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In Nigeria’s Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, a rare short-tailed roundleaf bat whose global population is less than 1500, is trying to survive –and their biggest threat is wildfire. Nigerian tropical ecologist, conservationist and 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa winner Iroro Tanshi joins Climate Curious to share how farmers are transforming into frontline fire brigades, what community-led climate resilience looks like on the ground in Nigeria, and how she got passionate about bats in the first place! The result? A new model for protecting both nature and livelihoods.
Check out Iroro’s work: https://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/iroro-tanshi/
Support Iroro’s team at the Small Mammal Conservation Organization: https://www.smacon-africa.org/
Check out the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners: https://www.goldmanprize.org/current-winners/
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Created by TEDxLondon
Executive produced by Josie Colter
Produced by Ben Beheshty
Curated by Deesha Chandra
Hosted by Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst
Communications by Tara Cooper and Issey Gladston
00:00 Welcome to Climate Quickies 01:01 Meet Aurora the Bat Defender 02:31 Community Fire Problem Emerges 04:30 2016 Wildfire Wake Up Call 05:31 Expanding Protection Across Africa 07:17 How the Fire System Works 10:03 Backpack Crews and Rapid Response 11:26 Goldman Prize and Global Scaling 13:27 Why Bats Matter 15:00 Join the Movement 15:33 Closing Credits and Sign Off
[00:00:00] Maryam Pasha: Welcome to Climate Quickies, bite-sized nuggets of climate goodness. From our TEDxLondon experts in under five minutes
[00:00:08] Ben Hurst: in this week’s climate, curious, we are headed to Nigeria to meet the Goldman Prize winner for Africa, [00:00:15] protecting Bats with community firefighting, Nigerian Tropical ecologist and conservationist.
[00:00:21] Ben Hurst: Aurora Tan Chi is the leader of a firefighting initiative. Protecting one of the world’s rarest bats, the short tailed [00:00:30] round leaf bat, whose global population is under 1,500 from weather modeling, predicting wildfires to carrying 20 liters of water in our. Backpack Pump Aurora has built a [00:00:45] grassroots emergency system to stop wildfires spreading that can be scaled globally on the wildfire solution, restoring rare back populations in Nigeria.
[00:00:55] Ben Hurst: Here’s Aurora Tan. Stay curious. [00:01:00]
Meet Iroro the bat defender
[00:01:01] Iroro Tanshi: Hi, my name is Ira Roti. I study bats and I put our wildfires in Nigeria and walking around the tropics really to do this. But I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle, [00:01:15] uh, in the us and I also lead an GO on the ground in Nigeria, focused on protecting bad habitat primarily in Nigeria, but also working with partners in West Africa.
[00:01:28] Iroro Tanshi: I am [00:01:30] infinitely curious about bats. You know, just fascinated by, you know, their morphology, their ecology, their diversity, and in a way bats, I kind of say this every now and then, and it is kind [00:01:45] of true, really. Bats sort of rescue, rescued my science. Okay. I was quite bored. I wanted to do science. I was quite bored with some of the, um.
[00:01:54] Iroro Tanshi: Research opportunities I sort of saw around me and until I encountered [00:02:00] bats. And so, I heard about someone who was climbed the forest canopy and record bats through the night. I was immediately taken for me as someone who sort of, adventuresome I would just I really wanted to get on board [00:02:15] with that sort of research.
[00:02:16] Iroro Tanshi: You know, it’s, it’s just really amazing their biology. That and the, the things you can understand about how biology works with bats is just infinitely, like I say, [00:02:30] excited.
Community fire problem emerges
[00:02:31] Iroro Tanshi: Now how we got people on board. I have to be honest, we weren’t like putting the bats in front of the people. We were just like, Hey, we’ve got a fire problem.
