Carrying out research for consultancy projects inspired me to delve deeper into people’s connections with the rest of nature. I signed up for a Masters programme in Social & Cultural Geography, moving on later to a PhD. My research focused on the fragile and threatened ecosystems of the Kenyan coast, looking first at the role in conservation of charismatic species and what this means for local communities, then at the interplay of community priorities, ancestral traditions and international interventions.

Other work included a major interdisciplinary study of the River Don, where my role was to explore how a local community group had managed to mobilise the funds and political will to transform a derelict section of the river corridor. I was particularly happy to be tasked with producing a booklet about this achievement for a general readership, using my otherwise rather neglected skills in publication production.

And the River Derwent flowed through my life again, this time with an in-depth study of people’s connections with the river and how this did or didn’t fit the concept of cultural ecosystem services. Project participants took me on their favourite river walks while reflecting on what the river meant to them. We captured this on film, later watching the footage together and teasing out recurrent themes.