OK, I would like to introduce all of you to my favorite animal in the world. This is the Peter Pan. It's an axolotl. It's a type of salamander, but it never fully grows up like other salamanders do. And this little guy has. So if it loses any limb, it can just completely regenerate. It's amazing. And, I mean, look at it -- it's framed by feathery gills. It's just ... how could you not love that? This particular type of axolotl, is known as an achoque. It is equally as cute, and it lives in just one place. It's called Lake Pátzcuaro, and as you can see, it is stunningly beautiful. But unfortunately, it's been so overfished that the achoque is dying out altogether. And this is something that's a scenario. We're living through an extinction crisis, and species are particularly vulnerable to just one little niche. But this is TED, right? So this is where I give you. So how do you save one special? Well, the answer, at least my answer, isn't a grand technological intervention. It's actually really simple. It's that you find people and you ask them and you listen to them and you work with them. So I want to tell you about. And in conservation in particular, if scientists don't team up who have really valuable knowledge but a practical wisdom that's not going they can really miss the point. Scientists and science as an enterprise if it rushes in knowing. But when scientists shake off and really look to people but really important perspective it can genuinely save the world, one wonderfully weird amphibian at a time. So, in the case of the achoque, these are the people. These are the Sisters. They are nuns who have a convent and they have a shared history. And it is so mind-bogglingly wonderful that it drew me all the way there and I even have the unflattering selfie to prove it. There is a room at the center that looks like this. It's very strange. It's lined with all these tanks and hundreds of achoques. And that's because this creature, it's believed has healing powers. So the sisters actually make and sell. I bought a bottle of it. So this is it. It tastes a bit like honey, but the sisters reckon it is good for all kinds of particularly. So I just want you to have a listen. Sister Ofelia: Here in Pátzcuaro in 1747. Sometime after that, our sisters started to make. We didn't discover. That was the original people. But we then started to make. The locals knew that, and they came to offer us the animals. Victoria Gill: I see. So the achoques are. What does the syrup treat? SO: Bronchitis, the lungs and back pain. VG: And so you've in a syrup, in a medicine. Can you tell me how it's made? You're shaking your head. VG: Yeah, they're not up for sharing. But the decline in the achoque actually nearly put a halt, which is why the sisters started this. It's the world's first achoque farm. All they wanted was a healthy, so that they could continue. But what they created at the same time was a captive breeding program. And fast forward a few years, and these scientists from Chester Zoo not far from where I live, and from Michoacana University have persuaded the sisters -- to join them in a research partnership. So the nuns show the biologists how you rear perfectly healthy. And the scientists have put into tanks, filters and pumps in this strange, incongruous. This is the kind of partnership. But I don't think I see. And I have been ludicrously. I've traveled to loads of places. Brilliant people who are trying and solve problems. I've hung out with scientists of the origin of the menopause off the north Pacific coast. And I've followed around scientists who've planted cameras because they were looking to capture as it happens. But it's this team that really showed me the impact that these delicate but really. And I think the reason is because it's not common. And one of the reasons it's not common is because our traditional approach of the hierarchical system doesn't exactly encourage where scientists will look and really ask for their input. In fact, I think we have especially in the West, of a kind of academically blinkered hubris that has kept science historically. And I think although that's moved on, it continues to be. So here's my example from history and my takedown of a scientific hero. Sir Ernest Shackleton and his Trans-Antarctic Expedition, the celebrated ill-fated adventure. On his way there, Shackleton just didn't listen. They knew that region, and they told him. It's too widespread, it's too far north. And look what happened. I mean, granted, that great adventure, that story of heroic leadership where he saved we wouldn't be telling that story and taken their advice. But it cost him his ship. I would imagine quite a lot. A good few cases of PTSD and Mrs. Chippy, because the team couldn't afford. Now, that was all a very long time ago, but as I've prepared for this talk, I've revisited some of the stories where these really unusual collaborations. So I spoke to former poachers whose knowledge of where is now really important in those same places. And I spoke to an amazing artist whose own experience has actually paved the way for him a new, really innovative and beautiful. Most recently, I worked here, with a team of scientists. One of their experiments has now turned into this. It's Chernobyl's first vodka. It's pretty good, too! I've tasted it. And this is actually, it's set to be the first consumer product since the nuclear accident. And that's actually the result with local communities who still live and want to know when they can -- and build businesses and rebuild. This was a product of humility, of listening, and I saw that in spades. So I watched as a decades-experienced called Gerardo Garcia listened and watched super carefully as a nun in a full habit showed him how, if you tap it'll open its mouth so you can quickly. When scientists team up with, who have a really valuable perspective but a totally different outlook, something really special can happen. Now, there is a truly global called the International Panel. Now, that is not a snappy title. This organization includes and it's aiming to do nothing less across our entire planet. So it recently published on the state of nature, and that could be the foundation where all of those nations could sign up to tackle the biodiversity crisis right now. Now, I know from trying to communicate on assessments like this that these big international groups as to be kind of. But there's a group of human beings, the report's authors, who have this formidable task. All of that biological that paints a clear and accurate picture of the state of the natural world. And 10 years before this panel to put that assessment together, they created what's called. This is essentially for all of the different ways. So it formally recognizes, for example, that "Mother Earth" and "nature." And what that means is that can be brought into the same document and given the weight in that assessment of what state. And that is absolutely critical, because an Inuit hunter might never. But I'll bet you she knows more about because of climate change than a scientist who spent many years taking measurements. And collectively, Indigenous people of an estimated 25 percent including some of the most biodiverse. So imagine how much we're missing if we don't cross or at least try to, when we're trying to figure out and how to protect it. Every single research proposal. So what if, every time it had to include a suggestion local farmers, Indigenous that researchers wanted invite into their team and listen to? I just want to let of why she is so particularly to the survival of the achoque. VG: Sister Ofelia, do you think is that part of your work for God? SO: Of every human being not to harm those who live around us. That's all living things. We're all created not only just to survive. All of us here are providing happiness and we're also making Him happy. VG: I feel like I should sort of slink off because it sounds so lovely. But did you hear that? "We're providing happiness." Now, that's not a protocol in any formal research project proposal -- but it's the impetus behind what's become in the world of an animal that was on the very. And isn't that just wonderful? Thank you.