Is Nature Better Off Without Us?

Rare Earth is a new weekly podcast and radio show from BBC Radio Four which digs deeper into the biggest issues for our planet. Each week, environmental journalist Tom Heap and physicist Helen Czerski will tackle a major story about our environment and wildlife, work out how we got here and meet the brave and clever people with fresh ideas to help us- and nature- thrive.

Helen and Tom won’t shy away from the big stuff- temperatures rising while wildlife declines- but this won’t be a weekly dose of doom laden predictions and tortured hand-wringing. Rare Earth is here to celebrate the wonder of nature and meet the people determined to keep it wonderful.

In the first edition Tom and Helen ask how we can bring nature back from the brink. Should we simply abandon great swathes of countryside and let nature reclaim it on its own terms or must we balance the competing demands on our land and micro-manage species and habitats for the best outcomes? Tom meets the herd of bison helping to re-wild a woodland in Kent and visits the Holkham Estate in Norfolk where the government's Landscape Recovery pilot project is funding the transition of intensive farmland into wetlands and passageways for nature.

They're also joined by Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment and by Rebecca Wrigley, Chief Executive of Rewilding Britain.

Produced by Alasdair Cross for BBC Audio Bristol in conjunction with the Open University