Holly Budge: From Extreme Adventure to Protecting Elephants and Empowering Women Rangers

Holly Budge is a global keynote speaker on risk, innovation, and human potential, operating at the intersection of conservation, science, and bold ideas. As an Everest summiteer and the first woman to skydive Everest, she now focuses less on surviving extremes and more on solving the complex conservation challenges shaping our future.

As founder of international NGO How Many Elephants and World Female Ranger Week, Holly explores how nature, technology, and innovation can work together to design smarter systems, from using bees as bio-engineers to reduce human-elephant conflict in Africa, to empowering women as front-line wildlife rangers. Her work has reached over 500 million people globally, been featured in Forbes, and praised by Sir David Attenborough.

In this episode, Holly shares powerful insights from her journey between extreme adventure and global conservation work, including how her definition of risk and purpose has evolved over time.

We dive into the real-world impact of wildlife conservation projects, from elephant corridors and bee-based deterrents to the rise of female ranger teams protecting some of the world's most vulnerable ecosystems.

Listen to this episode to hear how adventure can become a force for global change, why women are reshaping the future of conservation, and what it takes to turn bold ideas into real-world impact at scale.

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Show notes

Who is Holly Being an adventurer and passionate conservationist  Founder of How Many Elephants, Wildlife Positive Travel and World Female Ranger Week First speaking to Holly March 26th 2019 on the Tough Girl Podcast   Recap on what was discussed on that episode  Deciding to move to New Zealand in 2019 Training for the Coast to Coast Race  Learning how to kayak especially for this race  Getting over her fear of fast moving water Doing a training course and getting to a Grade 2 whitewater certification Doing the challenge solo and being supported by her mum at the checkpoints Wo