Thoughts from influential nature conservationists…
David Elias
Who are you and what have you done in nature conservation?
Having been a naturalist since childhood I was thrilled to get a full-time job as a warden of the RSPB’s reserve at The Lodge in Bedfordshire in 1969. I still remember thinking on my first day ‘somebody is actually going to pay me to do this!’ Next came a move to the Nature Conservancy Council. I regarded this as a body with a broader remit, more professional and a cutting edge outlook, and with better money, and career prospects – how things can change! There I was appointed warden of Monks Wood National Nature Reserve where I came under the influence of all the conservation luminaries who were working at the adjacent Experimental Station then. It was a wonderful education. After that a move with NCC to Oxwich in South Wales which was to begin my ongoing love affair with Wales. Then two and a half years working in a remote National Park in Malawi which was a glorious full on, ‘step-up or perish’ kind of experience, and as a naturalist it was fabulous. After that back to Wales for NCC and its successor, Countryside Council for Wales and a long stint on the Berwyn Mountains trying to help heal a rift between farmers and nature conservationists. That was formative and a steep learning curve, as in the beginning I knew next to nothing about hill farming. Ill health then forced me out of working in conservation, but I continued to be engrossed by it. I retrained as a psychotherapist, which has given me a nuanced and inclusive slant on life. My book Shaping the Wild about nature conservation and upland farming in Wales, through the lens of a single farm, was published in 2023. I am currently writing a new book about nature and land use which will use the Dyfi Biosphere reserve as the prism through which to look at this topic.
What have been two career highlights?
A five-day solo trek through the Nyika National Park in Malawi without radio and phone, during which time I didn’t see another human being or manmade object.
Holding a male hen harrier in my hands and gazing into the yellow moons of its eyes.
What has been the most influential person, event, or book in your career?
Shoreland’s Summer Diary by C F Tunnicliffe is a book that, as a teenager, opened my eyes to seeing people, place, and nature as one. Tunnicliffe illustrated a harmonious and wildlife rich farmed landscape, which in the 1950s was still largely intact. It is that harmony that I long to re-create.
Warren Martin, NCC and CCW Chief Warden in North Wales, educated me on the importance of ‘local and cultural’. Warren was a charismatic leader and passionate Welshman who sided with the indigenous rural population. I didn’t always agree with him, but he was an important influence.
Having Shaping the Wild accepted for publication was a big endorsement that I might have something to say that was worth reading.
How do you define nature conservation?
I have little urge to define it, but I do acknowledge a complex process in which nature, people and place interact. We can’t hope to influence that unless we look benignly on each of these. Ecological science and land management for the benefit of wildlife are essential components of that process. It is also important, by now, to view nature conservation as a land-use amongst many that must be open to the same scrutiny regarding things such as, public access, multiple use, transparency, accountability, and carbon footprint. The grinding down of nature and concentration on special sites has inevitably made us defensive and ‘precious.’
What is the good news about wildlife and nature at present?
A hard question to address because environmental issues, and nature conservation in particular, have slipped even further down the political agenda. The Sustainable Farming Scheme in Wales, which seemed visionary to me when first mooted, has met with much hostility from farmers – and 85% of the surface Wales is farmed. Perhaps some good will still come of it. The recognition that nature conservation land management exists usefully on a spectrum from protecting orchids in wire cages to wilding thousands of hectares is an improvement. The wilding movement has certainly given our thinking a good shake up and started some exciting initiatives, but it is not a panacea. The success of organisations like Wild Justice and the Rivers Trust is encouraging and contrasts with the conservatism of the bigger wildlife NGOs.
Beyond the obvious of habitat loss and species decline what is your greatest concern in UK nature conservation at present?
I think we need to wake up to how climate change and nitrogen pollution are already changing and degrading our biodiversity, and that is accelerating. Many conservation mangers are still hoping that habitat management will fix things. I understand that this is something we can usefully do, looking at the big picture can be very disempowering, however the perspective that ‘wildlife needs renewables’ is important. Riding on the coattails of climate mitigation might be our best hope right now.
If you had a limited budget on nature conservation, what would you prioritise and why?
Despite my commitment to the integration of nature, land-use, and people, I would probably spend all of it on purchasing high quality habitat land. We are in the last chance saloon and banking some species richness for better times would seem wise. Movement on the bigger picture is desperately slow, at this rate there will be nothing left by the time it arrives. Given some collateral, nature can bounce back surprisingly well, and restoration attempts are getting increasingly ingenious.
How do you feel about your input to the subject – what if anything has it achieved, and would you do it differently if starting again?
My book Shaping the Wild resulted from long experience has been widely read and commented on by all sorts of people including politicians, farmers, and environmentalists. If I have influenced the thinking of just a few those, it will have been worth it. I have had a lengthy evolution from species-oriented naturalist to a more inclusive concern for nature, place, and people. I am more willing now to say ‘I don’t know’. But I acknowledge we also need the people who say they do know. Other than that, I feel I have put my pebble on the cairn – and that is good enough.
Anything else you would like to say?
The general tendency to polarised views concerns me; the middle ground is becoming a lonely place. The countryside will always be a rumpled, muddling through sort of place (like much of life), so tolerance and understanding of all the many people who use it is essential. To quote Mingur Rinpoche, “In order to move the world you must be able to stand still in it.”