​

RESOURCES

Maps, Data and Materials for Research, Conservation and Citizen Science

This section brings together practical resources arising from my research, fieldwork and community projects in Wales and elsewhere.

They include maps and GIS resources, citizen-science tools, Rights of Nature materials, teaching resources, field-recording forms, reports, data and downloadable documents.

Some were developed for particular projects; others reflect more than four decades of work concerned with relationships between people, place, culture, spirit and the more-than-human world.

Where possible, I make these resources available so that they can be adapted and used by communities, schools, researchers, local councils and conservation organisations.

The intention is not simply to provide information. It is to make it easier for people to observe, understand, document and care for the places with which they are connected.

Maps & GIS

Interactive maps, spatial data and project mapping from Wales and elsewhere.

Explore Maps & GIS →

Data & Citizen Science

Epicollect5 forms, environmental observations and tools for recording ecological change.

Explore Data & Citizen Science →

Rights of Nature Toolkit

Practical resources for councils and communities considering Rights of Nature, including the Cwmaman Charter and Nature Guardian materials.

Explore the Rights of Nature Toolkit →

Schools & Teaching

Ted's Travels, wildlife recording activities, teachers' materials and resources for children's citizen science.

Explore Schools & Teaching →

Downloads

Reports, templates, forms, guides and other documents available for consultation or reuse.

Browse Downloads →

Research & Archives

Selected research resources relating to sacred natural sites, spiritual governance, environmental anthropology and family and landscape history.

Explore Research & Archives →

1. MAPS & GIS

Exploring Relationships Through Place

Maps have been an important part of my work from field research in Asia to current ecological projects in Wales.

A map can do considerably more than locate an object. It can reveal relationships between rivers and woodland, settlements and habitats, paths and ecological corridors, topography and water, sacred places and communities.

This section brings together selected geographical resources from my research and projects.

Interactive Mapping

Where appropriate, projects are presented through interactive maps that allow visitors to explore individual locations, features and observations.

My work has included the use of GIS, NextGIS, LiDAR terrain data and GPS-based field recording.

Nant Pedol Beaver Project

High-resolution LiDAR terrain data have been used to investigate the Nant Pedol catchment and identify stream reaches potentially suitable for beaver activity.

Mapping includes:

• stream gradients

• terrain and elevation

• hydrology

• woodland

• potential enclosure areas

• access and surrounding landscape features.

The purpose is to understand the stream within its wider landscape rather than treating it simply as a line on a map.

Cwmaman

Mapping associated with projects in Cwmaman includes habitats, rivers, former industrial land, ecological observations and sites of environmental concern.

Over time, citizen-science observations can add another layer: a community-generated geographical record of ecological change.

Historical Landscapes

GIS also provides a way of exploring historical relationships between places.

This includes my developing work on the Domesday landscape of Dorset, including Pilsdon, Studley, Broadwindsor and the estates associated with Sæwine and Eadric.

Maps can sometimes reveal relationships that are difficult to appreciate from documentary sources alone.

2. DATA & CITIZEN SCIENCE

Observing and Recording the Living World

Citizen science enables people without specialist scientific training to contribute meaningful environmental observations.

A single observation may seem insignificant. When observations are geographically located, photographed, dated and accumulated through time, they can become an important record of environmental change.

Epicollect5

Several of my current projects use Epicollect5, a mobile and web-based data-collection platform.

Forms can be designed to record information such as:

• location

• date and time

• habitat

• species

• photographs

• condition

• observed threats

• comments.

This makes it particularly useful for community environmental recording.

Habitat Loss

A dedicated approach is being developed for documenting incidents of habitat damage or loss.

The purpose is to ensure that observations are not confined to an individual's memory or a photograph stored on a telephone. They can instead form part of a structured and geographically referenced record.

EcoWatch Monitor

The developing EcoWatch Monitor complements field recording by helping observations and reports to be followed after they have been submitted.

Together, Epicollect5 and EcoWatch offer the possibility of moving from:

seeing → recording → documenting → following up.

Community Evidence

Citizen-generated evidence does not replace professional ecological assessment or the responsibilities of statutory organisations.

It can, however, provide something extremely valuable:

people who know a place noticing when that place changes.

3. RIGHTS OF NATURE TOOLKIT

From a Charter to Practical Action

In June 2026, Cwmaman Town Council adopted a Rights of Nature Charter.

One of the purposes of publishing the resources arising from that experience is to make it easier for other town and community councils to consider their own approach to Rights of Nature.

The Cwmaman Charter should not necessarily be copied word for word. Every community possesses different landscapes, histories and ecological relationships.

It can instead provide a starting point.

Cwmaman Rights of Nature Charter

The Charter recognises that the wellbeing of the human community cannot ultimately be separated from the wellbeing of the rivers, woodland, grassland, wildlife and other beings with whom that community shares its place.

The adopted Charter is available here as a reference for other councils and communities.

Download the Cwmaman Rights of Nature Charter →

Developing a Local Charter

Resources will include guidance on questions such as:

What places and ecological communities matter locally?

What existing responsibilities does the council already possess?

How can nature be represented when decisions are made?

How can residents participate?

How can a Charter lead to practical action rather than remain simply a declaration?

Nature Guardians

Nature Guardians provide one possible means of representing particular places, habitats or species.

