Projects
Fieldwork, Research, Conservation and Community Action
My projects span more than four decades and very different landscapes — from the mountains of north-west Nepal and south-west China to the valleys, rivers and former industrial landscapes of south Wales.
They have included forestry, rural development, environmental anthropology, conservation, environmental and social assessment, disaster relief, Sacred Natural Sites, spiritual governance, citizen science and Rights of Nature.
Although these activities may at first appear very different, a recurring concern has been the relationship between people, culture, landscape and the natural world.
My earlier work was rooted in practical forestry and rural development. It subsequently developed into environmental anthropology and research into the ways different peoples understand, value and relate to their environments.
Research and practice were never entirely separate. Field projects generated research questions, while research provided concepts and methods that influenced subsequent professional work. More recently, many of these concerns have found practical expression much closer to home through Rights of Nature, habitat protection, ecological restoration and community citizen science in Wales.
Nepal
JUMP Forestry Programme — Jumla
For seven years, from 1984 to 1991, I was responsible for the forestry programme of the Jumla United Mission Project (JUMP) in north-west Nepal.
The programme was based at Karnali Technical School (KTS) in Jumla, one of Nepal's pioneering remote technical schools and an institution that enjoyed royal patronage.
Although housed at KTS and closely integrated with its educational activities, the forestry programme was a JUMP programme, funded through the United Mission to Nepal (UMN) rather than by the Nepalese Government. I reported primarily to the JUMP Project Director, while also working closely with and reporting to the Principal of Karnali Technical School.
The programme had two principal educational roles.
We taught forestry to KTS agricultural students, emphasising the close interdependence of forests, agriculture, livestock and rural livelihoods in the Karnali region.
We also provided forestry extension training to forest guards, with particular emphasis on community forestry and nature conservation and on working effectively with local communities.
My forestry staff and I argued strongly for the establishment of a dedicated forestry department at Karnali Technical School. We believed that the ecological and livelihood importance of forests in Karnali justified forestry having a permanent place alongside the school's other technical disciplines.
KTS subsequently established its own forestry department. I would not claim that the present department is a direct continuation of the JUMP forestry programme, but its existence is particularly satisfying given how strongly we advocated for forestry to become a permanent part of the school's curriculum.
Seven years of living and working in the Himalayas also profoundly influenced my subsequent work. Forestry could not sensibly be separated from agriculture, livestock, household livelihoods, customary practices or local knowledge.
The experience increasingly convinced me that environmental questions have to be understood through the relationships between people and the landscapes in which they live.
South-West China
Hongyuan Feasibility Study — North-West Sichuan
The Hongyuan Feasibility Study in north-west Sichuan was a multidisciplinary assessment concerned with the development needs and opportunities of a predominantly Tibetan pastoral region.
The study encompassed:
agriculture · animal husbandry · forestry · medical services · education · hydrology
My responsibility for the forestry component raised questions that went considerably beyond conventional forestry.
Working among Tibetan communities made me increasingly interested in the role and importance of trees and forests within Tibetan life. Their significance could not adequately be understood simply in terms of timber, land use or ecological function.
The questions arising from Hongyuan provided the stimulus for my subsequent PhD research into the role and importance of trees and forests to Tibetans.
Hongyuan therefore became an important turning point: an applied multidisciplinary feasibility study generated a research question that subsequently developed into a much larger anthropological enquiry.
PhD Field Research
Trees, Forests and Tibetan Environmental Values
My doctoral research investigated the role and importance of trees and forests to Tibetans.
An important feature of the field research was my deliberate decision to work with ordinary lay people — particularly non-literate farmers and herders — rather than concentrating primarily upon monks, religious specialists or educated elites.
I wanted to understand how people whose everyday lives were intimately connected with pasture, livestock, forests and landscape themselves perceived and valued their environment.
This required methods that did not make literacy a prerequisite for participation.
I used approaches including multidimensional scaling and constant-sum scaling, adapting them for field situations in which participants did not necessarily read or write.
These approaches enabled environmental perceptions, relationships and relative values to be explored systematically while allowing the knowledge of non-literate participants to be represented within quantitative analysis.
The methods subsequently became useful beyond the PhD itself.
From Environmental Anthropology to the Spiritual Dimension
On completing my PhD, colleagues encouraged me to investigate more explicitly the spiritual dimension of the relationships I had encountered during field research.
This opened an important new direction in my work.
I began examining Sacred Natural Sites (SNS) and the ways in which mountains, forests, lakes and other places could be understood and protected through cultural and spiritual relationships, customary practices and forms of authority that were not readily represented within conventional approaches to conservation.
