NEW BOOK: UNEP The First 40 Years; A Narrative by Stanley Johnson
To mark its 40th anniversary, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has sponsored a new book detailing the history of the Nairobi-based organization over the last four decades. . Written by award-winning conservationist Stanley P Johnson, the book charts the evolution of UNEP from its inception at the landmark Stockholm conference of 1972 to its position today at the heart of the global environmental movement. Entitled: "The First 40 Years; A Narrative", the book - which is not an official UN history but the view of its world-acclaimed author - explains in depth UNEP's role at the forefront of efforts to protect the environment and is stuffed with interesting facts and figures.
In this volume of collected travel and environmental journalism, Stanley travels from Exmoor to Ecuador, India to Istanbul, and across many other routes. He is charged at by mountain gorillas, encounters pandas, tigers, blue-footed boobies and the elusive blue whale. Dauntless, he climbs Kilimanjaro, catches cold at the Glastonbury festival, tracks down his ancestors in Turkey and meets legendary environmentalists such as Jane Goodall.
Behind the infectious Johnson humour, there lies the deep passion of a man who has spent his life in search of wild places and wild animals, and is committed to their defence. Reading this book, it is impossible not to catch the thrill.
Our ruthless exploitation of the natural world has already driven many wild animals to the brink of extinction. Among the most threatened are many migratory species, whether avian, terrestrial or marine. Because in most cases these species cross national boundaries, the need for international conservation efforts is particularly great. Albatrosses and petrels, migratory water-birds and raptors, whales, dolphins and other marine ammals; antelopes and forest elephants and even gorillas – these are just some of the key species that are the subject of this meticulously researched and richly illustrated book.
Produced in conjunction with a UN agency, this book is both an informative warning against the threat facing many species and a stunning celebration of their beauty.
I had my 70th birthday in 2010. I also took on the Chairmanship of The Gorilla Organization (GO) - www.gorillas.org - a small charity which has been working for over twenty years in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to try to save the remaining gorilla populations. GO also hopes to expand its work to other parts of Africa (e.g. Central and West Africa) where gorillas are under threat.
To celebrate these two events and to help raise funds for GO, I climbed Mt Kilimanjaro - almost 6,000 metres or 20,000 feet high!
I am hoping to raise at least £10,000 for GO. And thanks to the generosity of Kuoni in supporting the climb, all funds raised will go direct to The Gorilla Organization to support its work.
Don't hesitate to contact me for more information.
With best wishes,
Stanley
Books
Survival
Our ruthless exploitation of the natural world has already driven many wild animals to the brink of extinction. Among the most threatened are many migratory species, whether avian, terrestrial or marine. Because in most cases these species cross national boundaries, the need for international conservation efforts is particularly great. Albatrosses and petrels, migratory water-birds and raptors, whales, dolphins and other marine ammals; antelopes and forest elephants and even gorillas – these are just some of the key species that are the subject of this meticulously researched and richly illustrated book.
Produced in conjunction with a UN agency, this book is both an informative warning against the threat facing many species and a stunning celebration of their beauty.
Published March 19th 2009 (Now available in paperback)
A rip-roaring and hilarious memoir from Stanley Johnson - father of London mayor Boris Johnson. Stanley's story begins with a loud bang - when his father, an RAF pilot in the Second World War, crash-lands a Wellington bomber on a Devon airfield. A few years later Stanley's parents buy a sheep farm on nearby Exmoor, where Stanley does much of his growing up. Stanley would keep his links with this much-loved rural idyll throughout his life - while going on to become an explorer, author, occasional politician and also one of the world's first environmentalists. A sparkling raconteur and experienced thriller writer, in Stanley I Presume great stories are told in great style.
On leaving school in 1958 Stanley travelled alone through South America - hitching rides across the jungle on Brazilian Air Force planes - and shortly afterwards he rode a motorcycle 4,000 miles from London to Afghanistan, tracing the route of Marco Polo with two friends. After winning Oxford University's poetry prize with a love poem - written following a hilltop tryst in the West Country - Stanley went on to do various adventurous jobs, before working for the billionaire John D Rockefeller 3rd, the World Bank, the United Nations and the European Union.
