I will.

Promise? I will.

I'm coming back next week... I'll try to get it on George's menu.

You'll try and get this on Georgie's menu? I will try.

That's what we're talking about.

Excellent! That's it. That's it.

Congratulations, mate, that's brilliant.

Well done, well done.

You worked hard there. Mm-hm!

Lionfish is now very much on the menu,

and that's helping to control lionfish numbers.

So, if you're ever lucky enough to visit the Caribbean,

you know what to order.

Who knows when we'll be able to start travelling widely again?

Many think we should be staying at home for environmental reasons.

But I believe responsible travel can be a powerful force for good.

I used to think that travel and tourism was just a disaster

for the planet.

And I am definitely not ignoring or blind to the environmental

consequences of our journeys and our holidays.

Absolutely not.

But I also know that we are losing iconic wildlife on this planet.

And one of the best chances of protecting what's left

is in places like Lundy.

National parks and marine-protected areas around the planet are partly,

or sometimes entirely dependent on tourism money to survive.

So, when we go on our holidays

or adventures and we visit these places, we pay an entrance fee.

Even if we don't know it, it's bundled up in the price.

If we don't visit these places, we will lose some of them.

When it's run right,

tourism can help to protect and preserve.

In Mozambique, the conservationist Carlos Macuacua was brilliant

at persuading villagers to stop killing sharks.

You get some music playing to draw in a crowd,

then start a football match to get kids involved.

And, then, he spread the message that the ocean is more valuable

when it's full of life,

more valuable as a draw for tourists.

Huh?

Poorer countries like Mozambique can earn crucial foreign currency

from tourism, which employs millions globally.

Responsible travel can really help with conservation,

because visitors can provide a huge economic incentive for locals

to protect and preserve the natural world.

It's a philosophy Costa Rica in Central America has made its own.

This is very nice.

A bit of rest for a weary traveller.

Look...at that view!

HE GASPS

The Pacific Ocean.

No, it's not... is that a toucan? Look.

Well, this is all very eco-touristy.

And that's very much the image of Costa Rica that

many foreign visitors have.

It's not bad, is it?

Costa Rica has put sustainable tourism at the heart

of its green plan.

Of course, that has contradictions.

Many of the two million travellers who usually visit each year,

like me, fly in on polluting planes.

But at least in Costa Rica, they're trying to keep a balance

with nature by countering and offsetting pollution.

Look, an iguana.

You see it? And there's an iguana, just by the side of the road.

Adventure guide Mari Jimenez showed me around.

How beautiful! A lot of butterflies.

Oh, look, this one.

It's so cool how just one tree can attract so many insects.

Wow. And this is just, like, a tiny sample of what we have

here in Costa Rica.

For its size, Costa Rica is one of the most biodiverse countries

in the world.

There are more than half a million different species of animals

and plants, more than 800 different birds and unique types of frogs,

lizards, snakes, spiders, monkeys, crocodiles.

The whole place is just alive.

Look at...

I mean, this is...

..right here.

This tree attracts scarlet macaws.

They usually travel in pairs.

And one... They mate for life, don't they? Exactly.

They are so endangered across the rest of Central America.

It's... We are very, very lucky. Here, as well? Yeah.

Here, as well.

Costa Ricans have worked hard to preserve this paradise.

Since the 1980s, forests have doubled in size.

Half the country's forests are now protected parks,

and much of the conservation is thanks to money from tourism.

Bloody hell!

That looks amazing! Welcome to Costa Rica, Simon.

THEY LAUGH

Wo-o-ow!

That is overwhelming!

Did you expect something like that? No! No, I didn't!

When you said "waterfall", I thought it would be significantly smaller!

That is totally breathtaking!

Costa Ricans have put conservation at the centre of

their plans for the future.

Perhaps other countries could learn from them.

There can't be much doubt that national parks and the natural world

are under threat like never before,

and wildlife urgently needs better protection.

Next time, I'll be looking back on my travels in some of the

Earth's great wilderness areas...

What a place.

..and the people who live in them.

Alexei.