A CAMPAIGN to protect the Cambrian Mountains landscape has been backed by a celebrated author.

Neil Ansell, award-winning TV journalist and writer, penned the acclaimed Deep Country: Five Years in the Welsh Hills having lived alone in a remote cottage with no electricity, gas or running water. He grew to love the solitude, the unspoilt Cambrian Mountains landscape and the nature that surrounded him.

He is now joining TV naturalist Iolo Williams in backing the Cambrian Mountains Society’s campaign to have the region designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Neil said: “Having lived in the hills of mid Wales, and written about the area’s fabulous wildlife and landscape, I am pleased to add my name to this campaign. It is a wonderful part of Wales that has long been undervalued and under­appreciated and deserves to be protected for future generations.”

“This upland landscape is of immense value to a number of specialist species, some of which are in jeopardy. The Cambrian Mountains have their own range of specialist plant and insect species, as well as being a valuable home to our declining breeding waders such as curlew, golden plover, and snipe.

“The area is also home to perhaps a greater range of birds of prey than anywhere else in Britain; perhaps the highest population density of ravens and buzzards, good numbers of peregrines and merlin, and more. And, of course, it is the remoteness of the area that preserved the red kite from being persecuted into extinction, and enabled it to be brought back from the brink. “The area, I think, deserves both protection and restoration.”

Lorna Brazell, secretary of the Cambrian Mountains Society, is delighted to have Neil join the campaign, saying: “It is a travesty that this special landscape, one of the true heartlands of the Welsh language and culture, has no protection whatsoever. The need is clear: to think holistically to ensure this important resource is properly safeguarded for future generations to enjoy.”

You can sign the Senedd petition to protect the landscape for the benefit of future generations at petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/245150