Robin Hanbury-Tenison OBE

Named the greatest explorer by the Sunday Times, who has undertaken over 30 expeditions.

Named the greatest explorer by the Sunday Times, Robin Hanbury-Tenison has been on over 30 expeditions, including as leader of the Royal Geographical Society’s largest expedition, taking 115 scientists to study the rainforests of Sarawak. This research and his book, Mulu: the Rainforest, started the international concern for tropical rainforests. He is a Founder and President of Survival International, the world’s leading organisation supporting tribal peoples.

On Survival’s behalf Hanbury-Tenison has led several overseas missions, including visiting 33 Indian tribes as a guest of the Brazilian government in 1971; Indians of the Darien in Panama and Colombia in 1972; tribes of the outer islands of Indonesia in 1974 and 1975; leading an investigation into excessive logging in Sarawak in 1988; assessing the status of the indigenous peoples of eastern Siberia in 1992 and 1994; and in NE India in 1995; and of the Bushmen of the Kalahari in 1980 and 2005.

From 1995-98 he led the British Field Sports Society during its transformation into the Countryside Alliance. This process culminated in the 1997 Hyde Park Rally and the 1998 Countryside March (then the biggest event in London ever), which together changed the political agenda in relation to rural affairs in Britain. Among his many publications are: “A Question of Survival (1973); A Pattern of Peoples (1975); The Yanomami (1982); Fragile Eden; The Oxford Book of Exploration; Mulu: The Rain Forest; and his two autobiographies: Worlds Apart and Worlds Within.