Resources include the developing Nature Guardian Terms of Reference, guidance on observation and reporting, and links with citizen-science recording.

Reporting Habitat Loss

Practical guidance will help residents document habitat damage through photographs, geographical coordinates and structured observations.

Welsh Rights of Nature

The toolkit also places the Cwmaman initiative within a specifically Welsh context.

Welsh approaches to Rights of Nature need not simply reproduce models developed elsewhere. Wales possesses its own traditions of understanding relationships between people, place and the more-than-human world, including material preserved within medieval Welsh literature.

This provides fertile ground for exploring a distinctly relational Welsh approach to Rights of Nature.

4. SCHOOLS & TEACHING

Learning to Notice

Environmental education begins with attention.

Before children can care about ecological change, they need opportunities to notice the beings and places around them.

This is the principle behind Ted's Travels.

Ted's Travels

Ted's Travels introduces citizen science through four animal companions:

Owl · Otter · Hedgehog · Butterfly

Each provides a different way into the local environment.

Children can ask:

Where does it live?

What does it eat?

What kind of habitat does it need?

What signs tell us that it has been here?

What might threaten it?

Epicollect5 for Children

A simplified Epicollect5 form enables children to make structured wildlife observations.

Depending upon the activity, they can record:

• the animal observed

• location

• habitat

• date

• photograph

• signs such as tracks or droppings

• what they noticed about the place.

Teachers' Resources

Supporting materials include a teacher's guide, suggested field activities and guidance on using citizen science safely and appropriately with children.

More Than Identification

The objective is not simply to produce children who can correctly name species.

Ted's Travels encourages another question:

What does this animal need from the place we share with it?

That moves environmental learning from identification towards relationship and responsibility.

5. DOWNLOADS

Documents, Forms and Practical Materials

This section provides a central library of material that can be downloaded or consulted.

Rather than requiring visitors to search through individual project pages, important practical documents can also be found here.

The collection will grow as projects develop.

Rights of Nature

Potential downloads include:

Cwmaman Rights of Nature Charter
Nature Guardian Terms of Reference
Habitat Loss Reporting guidance
Model material for councils considering a Charter

Citizen Science

Epicollect5 forms and data dictionaries
Ted's Travels recording materials
Citizen-science guidance
Field observation sheets

Schools

Ted's Travels Teacher's Guide
Wildlife observation activities
Children's recording resources

Projects

Selected reports and supporting material from projects including:

Nant Pedol Beaver Project
Gelli Werdd
Bridleways and Biodiversity
Willow Spiling and river restoration
Bird Boxes and Citizen Science

Research

Where copyright and other considerations permit, selected research papers, reports, conference material and supporting documentation may also be made available.

For my formally published academic work, visitors should use the separate Publications section.

6. RESEARCH & ARCHIVES

Materials Behind the Research

Research rarely begins and ends with a published paper.

Behind publications are field observations, maps, photographs, working documents, historical sources and sometimes decades of engagement with particular peoples and landscapes.

This section provides access to selected material from that wider archive.

Nepal and the Himalayas

Resources relating to my early work in north-west Nepal, including forestry, rural livelihoods and relationships between communities and mountain environments.

South-West China

Selected material from research and professional work in Yunnan, Sichuan and the Hengduan Mountains, including work among Tibetan, Qiangic and other minority peoples.

Themes include:

ethno-forestry · sacred landscapes · minority cultures · pastoralism · customary relationships with nature

Sacred Natural Sites

A substantial strand of the archive concerns Sacred Natural Sites.

This includes research into sacred mountains, forests and other places, gzhi bdag or locality-based spirit owners, and the forms of spiritual governance through which relationships between people and place may be maintained.

Kawakarpo

Material associated with the Kawakarpo Sacred Natural Sites work provides an example of a landscape in which biodiversity, cultural identity, spirituality and relationships with place cannot readily be separated.

Spiritual Governance

Resources relating to my developing concept of spiritual governance explore forms of authority and responsibility that extend beyond conventional political and administrative institutions.

This work provides an important intellectual bridge between my Asian research and the contemporary Rights of Nature work in Wales.

Dorset, Domesday and the Studleys

The archive also contains developing historical research into my own family and its relationship with the Dorset landscape.

This includes:

Domesday Book · Sæwine · Eadric · Pilsdon · Studley · Broadwindsor · the medieval de Studleys

This material remains an active research project. Hypotheses are distinguished from documented genealogy, particularly when considering possible continuity between the Domesday landscape and the later Studley family.

Family and Personal Archives

Other historical material belongs within the wider Family History and Personal sections of the website and is linked from here where appropriate.

The purpose is not to place everything into one enormous archive, but to preserve connections between documents, people, places and the stories to which they belong.

One small change I recommend to your menu

I would use:

RESOURCES
↳ Maps & GIS
↳ Data & Citizen Science
↳ Rights of Nature Toolkit
↳ Schools & Teaching
↳ Downloads
↳ Research & Archives

And I would cross-link rather than duplicate. For example, the Cwmaman Rights of Nature page tells the story; Rights of Nature Toolkit provides the Charter and practical materials. Ted's Travels under Projects explains the project; Schools & Teaching provides the forms and teacher's guide.

That should keep the site from becoming repetitive while still making the resources very easy to find.