Elliot Connor

Elliot Connor (born 18 October 2002) is an Australian popular science writer, presenter and producer. He is best known for founding the international environmental NGO Human Nature Projects, which supports volunteers across 104 countries. He is the author of Human Nature, stating his life's goal as "reframing our human relationship with the natural world." His work has been recognized with various honours and accolades, including Samsung's 2020 Eco-Hero Award, Young Citizen of the Year and Young Landcare Leader titles.

Within a year, Elliot had secured a month-long placement with a bird rescue & rehabilitation centre in Southern France. His book, Human Nature, describes the long winter nights spent lodging in a castle there as the genesis of his conservation charity. He had set himself the task of sourcing and analysing the operations of 200 major environmental NGOs. His findings showed a plethora of challenges to the field, amongst which numbered resource shortages, poor public engagement, lack of deliverables, pessimistic messages frames, and above all a majority of purist activities that would assist the animals concerned whilst neglecting the root cause of the issues in the human-nature relationship. “I remember standing back after a vulture release and watching the birds circling overhead, sunlight on their wingtips flashing above this precipice of the French alps. I remember thinking: ‘what if everyone could experience this magic?’ ”

Further thought patterns Elliot has pioneered include intelligence as a function of (a species') prosperity and longevity, and sustainable development as an assessment of ‘intelligent’ human coexistence with other animals. The latter follows a scientific report he published detailing a near-complete lack of correlation between a country’s development or affluence and ecosystem health. He makes the case that improvement to environmental management frequently results in humanitarian gains, whereas the inverse is a substantially rarer phenomenon.

In June 2019, Elliot founded Human Nature Projects. The organization, registered under the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, seeks to bypass the band-aid solutions and bureaucratic roadblocks of the status quo in environmentalism and thereby generate grassroots impact globally. As of March 2020, the charity incorporated approximately 1400 volunteers across 104 countries, with biannual reports on the Human Nature Projects website detailing the diverse range of actions undertaken. The network is also in discussions with TV production company WildEarth regarding an outsourced management contract for the creation and facilitation of a 24/7 unprecedented livestream platform of animal characters filmed across dozens of countries.

According to his writings, Elliot's early escapades in photography mostly revolved around capturing portraits of the minibeasts in his garden. Using a DSLR body almost as old as himself and a macro lens borrowed from his parents, he speaks of spending every spare afternoon of his crouched along these overgrown paths seeking out the creatures he knew they contained. Shortly after, an invite by Australia's foremost photographer, Steve Parish, to attend a weekend masterclass of his as his personal aide sparked the steep learning curve that would mark out Elliot's acclaimed position in wildlife photography. He humourously recounts the first competition he entered- a school affair- in which he won both first and second place with the two photos he entered. In 2019, he was a finalist in the youth section of the Golden Turtle, Montphoto & Asferico international nature photography contests, highly commended in the Animals in the Wild competition, and runner up of the IUCN Oceania photo contest. In early 2020, he was named Young Photographer of the Year in the RHS photographic competition, claiming a prize of £900 GBP.

Similarly, speaking emerged as a byproduct of invitations for Elliot to present at global forums and changemaker conferences. Since late 2019, he has stepped up on stage at the Samsung HQ in South Korea, presented at the World Biodiversity Forum in Davos, shared his thoughts at TEDx in Sydney and at many other gatherings from the local to the international. He can frequently be found on panels and webinar-style events online, speaking on a wide variety of subjects. He is booked additionally to present at the World Wilderness Congress in Jaipur (postponed due to COVID-19), and at events surrounding the World Conservation Congress in Marseille. The Cabinet of Curiosities podcast was created to accompany the filmed shows, adapted for audio exclusive content distribution.

Throughout the above activities, Elliot expresses his philosophy in the context of the Human Nature worldview.The premise is a reformation of public perspectives concerning humanity’s place alongside other animals- shifting from human superiority to a new shared intelligence. Key components of this include the Durrell Effect, Conservation’s 4 C’s, and the human species described as an “opportunistic ecosystem engineer.”

