INTERVIEW

Jonathan & Angela Scott

The leading conservationists tell Niall Hampton about their Sacred Nature Initiative

Angela Scott

Above: Cheetahs struggle to raise cubs in areas with lots of lions and hyenas (they will attempt to kill them and steal their food). They also raise fewer cubs in areas with a high density of tourists.

Photographers and conservationists

Jonathan and Angela Scott

Two of the biggest names in global conservation, the Scotts split their time between Nairobi in Kenya and the Maasai Mara.

They are patrons of numerous conservation organisations working to protect cheetahs, lions, rhinos and other species.

Readers with an interest in wildlife photography, or those who enjoy our coverage of the Remembering Wildlife series of books, will be aware of Jonathan and Angela Scott and their conservation work. The couple have written and illustrated over 40 books, and worked on the popular BBC TV series Big Cat Diary between 1996 and 2008, with Jonathan as co-presenter and Angela as game spotter and stills photographer. While living in East Africa, Jonathan and Angela have also undertaken 16 expeditions to Antarctica. Digital Camera got to meet them in much warmer climes, at last year’s Xposure photography festival [https://xposure.net] in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, where we discussed the couple’s Sacred Nature Initiative – and a new e-book.

Jonathan fell in love with Africa after his first visit in 1974, and lived permanently in the Maasai Mara between 1977 and 1992.

Born in Egypt and raised in Tanzania, the wonders of the Serengeti National Park gave Angela her love of photography.

Did you both enjoy the Xposure festival?

Angela: [Curator] Simon Newton invited us to speak at Xposure about one of our passion projects, the Sacred Nature Initiative, the non-profit organisation that we founded on the back of the two Sacred Nature books we’ve published so far. We had a gallery of photographs about big cats, which we loved, and we were able to speak to people about the Sacred Nature project. www.jonathanangelascott.com

Instagram: @thebigcatpeople

Jonathan: The exhibition space at Xposure is a photographer’s paradise. I don’t know anywhere in the world where photographers are given an exhibition space like they get there. Your photographs are displayed almost life-size – you’re standing next to a picture that is four or five feet high. Which photographer could afford to do that?

How would you define the Sacred Nature Initiative?

Jonathan: It is built on three pillars: ‘Inspire’, which we hope we can do with our books and television programmes; ‘Educate’, which is working with young people, getting the message across about how sacred nature is; and ‘Conserving’.