An eight-episode docu-series on the wonders of life on earth, Planet Earth III, will focus on the evolution of the natural world and its profound impact on every ecosystem and creature that inhabits our planet. t2 had a chat with Mike Gunton, executive producer of the series that will premiere on Sony BBC Earth channel on July 29, at 9pm. Excerpts.

How is Planet Earth III different from the earlier editions of the series and what was the idea behind the series?

Started nearly 20 years ago, the Planet Earth series was about showing the wonders of our world, the animals within it, and also how animals live in the environment. That’s why it is called Planet Earth. It’s about nature, it’s about the planet as well. And, you know, the first series was very much about the awesomeness of nature. The second series was about being in the lives of the animals, getting down amongst them and seeing them, seeing their challenges from their perspective, trying to get the cameras almost on their shoulders. Both these elements are like the underpinning of Planet Earth III.

But the reason why we’re making it is because we felt that there is a new context to tell these stories, which is that everywhere you go now, you sense that all nature is behaving and adapting within the context of human activity. Our existence is having an effect on all the natural world. All nature in some ways is adapting to this pressure from humanity. So we felt that that would be the prism through which to tell our story. We called it Planet Earth III: The New World, because the rules of nature are changing because of the impact of humanity. That’s incredibly exciting, because you see all sorts of behaviour and new adaptations and new stories because of that. But it is still full of incredible animal drama, beautiful images, great locations. But underpinning it is a sense of contextualising with what is affecting these animals and how they are adapting or behaving.

I should also mention technology. One of the things that is always a signature of Planet Earth is introducing to the audience new visual perspectives, where technology is used to show things that they have never seen before. Besides this intellectual newness, this series also has a simple, emotional, viewer’s perspective, which is just about finding something new, interesting and exciting to enjoy.

Is there any episode where we find any species benefiting from adapting to human habits?

If you look at the stories, there is a balance between the hazards and benefits of human activity. Some of the things that happen to nature are hazardous and animals are finding it very difficult. But there are other stories where animals are finding it to their benefit. Two good stories come to mind. One of them is in the Oceans episode. I think it’s the final sequence where fishermen off the coast of Chile are hunting for anchovies or sardines. They have massive nets that collect and scoop up millions of fish. The local seals have worked out that the nets do all the hard work for them. So seals, in their thousands, make a beeline for these fishing boats, swim around the nets and steal all the fish from the nets. They even swim inside the nets and catch all the fish. It’s an incredible piece of behaviour — seals exploiting our efforts. So the story is actually about how the seals get the balance right, stealing the fish but not getting caught in the nets.

The other story is in the seventh episode called Human. There’s a great sequence in Bali where macaques (a type of monkey) that live around temples have learnt that they can steal things from tourists. And if they steal anything valuable, the tourists will give them food in exchange for getting their things back. So they steal glasses, wallets and mobile phones. What’s interesting is that the monkeys have worked out that you get much more food for a mobile phone than you do for a pair of glasses. So they prefer to steal the really expensive things. And there’s a wonderful moment where somebody tries to get their mobile phone back by giving the monkey a banana, and then they actually have to negotiate with the monkey. It’s an amazing piece of adaptation and of living alongside nature.

So does the series help find ways for a more harmonious cohabitation between humans and the natural world?

I think the message across the whole series, ultimately, is that we are finding ourselves more and more in contact with animals. We’re living alongside them. They’re living in our world, we’re living in their world. And you have two, maybe three choices. You either make sure you live apart, or you live in conflict, or you live in collaboration. And I think giving animals space to live alone is probably a good plan, but if we can’t do that, it’s much better to live in collaboration than in conflict. And there’s quite a lot of stories that show where that is evolving.

You know, the sequence with the stealing monkeys — that’s a sort of collaboration. It’s collaboration and conflict. But there’s a great story in the Forests episode, where collaboration comes out of conflict. Here, when farmers encroached on a forest and made it smaller, a group of chimpanzees decided to raid the farms and take away jackfruit grown by the farmers. And the farmers have decided to allow them to do so as they have taken away some of the chimps’ land. Now this is a new relationship and one that’s also evolving.

As nature is constantly evolving, so are its relationships. Animals are trying to find ways of changing their behaviour so that they can either cohabit with us, or they can cohabit with other species that are also being affected by humanity. Similarly, the sharks in the opening sequence who hunted near a particular cape for years changed their behaviour probably as a result of what’s happening in the ocean elsewhere.

Environmental concerns are perhaps one of the most important issues we are dealing with worldwide. How does Planet Earth III seek to address it?

Every episode touches on relationships between humans and nature. But the seventh episode is all about this contact point between humans and animals. It shows some places where it’s not going well, but other places where the animals have adapted cleverly.

So, this allows us to point to a problem. Sometimes the problem is overfishing or there’s not enough space or we’re taking animals’ land or the environment or climate is changing. All these are challenges that nature is facing. And we’re seeing how nature is coping with those changes and sometimes literally living alongside us. And then in the eighth episode, we look at people; individuals who are taking the battle upon themselves. They’re trying to either save a species or conserve them or create a habitat that they can live in. So, it gives you hope because I think it’s important to show people what the problems and challenges are, but you (also) have to show them hope.

If you show examples of people who are actively working to restore the balance of nature and seeing improvements in the natural world, that encourages us to think that maybe we can do something ourselves or support other people who do it. So you want to protect an animal or maybe grow something in your garden or you can encourage your friends to do that. When you see an animal in trouble, you help it. You also don’t see animals as enemies but as friends. I think we probably need to change our attitude towards how much land we need, how much space we can let nature have and how we relate to animals.

Who is the target audience of the series and how do you aim to reach out to them?

I think one of the things that has been very gratifying about making the whole series is that they still speak to broad audiences. Our target audience is everyone because it’s important that everybody sees and gets the message, gets inspired, sees the wonder of the natural world, and is motivated to protect and look after it. And I think if you can get people to watch it together as a family, or as a community, there’s something very positive about it. You egg each other on and it sort of builds momentum to almost pledge to do something about it.

I’m super keen that really young kids watch it. But the audience I really hope to catch is 15 to 30 years old. Because that’s where the power is going to be in the next 10 or 20 years. They’re going to be the consumers. They’re going to be the policy-makers. They’re going to be the active people over the next quarter of a century. And it’s this next quarter of a century that is so critical to the future of our planet. So if we can get those people to feel like they’re the custodians, guardians of nature and of the planet, then that will be the job done.

And how do we do it? Through emotional stories — when you see animals struggling but succeeding. You see heroes, heroic animals succeeding against the odds. You see heroic people succeeding against the odds. You connect. You want to mimic that. You empathise with that. It’s just not information; it’s about empathy and emotion. Feeling that you are part of the story — part of both the problem and the solution.

This is particularly important in India, the second most populous country in the world, with some of the most amazing wildlife. The country is at an important stage so it’s important to the world how the people of India protect and nurture their nature.