Research among Tibetan and Qiangic peoples increasingly drew my attention to locality and territorial spirit owners, including gzhi bdag, and to landscapes understood not merely as physical environments but as places embedded within relationships between human and more-than-human beings.
This research subsequently developed into my work on spiritual governance — the proposition that landscapes can be governed not only through states, laws and administrative institutions but also through culturally embedded relationships involving communities, sacred places and spiritual beings.
This body of research resulted in three book chapters and several journal publications.
Research, Practice and Method
My academic research and professional work in China did not develop as separate activities. They continually fed into one another.
Questions encountered during professional assignments informed my research, while ideas and methodologies developed through research influenced how I approached later development, conservation and environmental work.
This interaction occurred across my PhD field research, the Hongyuan Feasibility Study, the Yunnan Environmental Development Programme (YEDP), work with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the China Exploration & Research Society (CERS) and Bureau Veritas.
A particularly useful methodological connection was the application of multidimensional scaling and constant-sum scaling in both research and professional contexts.
These methods could be adapted for use with non-literate farmers and herders, enabling environmental perceptions and values to be investigated without relying upon conventional written questionnaires.
The relationship between academic research and applied work was therefore reciprocal: practice generated research questions, while research provided concepts and methods that could be returned to practice.
Yunnan Environmental Development Programme — YEDP
My work subsequently extended into Yunnan and the mountains of south-west China, one of the most culturally and biologically diverse regions of Asia.
Work associated with the Yunnan Environmental Development Programme (YEDP) brought environmental and development questions together in landscapes inhabited by numerous minority peoples.
This provided opportunities to explore the ways in which land use, forests, livelihoods, ethnicity, local knowledge and environmental values interacted.
It also formed part of the continuing interchange between my professional work and research: observations from field assignments informed my academic thinking, while anthropological approaches and research methods could be applied to practical environmental questions.
Tibetan and Qiangic Landscapes
Environmental Anthropology in the Hengduan Mountains
My research increasingly concentrated upon Tibetan and Qiangic peoples of the Hengduan Mountains and adjoining regions.
Fieldwork examined relationships between communities and landscape, including sacred mountains, forests and other natural places and the importance of locality-based and territorial spirit owners.
Such relationships challenged the assumption that landscape could adequately be understood simply through Western categories such as land ownership, natural resources or protected areas.
This work contributed to my developing understanding of spiritual governance and of what I have described as topocosmic equilibrium — relationships linking people, locality, ecology and the spiritual world.
1996 Tibetan Snow Disaster
Emergency Relief and Yak Recovery — North-West Sichuan
The catastrophic winter of 1995–96 brought severe snow and extreme cold to pastoral areas of the eastern Tibetan Plateau.
Livestock losses threatened communities whose livelihoods depended heavily upon yak and other animals.
In response, we raised approximately £60,000 for a two-stage relief and recovery operation in north-west Sichuan.
Emergency Relief
During the first expedition we took:
food · clothing · medicines
into communities affected by the disaster.
The immediate priority was humanitarian relief. It soon became apparent, however, that emergency supplies alone could not restore livelihoods devastated by the loss of livestock.
Rebuilding the Herds
We therefore returned on a second expedition and purchased approximately 800 yak for affected pastoral households.
For pastoral families, replacing yak meant much more than replacing a financial asset. Yak provided food, dairy products, fibre, transport and fuel, while breeding animals provided the means by which viable herds could gradually be rebuilt.
The project therefore moved from emergency relief to livelihood recovery.
£60,000 raised · Two field expeditions · Food, clothing and medicines delivered · Approximately 800 yak purchased
The Nature Conservancy
Local Attitudes to Conservation
My work with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), USA, included a field tour undertaken to examine local attitudes towards nature conservation in general and towards The Nature Conservancy in particular.
The purpose was to understand conservation from the perspective of people living within and around the landscapes in which conservation organisations were working.
This involved exploring how local people perceived conservation, what they valued within their environment, and how they regarded the activities and presence of an international conservation organisation.
The work provided an opportunity to compare institutional conservation objectives with the views, priorities and experiences of local communities.
It reinforced the importance of understanding conservation not simply as an ecological or technical undertaking but as a social and cultural process involving people as well as landscapes.
CERS and Kawakarpo
Biocultural Audit of Sacred Natural Sites
My work with the China Exploration & Research Society (CERS), Hong Kong, included a biocultural audit of Sacred Natural Sites at Kawakarpo, one of the great sacred mountain landscapes of the eastern Tibetan world.
