Steve Boyes

Explorer, Scientist

South African conservation biologist Steve Boyes is the Founder of the Wild Bird Trust. With a passion for wilderness and restoration, he works to protect Botswana’s pristine Okavango Delta from threats upstream. In 2015, Boyes and his team poled and paddled dug-out canoes over 1,500 miles across the Okavango River Basin from source-to-sand in 121 days. This was the first exploration of the remote upper reaches of the Cuito and Cuanavale Rivers. New species. Unknown waterfalls. First contact. The goal. Work with the Angolan government to establish, by far, the largest wildlife reserve in Africa. One of the great conservation opportunities of our generation. We are these last wild places everyone of us. A childhood fascination for wild parrots has Boyes working tirelessly to mitigate all extinction threats to Africa's parrots. He discovered and successfully combatted a devastating outbreak of Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease in wild Cape parrots, Africa’s most endangered parrot. His research motivated a moratorium on the importation of African grey parrots, Africa’s most traded wild bird, into South Africa. He is currently focusing on planting a million indigenous trees and establishing new protected areas. Boyes is a Fellow at the National Geographic Society and a 2016 TED Senior Fellow.

Wilderness, African parrots, Okavango Delta, Africa, and using technology to better understand, share and protect Africa's last wild landscapes...

There are still wildernesses out there. There are still places we know nothing about. 1,500 miles and 121 days on dug-out canoes or "mekoro" took us across the Okavango River Basin from source-to-sand.The first-ever exploration and navigation of the Cuito River. Fire. Mist. Forests. First contact. New species. Waterfalls and rapids. Hippo and crocodile. One of the wildest place on Earth. The world's largest undeveloped river basin. This is our last opportunity to save a place like this. A remote, forgotten landscape that connects us to eternity and remembers a time before modern man. A place we can all go to connect with the beating heart of our planet. In wildness is the preservation of humankind. Save these last wildernesses and we save ourselves.

Biodiversity and Conservation, Conservation Biology, Conservation Media, Exploring Remote Wilderness

A mission to inspire millions of people around the world to protect wilderness areas they will probably never visit. For our own sakes. For our global heritage. Wilderness is the birthplace of religion and our human consciousness and without these inspiring, primordial landscapes we are lost forever... My work focusses on restoring degraded landscapes by planting a million trees and establishing the largest wildlife reserve in Africa.

Poling traditional dug-out canoes thousands of miles across remote, unexplored river catchments...