Episode 2

In this second programme we join another three presenters as they celebrate the experts and communities fighting to rebalance another trio of vulnerable habitats, Gordon Buchanan returns to Brazil, Ella Al-Shamahi to Cambodia and Ade Adepitan to Kenya.

Gordon Buchanan returns to Brazil. Covering almost half of South America, it's the most biodiverse country on our planet and as well as the Amazon Rainforest, it's home to one of the world's most important wetlands, the Pantanal. Gordon's here to revisit a pioneering project that's committed to saving one of the Amazon's iconic predators – the jaguar, and to understand the importance of a healthy ecosystem.

On the other side of the world Ella Al-Shamahi returns to Cambodia in Southeast Asia, an area experiencing increasing economic growth. But the growth is putting massive pressure on the natural resources and is leading to expanding cities and potentially devastating over-exploitation of the natural world.

Biodiversity plays a vital role in building resilience in these threatened landscapes and every species is critical. Ella joins an expedition which will reintroduce the nearly extinct Siamese crocodile into the depths of the Cardamom Mountains. To date, the survival of these critically endangered crocs has been down to the cultural connection between the local people and the crocs who they consider sacred.

When Ade visited Kenya in 2021 the elephants were being severely affected by drought but 2022 saw a new and sinister problem; people and elephants now fighting over dwindling food and water supplies, even killing each other in the desperation to survive. This is the new scourge - human elephant conflict.

But Ade finds out about an ingenious project that could help farmers and elephants to co-exist until the next rains finally arrive. Using biology and behavioural science, leading elephant scientists with the input of locals, have created affordable tools for repelling elephants from farms and reducing conflict.