The audit examined Sacred Natural Sites as places in which biological, cultural and spiritual values were interconnected.
Rather than documenting biodiversity independently from human culture, the work examined the relationships through which particular mountains, forests and other places were recognised, valued and protected.
Kawakarpo demonstrated particularly clearly that a landscape can simultaneously possess ecological, livelihood, cultural and spiritual significance.
The project also illustrates the reciprocal relationship between my research and professional work. My developing research into Sacred Natural Sites informed the biocultural audit, while experience gained through the audit fed back into my wider research into SNS and spiritual governance.
Bureau Veritas
Dunhua — Forest Farming and Timber Certification
My work with Bureau Veritas included research at Dunhua in north-east China associated with timber certification.
The principal purpose was to examine the impact of forest farming on local and indigenous people for timber-certification purposes.
This required looking beyond the technical condition and management of forests to consider how forestry activities affected local communities and their relationships with the forest environment.
I also investigated environmental values using constant-sum scaling, one of the quantitative approaches I employed in both my professional work and academic research.
Dunhua therefore brought together social-impact research, environmental valuation and the practical requirements of timber certification.
Sacred Natural Sites and Spiritual Governance
Across these different projects and research settings, Sacred Natural Sites became an increasingly important focus of my work.
Sacred mountains, forests, lakes and other places could be protected through systems involving customary authority, religious practice, spiritual relationships and culturally embedded restraint.
Such places cannot necessarily be understood adequately by separating their biological characteristics from the cultural relationships through which people recognise and protect them.
This work led to wider research concerning:
Sacred Natural Sites · spiritual governance · indigenous conservation · environmental values · legal personality for nature · relational ontologies · Rights of Nature
These themes would eventually provide an unexpected connection between my work in Asia and much more recent projects in Wales.
From Asia to Wales
At first sight, my current projects in Wales may appear far removed from Himalayan forestry or environmental anthropology in Tibetan and Qiangic landscapes.
Yet many of the underlying questions are remarkably similar.
Who speaks for a landscape?
Whose environmental values count?
What happens when formal institutions fail to protect places valued by local communities?
Can communities have responsibilities towards nature extending beyond conventional ownership?
Can relationships with rivers, woods and other living places themselves become part of governance?
These questions now inform a series of projects in Cwmaman and elsewhere in Wales.
Cwmaman Rights of Nature
A Community Charter for Nature
In June 2026, Cwmaman Town Council adopted a Rights of Nature Charter.
The initiative developed partly in response to local habitat destruction and the difficulty of securing an effective response through existing regulatory structures.
The Charter asks us to move beyond treating nature simply as property or resource.
Instead, rivers, woodland, grassland, wildlife and ecological communities are recognised as possessing value in themselves, while human communities accept corresponding responsibilities towards the places in which they live.
An important objective is to encourage other town and community councils in Wales to consider developing their own Rights of Nature charters.
Nature Guardians
Rights require representation.
The Nature Guardians project explores a community-based model through which volunteers can observe and speak for particular places, habitats and species.
Nature Guardians do not replace statutory agencies. They provide another layer of local observation and stewardship, helping to ensure that significant environmental changes are noticed, documented and reported.
The project connects Rights of Nature with practical community environmental governance.
Reporting Habitat Loss
Experience of habitat destruction in Cwmaman demonstrated how difficult it can be for residents to know where and how environmental damage should be reported.
Responsibility may be divided between local authorities, Natural Resources Wales, the police and other organisations.
The Reporting Habitat Loss project therefore explores a structured system for collecting:
location · photographs · habitat information · observations · dates · supporting evidence
using Epicollect5.
The developing EcoWatch Monitor provides a complementary approach to monitoring reports and helping information reach those who may need to respond.
Together, these tools provide the beginnings of a community-generated record of environmental change.
Ted's Travels
Citizen Science for Children
Ted's Travels introduces children to wildlife observation through four animal characters:
Owl · Otter · Hedgehog · Butterfly
A specially designed Epicollect5 form enables children to record observations, photographs and locations.
The project is intended to do more than teach wildlife identification.
It encourages children to recognise themselves as participants within the ecological community, and to understand that careful observation can itself become a form of stewardship.
Supporting materials for schools and teachers are being developed alongside the project.
Nant Pedol Beaver Project
Beavers as Ecosystem Engineers
The proposed Nant Pedol Beaver Project investigates the feasibility of a managed beaver enclosure within the Bannau Brycheiniog/Brecon Beacons landscape.
Detailed GIS and LiDAR terrain analysis has been used to investigate stream gradients and identify potentially suitable reaches.
