TV stars Paul and Kate swap the natural world for the City to raise money for Earthwatch 

Earthwatch ambassadors Kate Humble and Paul Rose went down a storm at the ICAP 2008 Charity Day on 10 December, where they helped to close deals for Earthwatch.

Each year ICAP, the world's premier interdealer broker, gives away its total revenues and brokers' commissions to charity, and this year Earthwatch was among the many organisations to benefit from the company's generosity. The charity day raised a staggering £11 milllion, and the donation to Earthwatch will support the 2009 Teacher Fellowship Programme.

The charity day was held at ICAP's offices in London, where staff entered into the spirit of the occasion by wearing fancy dress. Kate Humble, well known as one of the presenters of the BBC's Springwatch programme, and explorer Paul Rose from the BBC's Oceans series, spent two hours supporting Earthwatch at the event, which was also attended by Earthwatch Executive Vice President Nigel Winser and Earthwatch PR Manager Zoe Gamble. Among the other guests at the charity day were Prince Harry and Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

Kate said, "It was great fun closing deals on the telephone and I was delighted to be able to help Earthwatch at this very special event. It was a fantastic way to raise money and I'm thrilled that Earthwatch's 2009 Teacher Fellowship Programme will benefit."

Thanks to ICAP, in 2009 Earthwatch will be able to send 36 teachers to work alongside leading scientists on field research expeditions. As well as contributing valuable hours of their time to enable scientists to carry out critical research, the teachers will also learn about environmental sustainability. An educational facilitator will be among each team to maximise learning and encourage discussion among teachers about how to engage their students in environmental issues.

Time will be set aside for the teachers to develop lesson plans and classroom projects linked to science and conservation. Following their experiences they will be able to apply to Earthwatch for a small grant to implement their ideas.

The Earthwatch Teacher Fellowship Programme engages teachers in hands-on conservation research so they can, in turn, inspire their students to take deeper interests in science, geography, and the environment around them. Every teacher that Earthwatch engages creates the potential to reach hundreds of secondary school students over a short period of time. The programme has been running for the past 11 years, and during that time more than 600 teachers have experienced hands-on conservation research on Earthwatch expeditions. In 2008, 24 teachers joined Earthwatch expeditions to Scotland and Greece to contribute to whale and dolphin research, and to Iceland to study glacial landforms.

Read more about ICAP's Charity Day 2008.