New Year Honours: Conservationist pays tribute to teamwork

Conservation is a team effort, says Professor Alan Mark, and his inclusion in the New Year Honours list is a recognition of this.

The announcement that he was to be a distinguished companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit had come as a surprise, he admitted.

But he accepted it to be a recognition of the work of a great many people working diligently in conservation nationally.

The 68-year-old Dunedin man has been involved in conservation for more than 30 years.

Until recently he had been chairman for 25 years of the Guardians of Lakes Manapouri, Monowai and Te Anau. He was chairman of the Otago Conservation Board for six years.

In 1998 Professor Mark retired as the head of Otago University's botany department. He has served on the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, the Otago Alpine Garden Group and the Pastoral Lands Tenure Review Stakeholders Group.

In 1989 he was made a CBE for his work. He was given the Loader Cup in 1975 and the Award of New Zealand (conservation and environment) in 1994.

The Maruia Forest declaration in the mid-1970s and the signing of the West Coast Forest Accord in 1989, which resulted in the preservation of 311,000ha in South Westland, are two of his career highlights.

- NZPA