ABOUT ROBIN

Robin Hanbury-Tenison OBE, DL, Dsc, Dhc, MA, FLS, FRGS is an explorer with a conscience. He has spent much of his life travelling in the world's rainforests and deserts and campaigning to protect both them and their people. One of the few remaining explorers who merits the name, he made the two first crossings of South America from East to West (1958) and North to South (1964/5). He believes that the spirit of exploration is alive and well and never more needed than now, as we begin to realise how little we really understand our world and how rapidly we are destroying it.

His latest book, Taming the Four Horsemen, is a powerful polemic on the major threats facing the world today and how they can be overcome. 

The author of over twenty-five books, most of which are still in print, he also became celebrated as a photographer via the critically acclaimed exhibition at the National Theatre, Echoes of a Vanished World, that detailed his first encounters with pristine peoples and places...

From his farm on Bodmin Moor, which won the Award as the Best Large Scale Renewable Energy Project in Cornwall, he still travels widely, lecturing and visiting expeditions in the field.

TAMING THE FOUR HORSEMEN

Radical solutions to defeat Pandemics, War, Famine and the Death of the Planet

Robin Hanbury-Tenison

In my experience the world of environmental activism has no greater champion… This is a fabulous book because you won’t agree with everything he says; he’ll provoke you, seduce you, anger you but I promise he won’t bore you. It’s like pumping a mountain stream through your head. This book is activist Viagra and should be prescribed for anyone at risk of giving up thinking. Sir Tim Smit

This book could not come at a more appropriate moment, just when the world needs to think and decide whether we sink, dragging down with us all that we hold dear, or swim bravely, and sometimes uncomfortably, into a sustainable future. Matchless man: hugely important book. Joanna Lumley

A great champion of environmental activism and his extensive travels have given him many insights. Sir Ranulph Fiennes

As people start to get their heads around the full horror of today’s climate emergency, we’ll need a very robust conversation about potential solutions – including the highly controversial area of geoengineering. Robin Hanbury-Tenison has never been shy of that kind of controversy, which is always highly entertaining, whether you agree with him or not! Sir Jonathon Porritt

MY 8 GREAT CHALLENGES FOR SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL

To celebrate entering my 80th year I have undertaken a series of eight challenges, one for each decade, to raise much needed funds for Survival International - the global movement for tribal peoples' rights. Survival, the charity I helped co-found in 1969, is the cause closest to my heart. I started with the London Marathon in April, which I finished in 6hrs 21 mins. This was followed by the the four highest mountains in the British Isles: Snowdon (1085m); Carrauntoohil (1038m), Ben Nevis (1344m) and Sca Fell (964m). The Sky Dive was terrifying and immensely invigorating. The scariest and most dangerous of my challenges was the abseil 761 ft down James Hall Shaft, the deepest shaft in the country, into icy water and a claustrophobic crawl through England's deepest cave, charmingly known as the Devil's Arse.Then there was the final one, the cross Channel waterski, which I attempted but was defeated by high seas. I did, however, do the equivalent distance along the Cornish coast and so, I think, honour was satisfied!

We passed the £80,000 mark on Virgin Giving on my 80th birthday in Scotland! With Gift Aid, it all came to a lot more.

Watch the BBC documentary

SURVIVAL: TO THE BRINK AND BACK

After miraculously surviving 5 weeks in Intensive Care with Covid 19 in March/April 2020, he raised over £100,000 towards a healing garden at Treliske Hospital in Cornwall.

Visit the Go Fund Me Page

Robins CV

ROBIN HANBURY-TENISON OBE, DL, Dsc, Dhc, MA, FLS, FRGS

Explorer, Conservationist, Broadcaster, Film Maker, Author, Lecturer, Campaigner, Farmer

Born: 7 May 1936 Educated: Eton; Magdalen College, Oxford (MA)

1.EXPLORER AND CONSERVATIONIST.

Named by the Sunday Times in 1982 as "the greatest explorer of the past 20 years" and in 1991 as one of the 1000 "Makers of the 20th Century" (between Dag Hammarskjold and Keir Hardy), and again in 2006, in the Spectator, as ‘the doyen of British Explorers’, he has been on over 30 expeditions.

