How lessons learned in Africa can benefit a iconic Sussex forest

In his newly published book “Beautiful Beasts, Beautiful Lands” Mark charts his journey in conservation and offers the next generation – wherever they are – a different way of thinking about nature and how to protect it.

After raising a family and forging careers in Africa and the Far East, Mark and his artist wife, Sandy, have settled back into village life on the edge of the Forest. They both grew up in Forest Row where, as a youngster, Mark was inspired by the Forest and the woods and farmland around it.

“It was an idyllic childhood. I spent my days exploring. Ashdown Forest looked quite different. It was largely undiscovered then. We had family picnics and walks on Gills Laps and scarcely saw a soul. I was excited by the wildness of the place and thrilled by occasional encounters with long-horned highland cattle that roamed freely. These “big beasts” and the wildlife sparked my imagination and led me to Africa.”

Armed with a degree in zoology Mark arrived in Uganda and his first encounter with Lake Mburo. His experiences there led him to develop his perspectives on conservation. His book charts how enforcing strict exclusion led to such conflict that Lake Mburo National Park was almost destroyed, but how building relationships and engaging with people’s connections to place and nature could help protect some of the most endangered places on the planet.

“Uganda has lost more of its forest than anywhere else in the world – but conservation faces overwhelming challenges everywhere. After years working with many of the big conservation organisations including WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature) I realised that the best allies of conservation are the people who have true connections to the land and their place in it. Outside groups trying to impose protection based on their values simply doesn’t work.”

In his book, Mark explores the relationships between the conservationists who controlled the Park, the agriculturalists who lived around it, and the cattle keepers who regarded it as their cultural heartland. These groups valued Lake Mburo in widely different ways. Mark recognised that connections to place and local people’s ideas about what was important to protect were being disregarded causing losses for people and Park.

“The pastoralists’ cattle were essential to their livelihoods but to their identity too. They loved their beauty above all else. The cattle needed grazing and water; the land needed the beautiful beasts; and the ancestors demanded both. This sense beauty and connection should have been central to the Park’s values and management but was instead excluded. Once acknowledged and included, the cattle keepers became partners in its preservation”.

Ashdown Forest’s beautiful beasts are now part of Mark’s work. The health of the heath and its rare and wonderful wildlife depends on grazing. Mark is working with landowners, Forest commoners and ecologists to develop a strategy that will help the heath to thrive and protect its unique biodiversity, its cultural values, its vistas and rugged wildness, and its history of use. His experiences in Uganda may seem distant but are directly relevant.

“Whether it’s Uganda or Indonesia or Ashdown Forest, conservation is about partnerships and relationships - and if these are not right then nothing works! Ashdown Forest is as complex and challenging to protect as anywhere I’ve worked. Lowland heath is not a wilderness, people used the heath for centuries after all. We’ve all got roles to play to ensure this beautiful land and its beautiful beast are still with us in the future.”

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