David Attenborough Launches Christopher Parsons Rainforest

Sir Attenborough pictured with the late Christopher Parsons, producer of "Life on Earth" and former WLT trustee.

On the 3 July Sir David Attenborough launched the appeal for the Christopher Parsons Rainforest. About 70 family, friends, work colleagues and admirers of Chris gathered in the lecture hall of the Linnean Society of London. The Linnean Society of London was an appropriate location, as Chris was one of the select few Honorary Fellows of the Society, along with Sir David Attenborough.

Sir David spoke about his friendship with Chris, which spanned over 50 years, and Chris’s work on behalf of wildlife conservation. Dr Gerard Bertrand then gave a presentation about the forests that the World Land Trust was buying as a permanent memorial to Chris. The area is described as one of the most species rich in the entire world – a truly fitting memorial to a man who brought wildlife to so many people all over the world.

Among those in attendance at the Linnean society launch were (left to right) Dr Nigel Simpson (who sponsored the event), Dr Gerard Bertrand, Sir Ghillean Prance, Dr Robert Ridgely and Sir David Attenborough. See a larger version of the image. (Use your back button to return here.)

The Christopher Parsons Rainforest forms an extension of the Tapichalaca Reserve in Ecuador, which supports an extraordinary variety of species, a high proportion of them endemics and globally endangered to some degree.

More information

For more information on this new reserve, see the press release David Attenborough launches Christopher Parsons Rainforest. For information about the WLT's work in Ecuador see the Tropical Forest Project pages.