Reflections: What Wildlife Needs and How to Provide It

by Mark Avery

In this informed, incisive and passionate commentary on the state of nature and conservation, Mark Avery reflects on our relationship with the wildlife around us. From the cats that pass through his garden to the chronic decline of farmland wildlife, from the Pasqueflowers he visits every spring to the proportion of national income devoted to saving nature – everything is connected, and everything is considered.

This book analyses what is wrong with certain ways we do wildlife conservation but explores some of its many successes too. How can we do better to restore wildlife to everybody’s lives? We know how to conserve species and habitats – it’s time to roll out conservation measures on a much bigger scale. This is a societal choice in which every nature lover can play their part. Reflections sets out what is needed, and what part the state, environmental charities and we as individuals can play in making that happen.

This highly personal work from a life embedded in and dedicated to nature does not shy away from the harsh realities we face, but its message, ultimately, is one of hope.

248 pages, Paperback

Published July 4, 2023

About the author

Mark Avery is an English scientist and naturalist. He writes about and comments on environmental issues. He worked for the RSPB for 25 years until standing down in April 2011 to go freelance. He was the RSPB’s Conservation Director for nearly 13 years.

Avery lives in rural Northamptonshire and is a member of the RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts, the BTO and the National Trust for Scotland. He is a trustee of the World Land Trust.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

From first sight, it is naughtily tempting for someone who hangs on the delights of Mark Avery's blogged book reviews (jarring cover scores and all) to dismiss both title and cover as dreary and unoriginal (and then worry about the content). The cover merely requires closer inspection to correct that. I remain unconvinced about the title.

But then I realise I do enjoy Avery's writing about the world because it is reflective, managing to demonstrate both his scientific life and bent, and his humanity (he says at one point that he likes people - which is far from a given in the field of conservation or animal welfare, but avoids the 'good people on both sides' trap) He walks around an issue, looking at it from a variety of points of view... but will generally go on to express either an opinion or a settled non-opinion (which can be very refreshing). He doesn't wang on in great swooping phrases - I go elsewhere for those. His comment about minding the loss of continuity in his family hearing nightingales more than he had expected moved me to tears, probably precisely because it was so simply expressed.

I did like the 'spinning out' from his own home structure of the book. He doesn't live anywhere glamorous for nature and he is very downbeat about the capacity for the general population to care very much about nature but I feel it is in people sharing their workaday experiences, as he does here as he negotiates house mice, the neighbour's cat (surprisingly fondly) and weeds in cracks, that a lot of the hope we have to have and the effort we have to make, is to be found.

I enjoy his little asides, often very funny, although he is not one for big diversions or page hogging footnotes (those are not bad things, for me) I'm also wryly amused at some of his idiosyncrasies and pedantic pondering (getting faintly cross about the word 'nature') Whilst I take his points, I do not share his disdain for a tearoom, a children's sleepover or merch (I look down and note I am wearing a t shirt sold as part of a fundraising and publicity effort for a campaign about raven culling in which he was prominent... and I think he might change his tune about the sleepovers when his grandson gets a bit older)

His chapter on wildlife successes, and the way he went about putting it together, is a cracker, a very necessary gathering of heartening stories, which have a lot to tell us and some of which are in danger of being taken for granted.

His working up of some ideas I've seen on the blog over the years about deciding where we as individuals will put our money is another glory of the book, albeit rather gritty in the sense of number detail (I had had no idea my own Wildlife Trust was so comparatively cash poor) and the financial approach (perhaps slightly akin to the discomfort with which Tony Juniper's economics focused books were received)

I could go on pulling out plums but this is not a book of which we say at my book group "I read it so you don't have to" But the references section at the back deserves a standing ovation for its blend of encouragement, warmth and eclecticism, featuring nods to his local fish and chip shop and his organic box supplier as well as the scholarly.

[Tom Mills · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is not much to inspire one from this book unfortunately and I struggled through in the vain hope that it would lead into more profound or at the very least more positive ideas. Lengthy waffle dilutes many of the authors key points, for instance going deep into the detail of the serial number and source of a twenty pound note with no apparent reason for doing so when describing how to save money to support wildlife charities…. The book is framed as one that aims to provide wildlife with what it needs, and yet there are very few detailed stories of successful conservation efforts and those who have achieved them (and how), with the focus heavily layered on the failures of current wildlife charities. It also seems to be aimed at an audience with an existing interest and knowledge of wildlife, yet the author described most concepts from an incredibly basic level.

[Sarah Watkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully-written, highly readable book on the disastrous state of wildlife in the UK, focussing on the more visible animal species. Avery writes from long experience in campaigning organisations, mainly the excellent RSPB. He argues convincingly for better organisation of land ownership and better, more informed legislation and regulation, and has encouraging words for the rewilding movement. A heartening and authoritative read with some good specific advice for the ordinary (non-land-owning) citizen; I will follow this as far as its in my power to do so.

[Phil Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative, clear, essential

[Ray Hamblett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chris Packham described it as an important book. I agree.