• 1957: drove from London to Ceylon and worked passage around the world.
• 1958: made first land crossing of South America at its widest point (with Richard Mason) (Ness Award, RGS, 1961).
• 1962-66: Saharan camel travels with Tuareg exploring Tassili n’Ajjer, Tibesti and Aïr mountains.
• 1964-65: made first river crossing of S America from north to south from the Orinoco to Buenos Aires.
• 1968: Geographical Magazine Amazonas Expedition by Hovercraft, from Manaus to Trinidad.
• 1969: Trans-African Expedition by Hovercraft (Deputy Leader). Dakar to Lake Chad to the Congo.
• 1971: visited 33 Indian tribes (with 1st wife Marika) as Chairman of Survival International/guest of Brazilian Govt..
• 1972: British Trans-Americas Expedition. Researched Indian tribes of Darien in Panama and Colombia.
• 1973: travelled Outer Islands of Indonesia (with Marika) to research tribal people for Survival Int.
• 1974: explored Eastern Sulawesi and made first overland crossing (with Hugh Dunphy).
• 1976: expedition recce through Sabah, Brunei and Sarawak.
• 1977-78: led the Royal Geographical Society's largest expedition ever, taking 140 scientists to the interior of Sarawak in Borneo (RGS Patron’s Gold Medal, 1979); the research from this expedition, and his book, Mulu: the Rainforest, started the international concern for tropical rainforests.
• 1980: walked across part of Kalahari Desert with Bushmen.
• 1980-81: expeditions in Ecuador, Brazil and Venezuela.
• 1981: lived with Yanomami tribe in Brazil researching book for Time Life (with Bruce Albert and Victor Englebert).
• 1984: with his 2nd wife, Louella, rode two Camargue horses across France.
• 1986: rode (with Louella) along the Great Wall of China.
• 1987: led a mission for IUCN, FOE and Survival Int. to investigate the arrest of Malaysian environmentalists and Borneo tribal people for campaigning against excessive logging in Sarawak.
• 1988: rode (with Louella) from South to North through New Zealand.
• 1989: rode (with Louella) as pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela.
• 1990: mission to Eastern Europe to assess investment and environmental opportunities (with Robbie Lyle and Louella)
• 1991: rode (with Louella) across Spain driving 300 cattle on the transhumancia.
• 1992: visited tribal people of Kamchatka and Ussuria for Survival Int (with Paul Harris).
• 1994: delivered Landrover for Survival Int. to Udege people of Ussuria (with Louella).
• 1994: rode (with Louella) the route of proposed Pennine Bridleway.
• 1995: visited tribal people of Arunachal Pradesh, NE India (with Paul Harris and Louella).
• 1997: stayed with Innu people at Lake Kamistastin, Labrador (with Louella and sons Peter and Merlin).
• 1998: first return visit to Mulu, Sarawak. Made film for Channel 4. (with Louella and Merlin)
• 1999: rode by camel (with Louella) through Tenere Desert, accompanied by Tuareg.
• 2001: diving in the Red Sea (PADI Cert.). 2002: diving with Silkie sharks off Cuba.
• 2003: travelled alone with Tuareg and camels through Aïr mountains of Niger for 40 days.
• 2005: visited all remaining Bushman groups in Central Kalahari (with Louella).
• 2006: penetrated the Kimberley region of NW Australia to seek prehistoric ‘Bradshaw’ rock paintings (with Louella).
• 2007: rode on Albanian horses (with Louella) the whole length of Albania. Made film.
• 2008: climbed Mt. Roraima, Venezuela (with Louella).
• 2009: Maya forest research in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize (with Louella).
• 2012: Visits to indigenous groups in Gran Chaco, Paraguay, and to Antarctica.
• 2014: returned to Mulu to make the second circuit of Mt. Api.         
• 2015/6: Undertook 8 Challenges in his 80th year to raise £80,000 for Survival International.

He has been a Council Member (1968-82), Vice-President (1982-86) and Gold Medallist (1979) of the Royal Geographical Society; an International Fellow of the Explorers Club, a Winston Churchill Memorial Fellow (1971), Trustee of the Ecological Foundation (1988-2005), Commissioner of Income Tax (1965-95), President of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust (1988-95) and of the Camel Valley and Bodmin Moor Protection Society (1984-), Patron of the Cornwall Heritage Trust, Fellow of the Linnean Society, Member of the Society of Authors and a winner of the Krug Award for Excellence (1980). Doctor honoris causa, University of Mons-Hainaut for "services to democracy" (1991). Chairman of Friends of Conservation (1999). Mungo Park Medal RSGS, (2001). Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Cornwall (2003). Hon. Dsc University of Plymouth (2012). A frequent lecturer at schools, universities, learned societies (especially the RGS) and on cruise ships, he has often worked with young people. One of the founders of the Young Explorers' Trust and of the Expedition Advisory Centre, he organised Capital Radio’s Venture Days in Battersea Park in 1982/83. Opened by the Prince of Wales, they attracted the biggest crowds to date in London, other than for royal weddings.

2.BROADCASTER, FILM MAKER AND AUTHOR.

A regular contributor of articles and reviews to many magazines and newspapers, including the Times, Telegraph, Mail, Express, Geographical Magazine (columnist ‘95-‘98), New Scientist, Field, Traveller, Spectator, Country Life, TLS and Literary Review.

