Keynote SpeakersProfessor Chris Baines has an international reputation as an environmental communicator and an inspiring public speaker.
He is a national Vice President of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and recipient of lifetime achievement medals from the RSPB and the British Association of Nature Conservationists.
He has always worked to build creative partnerships between business, government and conservation, and he works with opinion leaders in the water, housebuilding, energy, minerals and ethical investment industries.
He provided environmental guidance for the London 2012 Olympics, the London Millennium Dome, and more recently London’s award-winning ‘Elephant Park‘ housing redevelopment scheme.
Chris studied horticulture at London University and is also a qualified landscape architect.
He was awarded a medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for the first-ever Wildlife Garden, and he first appeared on BBC Gardeners’ World as long ago as 1979.
Chris’ book ‘How to Make a Wildlife Garden‘ was a top ten bestseller and has remained in print for more than 30 years, with the most recent edition published by the Royal Horticultural Society as “a gardening classic.”
His book ‘The Wild Side of Town‘ accompanied his TV series of the same name and won the first UK conservation book prize and his TV series for children, The Ark, won an International Wildscreen Award.
Chris Baines was one of the original presenters of BBC Countryfile, resulting in a BAFTA nomination for his programme on renewable energy in the countryside.
His most recent film The Living Thames is introduced by Sir David Attenborough. The film is an account of the recovery of London’s great tidal river. It won first prize in the 2019 UK Charity Film Awards and has now won major awards for environmental film-making across four continents.
Chris has a lifetime’s experience as an independent environmental campaigner. He currently advises the National Trust on the natural environment, with a particular emphasis on nature conservation in the Trust’s gardens.
He is working with the National Grid and the renewable energy industry to promote marine ecological restoration as a feature of offshore wind farms and chairs an advisory group tasked with removing pylons and power lines from Britain’s National Parks.
Chris Baines is very widely travelled and in recent years has delivered keynote environmental presentations in China, Canada, New Zealand and several European countries.
