Conservation Careers: Seeing the wood for the pandas - Mary Gagen, Chief Advisor on Forests

What does your current role at WWF involve?    

I work within the WWK UK science team as their chief advisor on forests. That means I’m one of the team of scientists who oversee the evidence that underpins the conservation work WWF do. At the moment, the critical issues for forests are around the high rate of deforestation and damage being done by our trade and agricultural systems, climate change and wildfires around the world. It’s a really important time to be thinking about these habitats and how we can allow them to be looked after better. 

The great thing about forests is they grow all over the world, so I get to meet and talk about trees with lots of different people from different places; so I really love my job!  

The most recent piece of work I’ve done in my role is to deliver a major global report on forests, how we can look after them better and get on track to meeting the twin 2030 goals of halting deforestation and restoring the forests that we’ve lost. This was a huge piece of work (The Forest Pathways Report which you can find here) with over 50 brilliant WWF colleagues involved as authors!  

What led you to your current role?  

I’m currently on secondment (like a loan) from a university, so in my long-term role I’m a Professor of Geography at Swansea University. I’ve worked as a geographer, specifically on climate change and forests, my whole career. Geography is my passion because it gives us a useful lens to understand our planet and its societies. We can’t get better at stewarding the Earth if we don’t learn to understand people as well as nature. And for me, being a geographer allows me to do that. 

I did a few degrees, culminating in a PhD in which I looked at the information about past climates stored in annual tree rings. From there I went into teaching and doing research on geography. As I was studying climate change and forests, I became concerned about inaction on our environment, and I began working on how we translate scientific knowledge for public awareness and policy. That ultimately led me, first, to work on science outreach and then to join WWF on my current secondment.  

What fuelled your passion to work in the environment?   

When we look at the story of climate change, laid out in the rings of very old tree trunks, we are looking back in time at the absence of human alteration of the climate. Those tree ring records from all over the world, shout at us about how much harm we’ve done in the modern era. But they also tell us how resilient trees are, how much wildlife they look after and how much carbon they store, and that we need to look after our trees and forests. From the tiniest bit of scrubby woodland to the giant tropical forest basins - they are all vital life-giving parts of nature. We can’t stabilise our climate and develop sustainably without forests.

What do you enjoy most about your job?   

I have been incredibly lucky to travel to many beautiful forests as part of my work and I’ve been privileged to see wildlife that only lives there, like Orangutans in Borneo. But actually, most of my fondest memories are with trees much closer to home.  

Britain is one of the least wooded nations in Europe, but we really love our champion trees here and we actually have an unusually high numbers of very old trees in the UK, which means you can see giant veterans very close to home if you get out into woodlands. Like lots of people, I did a lot of wandering about in lockdown and remember stumbling upon (quite literally), one of the most amazing trees I have ever seen in my career about half an hour from where I live. We’d been out mountain biking in a wooded valley and got frankly very lost, emerging through a lot of mud and scrub at the top of an old railway cutting and basically popped out right into the canopy of a giant oak that was living way down in the base of the cutting, a good 30m below us. This tree was absolutely enormous, covered in lichen and ferns and with an ancient trunk full of mushrooms and nesting holes. We sat in its uppermost branches for a while and listened to the wind in the giant canopy. I’m very lucky that the habitats and species that inspire me most are right here all around me, I don’t have to go on massive expeditions to places on the other side of the world to get a hearty dose of motivation. I generally describe myself as 50% scientist, 50% Lorax! 😊 

Which aspects of your job do you find challenging?   

I think, like many people working in environmental and conservation areas at the moment, the state of nature and our climate and the impact of this is quite hard to  face every day. A lot of younger people in particular are struggling with the fear and anxiety this causes and I think those of us working in science feel that weight a lot, as we should. I try to be motivated by it, rather than disheartened, to remember how lucky and privileged I am to have a job I love and to listen more keenly than ever to stories of hope and action.  

What advice do you have for someone who is looking to get a similar role?   

Do what you love and follow your curiosity. Our education and qualification systems unfortunately steer people to have to make what feel like very big decisions about their future at a relatively young age. I think it’s important to remember to also do what you find inspiring and what drives your curiosity to learn more about the natural world. It doesn’t matter if that’s picking apart owl pellets or nurturing stick insects or you develop a committed passion for studying the chemistry of lava – if you’re learning about science and nature, go for it.  

What gives you hope when thinking about the future of our planet?   

I am not sure the youth climate movement realise quite how important their activism has been to those of us who had been slogging it out in environmental science for decades, trying, and quite often failing, to be heard. I am so grateful to them for their action and passion, it has made me feel part of an enormous community of hope once again.