'This event epitomised our vision for me: snow leopards and people living in harmony'

There is awesomeness in scale. The Earth is a big place, with lots of people, places, animals and things on it, but our experience of it can only ever be described as small. Even though you know there are 8 billion other people, and 7.7 million species of animals, those numbers have no real meaning because they are so vast. All I know about 8 billion people is that they must make quite a lot of mess, and on this fragile planet, that can feel overwhelming.

This is apparently known as eco-anxiety. It hits me when I try my best to clean up a yoghurt pot for recycling, or have to dispose of a plastic film lid. Multiply my waste times 8 billion, and that’s quite a lot of plastic film lids. It can all feel a bit pointless; swimming against an inevitable tide of carelessness. I am doing my best, but is my best good enough? Will it make an impact?

There is some comfort in knowing that I am not the only person who feels this way. If I can despair over recycling in Bermondsey, what must those who work on the front lines of conservation feel when face-to-face with rising temperatures, oceans of plastic, wildlife persecution, disappearing forests and habitat destruction? As Victor Glover, pilot of Artemis II, correctly pointed out, ‘we live on a fragile planet in the vacuum and the void of space’. The Earth might be big, but that does not mean it is indestructible.

While it might be easy to despair, that does not mean it is necessary. ‘Our purpose on the planet as humans is to find joy, to find the joy in lifting each other up by creating solutions together instead of destroying,’ Glover added. ‘When you see it from out here, it doesn’t change it. It just absolutely reaffirms that. It’s almost like seeing living proof of it.’

Those who spend their lives in nature are thankfully more positive than me. Despite being privy to the destruction and loss of what once was, many have found hope in a wild encounter. This Earth Day, the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) has asked staff, researchers and partners to share these experiences in nature — stories of luck, awe and renewed purpose — to remind us that no matter how helpless we feel, how anxious we might be, it is worth making the effort. The WWF has been kind enough to highlight these stories, which we’ve shared below, to remind us that while the Earth might be a big place, it's the little things that make it feel like home, and a home worth fighting for.

My first wild sighting of a snow leopard was in Shey Phoksundo National Park (SPNP) in western Nepal. The animal walked calmly along the mountain slope that rose steeply upward of our camp, that evening, traversing between us and our horses and yaks grazing in the slope. All eyes — humans and animals — were on the snow leopard as it walked gracefully up to the nearby ridge, positioned itself to mark its territory, and finally disappeared into the mountains.

This event epitomized our vision for me: snow leopards and people living in harmony. Yet this romanticism was short-lived. A few days later, during this trip, I saw the challenges that lay before us. I observed resilience and exceptional patience of local communities losing livestock, but also frustrations and anger reaching breaking point. I sensed their desperation and the reality of retaliatory killings of snow leopards, in absence of support during their times of need…

Our world is interconnected, and our futures are closely linked. The fates of flagships such as snow leopards are an indicator to the fate of people — our friends and families. The optimist in me knows the future can be bright for people and snow leopards, but the realist in me knows we need greater awareness of what we stand to lose if we don’t take action together.

Sheren Shrestha, Lead – Snow Leopard Program, WWF

My first time seeing an elephant I was a little scared. But the longer I’ve worked with them, the more confidence I’ve gained, and now I can move closer because I understand them. I’ve developed a liking and a love for them. The Maasai even call me the elephant man!

Professor Noah Sitati, Wildlife Species Expert, WWF Tanzania.

It took me 20 years to lay eyes on a wild tiger. In my career, I’ve spent weeks deep in tiger territory without ever spotting any stripes, but I broke that spell in early 2020 when a young male emerged from the tall grass to quench its thirst. It was a dream come true for me, a moment that filled me with renewed enthusiasm, awe, and a deep sense of luck.

Kanchan Thapa, Conservation Biologist, Tigers, WWF-Nepal

I was very excited, the first time I saw them; a rhino is not an easy animal to see! I’m always happy every time I see them, just looking at their size, and their horn. But it’s so easy to feel sad for them. Sometimes the horn can be removed to deter poachers, but without a horn it’s just not a rhino anymore.

Professor Noah Sitati, Wildlife Species Expert, WWF-Tanzania.

The first time I saw penguins I did not realise what I was looking at. I was on a dinghy boat, moving across the Baie du Marin in Possession Island, the main island of Crozet archipelago in the French subantarctic territory. I was about to overwinter as a young scientist for 16 months on this island.

As the dinghy was sailing towards the beach I came to realize that the whitish-greyish pebbles that were in front of me were in fact thousands and thousands of penguins in the distance. I had never seen such a concentration of wild animals. I was watching in awe as the noise and smell superimposed on the scenery! This was so intense…. My overwintering time with penguins was determinant in guiding my career; I left the island knowing what I would do in the future: continue to investigate penguins at sea to help establishing conservation approaches, especially Marine Protected Areas.

Yan Ropert-Coudert, Director of Research CNRS – Marine Predators team.