The project is particularly interested in the beaver's role as an ecosystem engineer.
Beaver activity can slow water, retain sediment, increase wetland habitat and create ecological complexity benefiting numerous other species.
The project therefore explores restoration through natural ecological processes rather than relying exclusively upon human engineering.
Gelli Werdd
From Industrial Landscape to Living Habitat
Gelli Werdd, the wooded former spoil heap behind Cwmamman Community Centre, illustrates the capacity of disturbed landscapes to acquire ecological value over time.
Potential projects include:
veteran-tree protection · deadwood retention · pollinator habitat · selective woodland care · invasive-species monitoring · citizen science
Gelli Werdd raises an important question for post-industrial Wales:
At what point does former industrial land cease to be regarded as waste ground and become recognised as an ecosystem?
Willow Spiling and Riverbank Restoration
Riverbank erosion in Cwmaman has prompted investigation of willow spiling and hybrid bioengineering approaches.
Rather than choosing simply between erosion and hard engineering, living willow can be incorporated into riverbank stabilisation.
As willow establishes, its roots can help bind the bank while its growth contributes shade, habitat and structural diversity.
Where stronger protection is necessary, living systems may potentially be combined with more conventional engineering.
The objective is to investigate whether ecology can become part of the engineering solution.
Bridleways and Biodiversity
Bridleways are normally discussed primarily in terms of access for horses and people.
This project asks a different question:
Can bridleways also function as ecological corridors?
Verges, hedgerows, woodland edges, watercourses and strips of relatively undisturbed vegetation associated with rights of way may provide connections between otherwise fragmented habitats.
The project explores whether selected bridleways can simultaneously contribute to equestrian access, landscape connectivity and biodiversity.
Bird Boxes and Community Citizen Science
Proposals for Parc Golwg yr Aman include bird boxes accompanied by citizen-science monitoring.
The objective is not simply to erect boxes.
Recording occupancy, species, breeding activity and changes through time can transform a small practical intervention into a continuing ecological dataset.
It also provides an accessible way for residents and children to participate directly in conservation.
Rivers and Ecological Restoration
Several projects concern the rivers and streams of the Cwmaman landscape.
They include riverbank erosion, riparian habitat, willow spiling, water management and opportunities for ecological restoration.
These projects approach a river not simply as water contained within a channel, but as a living ecological system connecting aquatic organisms, woodland, soils, wildlife and human communities.
That understanding contributes directly to the Rights of Nature work.
GIS, LiDAR and Citizen Science
Technology increasingly provides a connection between research and community observation.
My current projects use or explore:
GIS · LiDAR · Epicollect5 · NextGIS · geographical field recording · EcoWatch monitoring
The Nant Pedol work demonstrates how high-resolution terrain data can inform ecological restoration, while Epicollect5 demonstrates how environmental information can be gathered directly by citizens.
The common objective is to make good environmental evidence accessible, geographical and cumulative.
Caldey Island
Creation, Stewardship and Rights of Nature
A further project explores the relationship between Rights of Nature and an explicitly Christian understanding of Creation and stewardship.
This resulted in a proposed Caldey Charter for Creation, Stewardship and the Rights of Nature.
During a visit to Caldey Island, one of the trustees expressed considerable interest in the proposal. The Charter remains a proposal rather than an adopted Caldey policy.
The project explores whether Rights of Nature can be expressed through a theological language that recognises the natural world not simply as a collection of resources entrusted to humanity, but as Creation possessing its own integrity and relationship with its Creator.
One Continuing Journey
At first sight there may appear to be little connecting a forestry programme in Nepal, a multidisciplinary feasibility study in Hongyuan, interviews with Tibetan farmers and herders, the purchase of 800 yak following a snow disaster, environmental-value research, a biocultural audit at Kawakarpo, timber certification in Dunhua, a beaver stream in Wales and a Rights of Nature Charter adopted by a town council.
For me, however, these activities form one continuing journey in which research and practice have repeatedly informed one another.
The questions have changed along the way.
An early question was:
How can forestry and conservation better serve people and landscapes?
Another became:
How do people themselves perceive, value and govern their relationships with nature?
The research into Sacred Natural Sites added another:
What happens when those relationships include spiritual beings and an enspirited landscape?
And increasingly my work has asked:
What responsibilities arise when we recognise ourselves as participants within a living world rather than managers standing outside it?
From the Himalayas and Hengduan Mountains to the Amman Valley, my projects have continued to explore the relationships between people, place, culture and the more-than-human world.
Research matters, but so does practice.
Ultimately, the value of what we learn is also measured by what we are prepared to do with it.