Frequent radio broadcasts on various subjects (Desert Island Discs, Loose Ends, Ad Lib, Today, Woman’s Hour, Farming Today’s Breakfast Guest, Start the Week, Mid Week’s Birthday Guest, The Moral Maze, A Good Read, Museum of Curiosities, The Reunion, Saturday Live etc.) Numerous TV interviews (The Late Late Show, Fragile Earth, Pebble Mill, The Big Breakfast Show, World in Action, Newsnight etc.) and films for Television including: The Last Great Journey on Earth (BBC 1969); Trans-Africa Hovercraft Expedition (BBC 1970); A Time for Survival (Westward 1972); Mysteries of the Green Mountain (BBC 1978); Antiques at Home (BBC 1984); White Horse over France (BBC 1985/also FR3 in French); Great Wall of China (1987); Odyssey series (presenter) (1988); Siberian Tigers (C4 News and Land Rover promotion 1994); Collectors’ Lot (1998); The Lost World of Mulu (C4 1999); Reflections in the Sand (Discovery 2000); Testament (Carlton 2000).

He is also the author of the following books:-

• The Rough and the Smooth 1969;
• Report of a Visit to the Indians of Brazil, 1971;
• A Question of Survival 1973;
• A Pattern of Peoples 1975;
• Mulu: The Rain Forest 1980, rep. 1992, 2005;
• The Yanomami 1982;
• Worlds Apart (autobiography) 1984, rep. 1991, 2005;
• White Horses over France 1985, 2005;
• The Rainforests: a Celebration (contr.)1989;
• A Ride along the Great Wall 1987, 2005 rep. conds. 1995 as Mysterious China;
• Fragile Eden 1989, 2005;
• Spanish Pilgrimage 1990, 2005;
• Save the Earth (contr.) ed. J Porritt 1991;
• The Oxford Book of Exploration 1993/4, 2005, 2010;
• Our Countryside (contr.) 1996;
• The English Landscape (contr.) 2000;
• Capturing Carbon and Conserving Biodiversity: a market approach (contr.) 2003;
• Worlds Within 2005;
• More Tales from the Travellers (contr.) 2005;
• Meetings with remarkable Muslims (contr.) 2005;
• The Seventy Great Journeys in History 2006;
• Land of Eagles 2009; The Great Explorers 2010;
• Echoes of a Vanished World 2012;
• Beauty Freely Given 2012;
• The Modern Explorers 2013;
• Finding Eden 2017;
• Taming the Four Horsemen 2020

Children’s Books:

• Jake’s Escape 1996;
• Jake’s Treasure 1998
• Jake’s Safari 1998

Publishers include: Robert Hale, Collins, Angus & Robertson, Scribners, Wiedenfeld & Nicholson, Time Life Books, Robert Laffont, Granada, Arrow, Century, Hutchinson, OUP, Red Fox, The Long Riders’ Guild Press, Thames & Hudson, I.B.Tauris, Garage Press, Random House.

3. CAMPAIGNER.

One of the founders in 1969 of Survival International www.survival-international.org the worldwide movement to support tribal peoples, he was Chairman until 1981, when he received an OBE for his work, and he has since been President. On Survival's behalf he has led several overseas missions assessing the status of indigenous peoples in South America, Africa, SE Asia, India, Siberia and Canada. He regularly meets ambassadors and High Commissioners to discuss their countries' abuses of tribal peoples' rights. In 2000 he received the Pio Manzu medal of the Italian Chamber of Deputies for his ‘defence of tribal peoples’. He is a frequent attendant at both conferences and protests concerning environmental destruction, especially that of tropical rain forests. President Rain Forest Club 2001-5. President Cornwall Red Squirrel Project 2011.

From 1995 to 1998 he was Chief Executive of the British Field Sports Society, now the Countryside Alliance. He organised the hugely successful Countryside Rally, which brought 130,000 people to Hyde Park in July 1997, and the Countryside March when 300,000 marched through London in 1998, the largest ever peaceful demonstration in the capital to date. He was named Personality of the Year by the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation in 1999 and Patron of the Countryside Alliance in 2003.

4. FARMER.

Since 1960 he has farmed over 2000 acres on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. In addition to conventional hill farming of sheep and cattle, diversification has been tried with Angora Goats, Red Deer and Wild Boar from Russia. Now farming energy from wind, solar, water and biomass. From 1993-1996 he was a member of the South West Regional Panel of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. He was a founder member of FWAG, on the Cornwall Committee of the CLA, a member of Invest in Britain (formerly Think British) Campaign (1987-) and is an Ambassador for the Westcountry Development Corporation. In 1998 he was awarded the Farmers Club Cup for his outstanding contribution to farming, agriculture and the countryside and in 2000 the Contribution to the Countryside Award by the CLA. In 2012 Cabilla Manor was winner of the Best Large Scale Renewable Energy Scheme in Cornwall Award.

He was married, first, to Marika (née Hopkinson) the food writer, who died in 1982, by whom he has a daughter, Lucy (b.1960), and a son, Rupert (b.1970). In 1983 he married Louella Edwards (née Williams), who has two sons, Harry (b.1979) and Peter (b.1981). They have a son, Merlin (b.1985)