Rare Earth

The shadowy world of wildlife crime is estimated to be one of the four biggest illegal trades in the world. It runs the gamut from the international smuggling of ivory and exotic pets to hare coursing and badger baiting. The impacts of wildlife crime vary - in some cases it means a threat to endangered species, in others it takes the form of cruelty to individual animals. Could the unregulated world of social media make it easier than ever for wildlife criminals to evade the authorities? Or will advances in tech - including exciting forensic breakthroughs - be enough to stop them in their tracks?
With panellists:
- Fiona Howie, wildlife veterinary pathologist at Scotland's Rural College
- Neil D’Cruze, UK Director of international animal welfare organisation Four Paws
- Christian Plowman, Program Manager - Wildlife Cybercrime at the International Fund for Animal Welfare
Presented by Tom Heap & Helen Czerski
Producer - Beth Sagar-Fenton
Assistant Producer - Georgia Graham
Editor - Alasdair Cross

What can the legal system do to protect the environment? Tom Heap and Helen Czerski gather together a panel of legal and environmental experts to discuss their battles for the planet. How much protection does nature have in law at the moment, and do legal rights make any real difference in practice? They debate whether nature should be given official legal rights, like human rights.
Today's panel:
Paul Powlesland - barrister, campaigner, founder of Lawyers for Nature
Laura Clarke - CEO of Client Earth
Rosa Vásquez Espinoza - biologist, conservationist, founder of Amazon Research International
Producer: Emma Campbell
Assistant Producer: Toby Field

Cornish fishermen this summer have had their usual catch of lobster and crab replaced by voracious octopus. Restaurant menus have had to be wiped and rewritten across the south-west, but what else has changed? Tom Heap and Helen Czerski ask why octopus have such a hold on our imagination and the science world, why the octopus has moved north and what its journey can tell us about the changing oceans.
Joining Tom and Helen are the writer Sy Montgomery, marine biologist Dr Keith Hiscock MBE and octopus neuroscientist Dr Amy Courtney of the Marine Biological Association.
Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton
Assistant Producer: Toby Field

Helen Czerski and Tom Heap ask if nature is really red in tooth and claw. Is life all about survival of the fittest or are we all working together on a changing planet?
They're joined by Rowan Hooper, author of Togetherness, lichen expert April Windle and Isabel Hardman, assistant editor of the Spectator magazine and author of The Natural Health Service: How Nature Can Mend Your Mind.
Together they discuss the plants and insects that rely on deals with other species to keep themselves healthy, from fungus-farming ants to the Wood Wide Web that connects most living plants. April shows Helen the wondrous lichens of Hyde Park and Rowan discovers the orchids studied by Charles Darwin at his home in Kent.
Producer: Ed Prendeville
Assistant Producer: Toby Field
Special thanks to English Heritage and The Royal Parks

How will the environment be changed by an Andy Burnham government? As the new parliamentary session opens, Tom Heap and Helen Czerski leaf through the government in-tray to reveal the big decisions that will need to be taken on energy, transport and nature protection.
Discussing the issues from Rosebank to wildfires are Sky News Economics Editor, Ed Conway, climate scientist Corrine Le Quéré from the University of East Anglia and Michael Jacobs, former Special Advisor on the environment to Prime Minster Gordon Brown.
Producers: Ed Prendeville and Beth Sagar-Fenton