[00:02:41] Iroro Tanshi: It affects bats and we think it might affect you too. And they’re like, [00:02:45] yes, it affects us too, you know? And so, uh, you know, people started just and when I say people just started talking, we’re talking in a town hall meeting. ’cause as soon as those fires happen and when it’s finally, I went out when the rains put out [00:03:00] the fire.
[00:03:00] Iroro Tanshi: We then had a meeting with community people and they basically said, look, we want these fires to stop now. They have become increasingly worse. And in fact, this old man just stood up that day and she said, look, [00:03:15] I have seen fire, I’ve seen, uh, rainfall and weather patterns change in my lifetime. Now we no longer know the best time to burn.
[00:03:25] Iroro Tanshi: We just need to know. And she wasn’t even asking us if you have the [00:03:30] solution. She was just saying, look, that’s the real problem here. ’cause everybody had their own ideas during this meeting, but she sort of, she basically shut down the conversation when she said, we need to know when to burn. And that was sort of like a, like a [00:03:45] mini eureka moment.
[00:03:46] Iroro Tanshi: In the end, we built a system around the problem that people had. And in that sense it appears that we chose the wrong an easy problem to solve. But you know, wildfires are [00:04:00] not easy problem to solve. But at the same time, because communities were so behind it, it just sort of took off. And and I think when we tell people about bats, they listen now.[00:04:15]
[00:04:15] Iroro Tanshi: Because we’re saying, oh, you know, we’re trying to protect this button. They’re like, okay, same bat helps us protect our forest. Why not? So it’s sort of, it sort of, it’s sort of backwards, okay, solve the problem and then tell the people what you’re really curious about. And they’re like, oh, okay. [00:04:30]
2016 Wildfire wake up call
[00:04:30] Iroro Tanshi: I have to confess that before our system took off every year after that fire that we experienced.
[00:04:41] Iroro Tanshi: It almost felt like every single day of fire [00:04:45] season I was on my knees praying and begging for wildfires to not happen. You know, on the one hand it’s the trauma, but on the other hand, it was also just knowing that these bats are [00:05:00] so exposed, if you have a fire. So the fires that burned in 2016 that we escaped from.
[00:05:08] Iroro Tanshi: That fire burns through 50% of a fe mountain wildlife century. Like if you look at the map, it just [00:05:15] covered one part of it. If you have that happening in, diffuse sites where this battle occurs. So a few mountain wildlife century across River National Park parks in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.
[00:05:29] Iroro Tanshi: [00:05:30] That’s it. You’re done.
Expanding protection across Africa
[00:05:39] Iroro Tanshi: We want to be able to take this program abroad and make sure all of its habitats, especially in Cameroon, are secure. And so we’re working with colleagues that to set up a program to. Monitor the species long term, learn [00:05:45] about, you know, its threats locally. ’cause there’s still fire threats in Cameroon.
[00:05:49] Iroro Tanshi: May not be as bad as we experience in Nigeria. We’re desperate to, to expand the program to work with partners, to just make sure we can secure every [00:06:00] square inch of habitat for the species. We need to do so much more. And that’s why I’m pleased that we’ve been successful with this program, but there’s so much more to do.
[00:06:11] Iroro Tanshi: In 2016, when we run away from the forest, we basically [00:06:15] escaped a wildfire in the forest. But this was just about eight days after having discovered a population of the short run bat, a few mountain wildlife sanctuary. So where we discovered the bat, we were just a few [00:06:30] kilometers away in the mountains where the, when the fires happened.
[00:06:35] Iroro Tanshi: And that fire burned for three straight weeks until the rains came. There was no way to put it out. And so it was very obvious to us that [00:06:45] wildfires were the major cause of habitat destruction for these parts. This is a species that is rare, endangered and requires pristine habitat. If fires are going through, that’s it.
[00:06:57] Iroro Tanshi: You gotta do something. So they’re, they’re [00:07:00] certainly the major. Cause that was the moment. Running away from the fires and watching it burn for three straight weeks.
