The episode focused on the work being undertaken to restore Britain’s rainforests.
Environmental journalist, presenter and film maker, Russell Beard visited the Coed Dolgarrog National Nature Reserve, which students at the University explore as part of their forestry and woodland degrees, such as the BSc-level degree, Woodland Management and Conservation, and the MSc-level, Environmental Forestry. This ancient woodland is one of the rarest habitats on Earth.
He also visited a temperate rainforest restoration project in Pembrokeshire being run by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales. On these visits he met the scientists who are pioneering methods to restore and conserve these vanishing ecosystems, combining cutting-edge research with traditional woodland management and farming practices to bring Britain's forgotten rainforests back to life.
Those who featured in the programme included John Healey, Professor of Forest Sciences, Adam Dawson, Senior Conservation Officer for the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, who is a Bangor alumnus with a BSc in Agroforestry, and Sophie Higgett, a PhD student at the University who is researching the restoration of temperate rainforest ecosystems.
John Healey, Professor of Forest Sciences at Bangor University’s School of Environmental and Natural Sciences said, "It was a pleasure to work with the team from CGTN in making this film. I was fascinated to learn so much about the technical skill and art of filming. There has been a huge increase in interest in the conservation and restoration of temperate rainforests in UK. We really hope that this film, capturing some of our current research to tackle these challenges, will further encourage students to join our degrees in Bangor that focus on these issues. Our students carry out hands-on fieldwork in some of the temperate rainforests in North Wales that feature in this film. It is great that many of our BSc and MSc graduates from these degrees go on to careers focused on woodland conservation as site managers, policy makers or ecological researchers.”
“We are very optimistic that our set of current research projects on temperate rainforests, including those shown in this film, will make a valuable contribution to building the evidence base needed to improve success in the conservation of these habitats that are globally important for their biodiversity, in the face of the severe challenges posed by an increasingly warming and drought-prone world."
Bangor University PhD researcher Sophie Higgett said, “It was a very rewarding experience to share our research on temperate rainforest restoration and to see it communicated to a wider audience. Russell and the team were highly engaged and interested in all aspects of our work, and it was great that he was keen to get hands-on and help with tree planting at the experimental site. We hope that the research being undertaken will help to inform approaches to woodland creation in bracken-dominated areas, and contribute to the conservation and restoration of these highly biodiverse and carbon-rich temperate rainforest habitats.”