Who speaks for nature? - Professor Lee White with Professor Yadvinder Malhi

Professor Lee White, scientist, conservationist, minister, raised with an orphan chimpanzee brother, will share insights about the importance and preservation of the Congo Basin rainforests.

With Professor Yadvinder Malhi, they will discuss their field research in Gabon, on the full climate value of tropical forests and on policy scenarios for the future of the Congo Basin.

About the speakers

Lee White CBE, has worked for over 40 years as a scientist and conservationist in the rain forests of Equatorial Africa. He directed the WCS Gabon programme from 1992 to 2008; led Gabon’s National Parks Agency (2009-2019); and was Water, Forests, Sea and Environment Minister in the Gabonese Government (2019-2023).

During his career he helped create 53 protected areas; raised over half a billion dollars of funding for conservation; spoke on behalf of Africa at UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow; and was part of the high ambition ministerial group that argued for 30:30 at CBD COP15 in Montreal.

He founded Pangea Nature Partners in 2024 to design and implement a new financial mechanism to make forests more valuable alive than dead, is an honorary professor at the University of Stirling and serves as the Special Envoy of the Science Panel for the Congo Basin.

Yadvinder Malhi CBE FRS is Professor of Ecosystem Science at the University of Oxford, and Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery. His work has looked at how tropical forests function, the role that they play in the global climate system and how they are affected by global changes.

He leads several long-running field networks which track sites across the tropics to reveal how forests respond to environmental pressures. His work blends boots-on-the-ground field ecology with remote sensing, data science, and Earth-system modelling, helping connect local ecological processes to planetary-scale change.

His more recent work explores the function and recovery of ecosystems more broadly, ranging across savanna, atoll islands, British farmland soils and Arctic tundra.

He is Past-President of the British Ecology Society and the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, a Trustee of the London Natural History Museum and recipient of the Patron’s Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.

Booking information

Monday night lectures are open to Fellows and Members and are included in the cost of membership.

Attending in-person

• All Fellows and Members wanting to attend in person must pre-book a free ticket. You will receive an e-ticket with a QR code that will be scanned on arrival. Your ticket can be shown on a mobile phone or printed. If you do not have a smartphone, we can find your name on the door list instead.
• Doors open at 5.30pm. Please use the Society's entrance on Exhibition Road. The lecture will begin at 6.30pm.
• Monday night lectures are held in person in the Ondaatje Theatre. The bar will be open in the Map Room before and after the lecture. Please be advised all payments are card only.
• The Ondaatje Theatre is fitted with a hearing loop. For the best quality sound we recommend sitting on the outside rows of the front seating section.
• There is step free access to the theatre. Wheelchair spaces can be booked in advance. If you have any questions about the venue, please contact events@rgs.org

Watch online

• You do not need to pre-book to watch the lecture online.
• All Monday night lectures are livestreamed via our website so you can watch them from wherever you are.

If you have any questions or require assistance with your booking, please email events@rgs.org

Accessibility at our events

We want everyone to feel welcome at our events. Key accessibility features of this event include:

• Step-free access to the event
• Accessible toilets
• Assistance dogs are welcome
• Hearing loop

For full details, please visit our accessibility page. If you have any questions or specific access requirements, feel free to get in touch with us on access@rgs.org

About Monday night lectures

Our Monday night lectures are exclusive to Fellows and Members and are included in the cost of membership. Members can book to attend the lectures in-person at the Society, or enjoy them live from the comfort of your own home.

These lectures are also recorded and uploaded to our website solely for members to catch up on whenever they like. If you would like to receive a weekly reminder email about the upcoming Monday night lecture, please sign up to our Updates about our Monday night lectures newsletter.