[00:07:07] Ben Hurst: Aurora now shares with us how and why the community-led firefighting system has been so effective at stopping [00:07:15] fires before they spread.
How the fire system works
[00:07:17] Iroro Tanshi: All right, so how it works is sort of built out from simple, multiple, small, simple steps and why it’s been effective. I have to address that first, to be honest. Is. [00:07:30] And because it really brings me job is because community people see a solution to their problem as well. So wildfires are not just a problem for bats.
[00:07:39] Iroro Tanshi: They also affect local livelihood because they destroy farms. The fires originate [00:07:45] on farms. So one person. Burning, trash on their farm or tr trying to bring down a tree or clean their land for the planting season is reckless. And that fire spreads. It spreads to other farms too. So people wanted to be able to [00:08:00] protect their plant, their farms, and so they automatically got on board.
[00:08:06] Iroro Tanshi: With us. They do all the patrols, they do the response. We only just facilitate and provide technological [00:08:15] support by way of, you know, models that say, it’s a high risk day. You shouldn’t burn on your farm, or it’s a low risk state you should burn. And so we provide that and that’s what communities rely on and [00:08:30] they communicate it, uh, amongst themselves.
[00:08:32] Iroro Tanshi: There’s a town crier who walks through the town announcing, kind of like a bell ringer and basically says it’s a high risk data that you shouldn’t be burning your farm. So because community is so on [00:08:45] board and because they lead it. I think that’s the critical part of the success story that we have, because otherwise it will start to look like we’re loading things over the community, and that’s not what you want, because they are the custodians.
[00:08:59] Iroro Tanshi: That’s their [00:09:00] forest, it’s their farmlands that have been affected and they need to be in charge of it. We just provide support. Now as far as the day-to-day, what happens is we basically use historical data. We’re working with partners on the ground in Nigeria. So, and [00:09:15] drills, uh, they provided us some data that they’ve been collecting for many years, and we use that data to build models to understand how fires happen in the landscape, and then.
[00:09:25] Iroro Tanshi: We, uh, installed weather stations around each of [00:09:30] these communities, about five of them just sitting right on the edge of the park. And these communities, basically they have data technicians that collect weather data every day and report back to our office. And that data has then [00:09:45] used to build a model for that day.
[00:09:46] Iroro Tanshi: And so we get a sense. For that day, maybe the next, and get a sense of the risk of wildfires. So we categorize wildfires into low risk, medium risk, high risk, and that information is around all the communities and [00:10:00] signposts and also communicated by a town crier.
Backpack crews and rapid response
[00:10:03] Iroro Tanshi: We don’t have helicopters or planes to put out fires when there are mountains and in large forest areas, so we have to stop them at the source.
[00:10:13] Iroro Tanshi: So we’re talking about [00:10:15] responding to fires. Uncontrollable fires on the farms before they spread. We have a team of forest guardians who respond to wildfires in each community, 10 people in a group, and they all have their back [00:10:30] backpacks, uh, with water. So this is something that can carry about 20 liters, uh, of water.
[00:10:37] Iroro Tanshi: And because fires in tropical rainforests can be slow creeping. Okay. People can basically walk up with a [00:10:45] fire and just put it out with a high pressure pump connected to this backpack. So there’s a backpack. You go out and put it out and sometimes, you know, they might use a machete or a shovel to sort of clean some parts to make sure that the fire is, uh, not able to [00:11:00] advance.
[00:11:01] Iroro Tanshi: It’s really two things, prevention. And then response. ’cause you really want to get down to zero. ’cause fires, people use fires all the time. It’s just the one or two reckless ones that get out of hand. Okay. [00:11:15] And so we’ve been working with communities and every year we might put out between 25 to 30 35 sometimes, uh, fires on people’s farms.
[00:11:24] Iroro Tanshi: That way they don’t spread.
