Obituaries:Chris Naylor (1961-2019) and Susanna Naylor (1965-2019)

摘要

Chris and Susanna lived and worked in the Middle East for 20 years, from 1989-2009. In 1995 they set up home in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, where Chris, a keen birder and science teacher, frequented the Aammiq Wetland (Plate 1) which they could see from the roof of their apartment. They discovered that it was a Ramsar site, but that conservationists had given it up for lost. The ever-shrinking marshes were being encroached for agriculture and afflicted by over-pumping of water, fertiliser pollution, pesticide abuse, over-grazing, fires and hunting. Susanna was not a birder, but she appreciated the high value of the wetland for local wildlife and vast numbers of migrating birds which used it as a stopover site. They agreed that action was needed. Talking to Dr Chris Walley, a geology lecturer at the American University of Beirut, they heard about A Rocha, a Christian organization engaged in scientific research, community-based conservation and environmental education. Now working in 21 countries, at that time A Rocha was a single project in Portugal and A Rocha Lebanon became the second when Chris and Susanna became Team Leaders in autumn 1997.