Joost & Johan, Dutch rewilding pioneers, reveal to Hugh Somerleyton their radical plan to bring back the lost Dalmatian pelican to the Netherlands and even potentially Great Britain, a spectacular “aqua wolf” that could transform our wetlands forever.

In this episode, Hugh is joined remotely by two of the people at the heart of one of the most ambitious rewilding stories in Europe, the effort to return the Dalmatian pelican to the Netherlands after an absence of more than 500 years.

Joost Lammer is Curator at Vogelpark Avifauna, the world's very first bird park and a serious force in international species conservation. Johan van der Haven is Avifauna's Team Leader for Green and Nature, a lifelong birder with a decade spent living in Thailand and a daily commitment to strengthening biodiversity across the globe.

This is a conversation about patience, partnership, and the profound possibility of restoration which is something the UK is looking to recreate.

Nuclear and nature collide as Julia Pyke of Sizewell C makes the provocative case to Hugh Somerleyton that big energy can mean big nature, and that Britain’s most controversial power project could power 7% of the UK, while restoring more land than it takes.

As the founding Joint Managing Director of Sizewell C, Julia Pyke spent nearly a decade making the case that major infrastructure and genuine environmental enhancement can and must go hand in hand. The biodiversity and landscape plan developed under her leadership at the Suffolk nuclear project has been cited by Tony Juniper himself as a model for what ambitions infrastructure can achieve for nature. A fellow of the Energy Institute, Julia brings a fascinating and provocative perspective to the question of how big industry can be a force for ecological good, particularly pertinent for WildEast's own work in East Suffolk.

From Vogue to viral activism, Fleur Britten joins Hugh Somerleyton lakeside to expose fashion’s greenwashing, champion cool climate action, and ask whether making sustainability sexy is the key to saving nature.

Journalist, author and self-described "eco nag", Fleur Britten spent fifteen years as Senior Features Editor at Sunday Times Style before going freelance, where she now writes widely on sustainability, nature and lifestyle for publications including the Guardian, The Times, Vogue and the Telegraph. Sharp, accessible and culturally switched-on, Fleur brings a rare skill to the conservation conversation: the ability to translate complex environmental issues into stories that resonate with mainstream audiences.