Goldman Prize and global scaling
[00:11:26] Ben Hurst: We asked Aurora to sum up the impact of winning the [00:11:30] Goldman Award from scaling her work globally.
[00:11:33] Iroro Tanshi: So the Golden Prize really gives the maximum visibility possible to this, to be honest. And we’re now our team is now [00:11:45] really ready to take on the next step of the challenge, which is to scale it up across the world.
[00:11:50] Iroro Tanshi: ’cause many areas fire prone around the world because of climate change and in fact. Again, I’ll repeat this. Climate change have [00:12:00] become the major cause of deforestation around the globe, and so tropical areas like ours in Nigeria, especially in rural tiny areas where government services are very limited or [00:12:15] resources might be limited, we want to go to those places, especially places with a lot of potential to protect the forest and work with partners on the ground, not just community partners, but.
[00:12:26] Iroro Tanshi: NGO Partners, government partners who can deploy this kind of program [00:12:30] on the ground to prevent wildfires and respond when they happen before they really truly go wild. ’cause as soon as they get really out of hand, they can’t do anything. So we’ve launched work called the Tropical fire Alliance, [00:12:45] and it really is set up to work with partners around the world as an alliance to keep.
[00:12:53] Iroro Tanshi: Making sure that we can keep wildfires away from forests and make them [00:13:00] sinks rather than sources for atmospheric carbon. And that’s the goal. So Golden Prize has just sort of shut us into I wanna say outer orbit and, uh. There’s so much to build now. [00:13:15] There’s so much hope and enthusiasm. I mean, our teams are very enthusiastic, but it feels like this has been a ramp up, so this is really ramping it up amongst us, and we’re so grateful for it.
Why bats matter
[00:13:27] Ben Hurst: We asked Aurora to break down the role of bats [00:13:30] within the ecosystem and their importance.
[00:13:33] Iroro Tanshi: So bats play lots of ecosystem services like controlling insect pests, and the short around the bats actually does that because it’s insects, the control insect [00:13:45] pests. And so, provides food security in that sense.
[00:13:49] Iroro Tanshi: Everything from the cassava that’s eaten in the village. To the chocolates that, you know, gets shipped out of this, uh, communities to around the world. The chocolate on [00:14:00] your table came from someone’s farm who was farming, cocoa, and bats. Helped to reduce insect pests on cocoa farms. Uh, but also provide a lot of pollination services.
[00:14:12] Iroro Tanshi: And in fact, because they [00:14:15] can fly long distances, there sparse a lot of seeds around the landscape. And so you have this forest and something like share button, for example, which is, uh, a globally utilized commodity in a lot of cosmetic products. [00:14:30] Comes from a plant that is primarily dispersed by bats.
[00:14:34] Iroro Tanshi: There are other things too. Bats give us a lot of inspiration for medicine. For example the vampire bats in, in Latin America produce [00:14:45] saliva a chemical in your saliva. It allows them to, keep the blood flowing in their prey and that chemical is now part of medicine for doing, conducting open heart surgeries.
[00:14:59] Iroro Tanshi: It’s incredible. [00:15:00]
Join the movement
[00:15:09] Iroro Tanshi: We want people to join our movement, whether by supporting or by being a partner with Tropical Fire Alliance. You know, get on board. If you want to work with bats, you wanna protect bats, you wanna, help save these bats. But sometimes [00:15:15] spreading the word can make a huge difference.
[00:15:17] Iroro Tanshi: Just tell somebody else about this incredible work. That just saves habitat for both bats and, and also saves local livelihoods. It’s we’re proud of it. We want people to see it. [00:15:30] We want to be able to get out as much as possible.
Closing credits and sign off
[00:15:33] Ben Hurst: Thanks for listening to this quickie.
[00:15:35] Maryam Pasha: This episode was created by our superstar podcast team at TEDxLondon.
[00:15:40] Maryam Pasha: Until next time,
[00:15:41] Ben Hurst: stay [00:15:45] curious.
