Friday Lecture Series - Lesley Malpas

With a background in wildlife photography, ecology and conservation, Lesley Malpas is the founder of Operation Future Hope, an NGO which seeks to empower young people to become leaders and pioneers of change, working to increase biodiversity both locally and globally.

Lesley is a friend of Sherborne Girls, having already started to re-wild our own school grounds as part of a larger mission to create a network of biodiversity havens in schools. During an inspirational talk about the state of nature on earth and with specific reference to the impact of human economic and lifestyle choices on biodiversity in the UK, she spoke to the concerns shared by many of the girls about the future of our planet.

While her lecture was uncompromising and hard-hitting, she also gave a message of hope which inspired us as a community to think globally, act locally, make more informed choices about how we use the earth's resources, and to rethink at a fundamental level our place on the planet and relationship with the other species with which we share it.

At supper after her talk, her advice was eagerly sought from the girls about how we can make changes, however small, that, taken together, can change the course that our planet is on to ensure a more stable and sustainable future, not only for us, but for countless other species.