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Interview with Tony Juniper
03 March, 2009 
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Tony Juniper is a campaigner, writer, adviser and commentator and one of the UK's best known environmentalists. For the last 25 years he has spent most of his time seeking 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.
Tony Juniper currently works as a special adviser to The Prince of Wales' Rainforest Project and with the Cambridge University Program for Industry, where he is a Senior Associate. He is a member of advisory panels with the British Council and the Ecologist and BBC Wildlife magazines.
The Prince of Wales' Rainforest Project
In 1990 Juniper joined 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 named him number 25 out of the top 100 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. In 1998 he became Policy and Campaigns Director at Friends of the Earth, and in this job played a leading role in many campaigns, including on GM crops, world trade policy and climate change.
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.
Other titles 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). He regularly contributes to The Guardian and blogs on Comment is Free at the Guardian website. Tony Juniper is a regular contributor on radio and TV.
Tony Juniper - Comment is Free
Watch talks from our the event Razing the Rainforest
Former Minister for the Environment, Director of Environment, World Bank Director, Rainforest Foundation UK
Brazil