Conservation’s 4 C’s represent the key intangibles required for actions made within the field to reliably succeed. They are listed as connection, curiosity, creativity and collaboration- all of them frequently neglected from evaluation, yet invaluable in addressing the root contributing factors to many current environmental issues. In broad terms, the framework speaks to the need for human-oriented conservation as opposed to narrow species recovery plans. This trend is increasingly being adopted by other thought leaders in the field, with awareness creation a particular focus in recent public engagement actions.

The redefinition of humanity according to biological terms is of central significance in Human Nature and Elliot’s other writings. He argues that ‘intelligence’ beyond intra-human comparisons is a meaningless term, using fishes and slime mould amongst other case studies to demonstrate how it unjustly measures a similarity to human ideals. He concludes that neither this, nor culture, language, technology or social complexity can adequately distinguish humanity from other lifeforms. The phrase ‘opportunistic ecosystem engineer’ is his proposed alternative, describing mankind’s tendency to mould environments for its purposes and adapt to a wide variety of conditions.

Elliot is certainly amongst the best-networked naturalists of his generation, and his achieved many notable advances in this typically understated realm of pursuit. The director of CoalitionWILD speaks of him as "capable and committed in his quest for change," with Human Nature Projects staff praising the "even-handed demeanour and decisiveness" with which he runs operations. His interview for the Proust Nature Questionnaire featured alongside that of Pulitzer Prize winners, National Geographic Explorers, Astronauts, and a New York Times best-selling author. Other profiles of his have been run by Next Gen, Lonely Conservationists and Remember the Wild. He was awarded a NSW Black Opal award in honour of his selfless dedication to voluntary pursuits, and a Young Landcare Leader Award in 2019. The following year, he was named Samsung Eco-Hero for his work with Human Nature Projects and honoured with a Young Citizen of the Year award during Australia Day celebrations. "Articulate and visionary," Elliot has been made a Global Goodwill Ambassador in spite of his age, graduating with honours from the Clinton Global Initiative University.

Having trained as an animal carer, Elliot now takes in and nurses back to health a small menagerie of injured animals at his home. His time in France "playing chicken with vultures and giving flying lessons to owls" undoubtedly assists him in this respect, as do the posts he has held assisting keepers and wildlife sanctuaries. His considerable expertise in environmental management has led to his judging the 2020 Conrad Challenge and Young Champions of the Earth prize, assisting the Earth Advocacy Youth collective, representing UNEP MGCY at intergovernmental forums, aligning with the World Environment Day organizing task force and joining the E.O Wilson Biodiversity Foundation as an ambassador.

In the course of this journey, Elliot received support and mentorship from other world-class photographers: Daniel Fox, Serge Ramelli and BBC producer Will Lawson all credited for their role in assisting the young creator's development. His work has since been featured by Fine Art America, in materials for major conservation organizations and printed in field guides. He is a member of the Society of International Nature & Wildlife Photographers, Nature First and the Cameras for Conservancy, an affiliate of Topaz Studios, species champion for Focusing on Wildlife, and Lens in the Wild filmmaker for UPROAR. His recent move into film production saw a six-week assignment with the WildEarth TV crew on Djuma Reserve, South Africa. Here he filmed 100 hours of livestream footage, and acted as assistant director for the show with one million monthly viewers. In May 2020, he released the Cabinet of Curiosities shows which he both filmed and narrated, exploring objects in his collections through the lens of natural history. All episodes are available on YouTube.

As a self-proclaimed introvert, it seems Elliot did not gravitate naturally to media and communications. Rather he was steered towards it by virtue of his environmental leadership pursuits. His writing took shape through blogging for online publications such as Lost & Found Conservation, Biodiversity Revisited, Youth4Nature, WILD Voices, Ever Widening Circles and Voices for Biodiversity. This led to his forming various blogging spaces he continues to curate, including his personal website, that of Human Nature Projects and on open platforms like Medium. Pieces on the lazarus taxon and people's relationships with animals form the backbone of his literary output, though increasingly he produces content reflecting his learnings on conservation subjects, with professional development or natural history education intent. He is a fellow to the International League of Conservation Writers. His debut book, Human Nature, was written during the coronavirus lockdown of March/April 2020, with its formal book launch scheduled for early in 2021.