Tony Juniper

"He is by popular consent the most effective of Britain's eco-warriors" The Independent, 2008

One of the top ten environmental figures of the last 30 years. The ENDS Report 2008

One of the "all time eco heroes" the Environment Agency, 2006

One of "the 100 people who are making the decisions that affect your life" Country Life 2009

Tony Juniper is a campaigner, writer, sustainability adviser and a well-known British environmentalist. For more than 25 years he has worked for change toward a more sustainable society at local, national and international levels. From providing ecology and conservation experiences for primary school children, to making the case for new recycling laws, to orchestrating international campaigns for action on rainforests and climate change, his work has sought change at many levels.

Juniper presently works as a Special Adviser to the Prince of Wales Charities’ International Sustainability Unit, having previously worked (2008-2010) as a Special Advisor with the Prince’s Rainforests Project. He is a Senior Associate with the Cambridge University Programme for Sustainability Leadership, working as a member of the teaching faculty and in the development of the organisation’s new Natural Capital programme.

Juniper is also an adviser to several international companies, assisting with the development of their sustainability strategies. He frequently speaks and lectures on environmental and sustainability questions. He is also a member of several advisory groups and boards, including with the Science Museum on their new climate science exhibit, he is a board member of 10:10, a member of the advisory board of Sandbag and a board member of Climate for Ideas. He is also an ambassador for the National Trust’s vision to restore a large area of Cambridgeshire wetlands around Wicken Fen. In October 2009 Tony Juniper was elected as a Trustee of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust.

Tony Juniper writes extensively and is the Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic’s Green Magazine supplement. He is a regular contributor to the Sunday Times’ Home section, writes a blog at The Guardian’s Comment is Free website and is regularly published in Resurgence magazine. Juniper is also writing a new book with the Prince of Wales and Ian Skelly called Harmony, which is scheduled for publication by Harper Collins in October 2010.

Tony Juniper believes that political change is necessary in making the transition to a more sustainable society and was the candidate for the Green Party in the Cambridge constituency at the 2010 General Election. The campaign nearly tripled the Green vote in Cambridge and gained the third best Green result out of 325 constituencies where a Green candidate stood.

Following a period working with an innovative conservation education project in Oxfordshire with the Wildlife Trust during 1984-1985, Juniper worked as a professional ornithologist. From 1989-1990 he spearheaded a program with Birdlife International to prevent the extinction of critically endangered parrots. He became a recognized expert on this group and in 1998 co-published (with Mike Parr) Parrots: A guide to the parrots of the world, which was judged in 1999 as 'reference book of the year' by the UK Library Association.

In 1990 Juniper joined the staff of Friends of the Earth, where he maintained a strong public presence for the organization in the UK and internationally. He was widely recognized for his work in elevating environmental issues, and for example in 2005 Country Life listed him as one of most influential figures shaping the countryside in the UK.

Initially he led the tropical rainforest campaign, both in the UK and internationally. From 1993 he took forward the organisation's work on biodiversity. Later he became involved in transport policy and led Friends of the Earth's celebrated campaign against the Newbury Bypass. In 1998 he became Policy and Campaigns Director at Friends of the Earth, and in this job played a leading role in many initiatives, including on GM crops, world trade policy, industrial pollution and biodiversity.

From 2003 to 2008 he was the organization's director in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. From 2001 to 2008 he was also elected Vice Chair of the 70-strong network of national organizations that comprise Friends of the Earth International. He contributed to many of Friends of the Earth's most important achievements, including legislation enacted to protect the UK's finest wildlife habitats, new laws to require more recycling and policy changes in the transport and farming sectors.

Friends of the Earth's greatest achievement during Juniper's time as director was the success of the Big Ask campaign, which set out to gain legal controls on carbon dioxide emissions. This was delivered through a huge grass roots lobbying effort in partnership with Radiohead's Thom Yorke. The UK’s world-leading statutory greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets as set out in the Climate Change Act 2008 resulted directly from the success of this campaign.

In addition to an award-winning title on parrots and co-authoring Harmony, other books by Tony Juniper include the companion volume to the BBC series Saving planet Earth (2007), How many lightbulbs does it take to change a planet? (2007) and Spix's Macaw: the race to save the world's rarest bird (2002).

In November 2008 Juniper was declared as an Honarary Fellow by the Institution of Environmental Sciences in recognition of contributions to environmental science. In November 2009 Tony Juniper was the first recipient of a unique and prestigious award created by The Wildlife Trusts in honour of conservation pioneer Charles Rothschild, and his daughter, Miriam.