Working Together to Improve Norfolk's Wildlife
Tasso Leventis
As well as my business activities, I am Chairman of the A G Leventis Foundation, and I am involved in nature conservation and activities encouraging an environmental approach to development. These have extended from West Africa, where I have spent much of my working life, to other parts of Africa, Southern Europe and South America. My commitment to bird conservation includes the establishment of an avian research institute in Nigeria, as well as participation in and support for national and international conservation organisations such as Birdlife International and some of its partner organisations.
My long-term support for conservation and focus on finding solutions to the degradation of the natural environment has been widely recognised by the award of five Honorary Doctorates, as well as a CBE from the British Government and an OFR from the Government of Nigeria.
I live in London with my wife and family, although I still travel extensively, mostly to Nigeria, Greece and Cyprus, from where my family originally comes.
Patrick Barkham
It is a real honour to be a Patron of Felbeck Trust. The very best antidote to feelings of environmental despair and hopelessness is to join local community action to make our neighbourhoods better - for wildlife and for ourselves.
I grew up in Reepham, inheriting my parents’ interest in nature, but I was also influenced by our Norfolk landscape - often intensively farmed but still harbouring wildlife.
After some years away from Norfolk, I decided I needed to reconnect with nature. In 2009 I set out to see all 59 species of British butterfly in one summer, resulting in my first book, The Butterfly Isles. Since then, I've written Badgerlands, Islander, and Wild Child, which I hope will inspire parents and grandparents to help their children spend more time in nature.
Now living in Norfolk with my family, I continue to work for The Guardian, give talks about nature, write books and evangelise about Norfolk to anyone who will listen.
Returning to the county after 15 years away, I have seen in many places how our countryside has been improved from the desolate days of the 1980s. Good agri-environment schemes have encouraged farmers to do what they want to do, and produce food without exterminating all wildlife. Species that were missing when I was a child have returned: Buzzards, Purple Emperor butterflies, Badgers, Red Kites, Otters.
But of course Norfolk is a landscape under pressure and we have lost almost all our Turtle Doves and Nightingales, while development and pointless new roads threaten to further fragment our nature-depleted county.
Ultimately, it is down to us to fight for nature and create a richer world for everyone and everything in it. That's why I salute you all at Felbeck Trust who are working to restore and enhance our precious county.
Nick Acheson
I’m Nick, Norfolk native, lifelong bug-botherer and denizen of a flint cottage by a village duckpond. I grew up in Little Snoring, running wild across the WW2 airfield. From school in Holt, my friends and I would tumble down to Cley to lose ourselves in a golden world of marsh harriers, bitterns and bearded tits. In the past decade I have worked on many projects, events and publications for Norfolk Wildlife Trust, many of them from Cley.
Prior to my return to Norfolk, I read for two degrees, then fled to South America, where for years I worked for conservation NGOs and delighted in the continent’s unrivalled wildlife. Falling into bird tour-leading, I was asked to travel further and have since worked on every continent and ocean. Having stopped flying — through climate concerns — I now stay close to my North Norfolk home, speaking, writing and enthusing about wildlife and conservation.
I am currently Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Wildlife Ambassador, and recently published my first book – The Meaning of Geese.