Stanley married and started a family young - Boris was born in New York when his father was 23 - and while Boris would go on to become big news, the family's forbears also provide quite a story, as Stanley finds out. For the Johnson family's roots are not just in the West Country, but in Turkey too - where, as Stanley discovers, his politician grandfather Ali Kemal was torn to pieces by an angry mob. Stanley visits a Turkish village where the locals are blonde - later he learns that he and Boris are direct descendants of George II.
Stanley Johnson returns to Vietnam four decades after the offensive that shattered American confidence in the war — but reflects that the US went on to win the cultural battle. The Spectator.
Fifty years after Jane Goodall began to study chimpanzees in the wild in Tanzania, Stanley Johnson meets a dedicated researcher risking her life for her passion. The Sunday Times Magazine.
Stanley Johnson crosses the mighty Limpopo into Botswana and the heart of the Peace Park - a vast area where wildlife will roam unchecked across three frontiers.
An hour after midnight on June 11 1770, Captain Cook's ship, the Endeavour, struck the coral reef off the shore of what is now called Tropical North Queensland. Financial Times.
Environmentalist Stanley Johnson makes a new 50-tonne friend off the coast of Baja California, where eco-tourism has helped bring blue whales back from the brink. The Guardian.
Two decades ago, the author and environmentalist Stanley Johnson wrote the definitive book about Antarctica. Here, he returns to see how life has changed in the last great wilderness. The Independent Magazine.
Playboy hunters with helicopters and Kalashnikovs are driving the Sahel's fragile population of wild animals to extinction. Stanley Johnson travelled to Niger to witness the devastation for The Independent.
If you measure the significance of a topic by how much media attention it receives, I would guess that last year climate change came close to ousting the Iraq war as the number one issue. And as the new year stretches ahead of us on this first weekend of January, I am sure that the future of the planet - in particular the seemingly unstoppable rise in greenhouse gas emissions - will dominate our press and television. Stanley Johnson writes for The Financial Times.
India's tigers are vanishing at an alarming rate, the victims of poachers and human pressure on their habitat. Stanley Johnson reports for The Independent from Madhya Pradesh.
A special report about the future of the orang-utan in Borneo. Stanley writes for The Telegraph on how the natural habitat of the orang-utan is disappearing because of the spread of palm-oil plantations. The Great Ape Scandal
Stanley Johnson also spoke on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about the issue. Click here to listen.
15 November 2006: Stanley Johnson, columnist, environmentalist, former Tory MEP and bon viveur travels to some of the most beautiful places in Europe to reveal how the EU is misusing vast amounts of our money.
To celebrate these two events and to help raise funds for GO, I climbed Mt Kilimanjaro - almost 6,000 metres or 20,000 feet high!
If you would like to help gorillas by sponsoring my climb, please click on 
Playboy hunters with helicopters and Kalashnikovs are driving the Sahel's fragile population of wild animals to extinction. Stanley Johnson travelled to Niger to witness the devastation for The Independent.
If you measure the significance of a topic by how much media attention it receives, I would guess that last year climate change came close to ousting the Iraq war as the number one issue. And as the new year stretches ahead of us on this first weekend of January, I am sure that the future of the planet - in particular the seemingly unstoppable rise in greenhouse gas emissions - will dominate our press and television. Stanley Johnson writes for The Financial Times.
India's tigers are vanishing at an alarming rate, the victims of poachers and human pressure on their habitat. Stanley Johnson reports for The Independent from Madhya Pradesh.
A special report about the future of the orang-utan in Borneo. Stanley writes for The Telegraph on how the natural habitat of the orang-utan is disappearing because of the spread of palm-oil plantations. 
Stanley supports the work of the Society for Protection of Animals Abroad (SPANA) and has been to see their work in Darfur. 
Stanley is a Trustee of 
Stanley examines the impact of a new highway through the Amazonian rainforest 
Stanley presented the award for the 
15 November 2006: Stanley Johnson, columnist, environmentalist, former Tory MEP and bon viveur travels to some of the most beautiful places in Europe to reveal how the EU is misusing vast amounts of our money.
20 June 2006: Click here for video
Sun, sea, odyssey - Stanley writes for The Telegraph