Andrew Lees

Andrew John Lees (8 June 1949 – 31 December 1994) was a scientist, and environmentalist. He was born at Sandown Nursing Home, Great Yarmouth, the eldest of the four sons of Edward Andrew Lees, who was a Great Yarmouth Borough Councillor and Hotelier and his wife Beryl Lees (née Whiteley). He studied zoology, botany and philosophy at the University of Wales in Cardiff receiving an honours degree in 1977. He then spent a period working for the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC). 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. Lowland fens of Swansea His campaigning as an environmentalist started in 1978. 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). The NCC conceded the case and the site was given protection. Crymlyn Bog achieved international protected status as a Ramsar Site in 1993. The northern limb of the bog, Pant-y-Sais Fen, was also protected as a result of his campaigning. It was already being filled with rubbish but working with local residents he persuaded the local council to compulsorily purchase the fen as nature reserve. This was the first, and only time a site has been purchased in this way to become a nature reserve. Norfolk Broads He left Wales in 1981 and returned to Norfolk. In 1982 he helped form Broadlands Friends of the Earth and became its Chairman. He lobbied government and campaigned in the media over threats facing the Halvergate Marshes. In 1986, after much campaigning large areas were designated an Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA). Later after much public pressure The Norfolk and Suffolk Broads 1988 Act was passed. It created The Broads Authority as a Special Statutory Authority which has a special duty to "conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the Broads".