Andrew Lees (environmentalist)

In 2006 Lees was placed 43rd in the UK Environment Agency's all-time list of scientists, campaigners, writers, economists and naturalists who, in its view, have done the most to save the planet.

Lees was positioned between murdered Brazilian environmentalist, Dionisio Ribeiro Filho and tropical ecologist Mike Hands.

He started a campaign to stop tipping at Crymlyn Bog which straddles the administrative boundaries between Neath and Swansea being used as a landfill site.

In 1981 working alongside Friends of the Earth, he obtained permission from the courts to proceed with a Judicial Review regarding the failure of the NCC to notify part of the bog as a protected Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

He was a great believer in involving local people in finding solutions to conservation issues - a technique that had been so successful at Pant y Sais.

Following his death, the Andrew Lees Trust was set up in 1995 to develop and implements social and environmental education projects.

These specifically aim to involve local communities so that they can reduce their own poverty whilst conserving the valuable environmental aspects.

[5] In 1996 Channel 4 broadcast a documentary called Natural Causes, made by Open Media, in which Jonathan Kaplan retraces Lees' last visit to Madagascar.