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UK Overseas Territories (1 Viewer)

Richard Klim

Richard Klim

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BirdLife International today: http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2010/08/birdlife-henderson.html

This is something that's long concerned me. The UK is directly responsible for the conservation of numerous globally-threatened bird species in the UKOT.

But we seem to instead spend a disproportionate amount on establishing and maintaining reserves within the UK to conserve/establish non-globally-threatened species. It's tempting to conclude that this is more about providing an 'amenity' for the UK population than any serious global conservation issues.

Meanwhile in the UKOT, species are rapidly heading towards global extinction. Out of sight, out of mind...

Have we got our priorities seriously wrong?

Richard
 
Richard Klim said:
BirdLife International today: http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2010/08/birdlife-henderson.html

It's tempting to conclude that this is more about providing an 'amenity' for the UK population than any serious global conservation issues.

Meanwhile in the UKOT, species are rapidly heading towards global extinction. Out of sight, out of mind...

Have we got our priorities seriously wrong?

Richard
Click to expand...

Probably.

The Sea-eagle & Crane projects are the latest examples of these amenity based "conservation" projects without any tangible global value.

It is however possible to argue that these projects do increase interest in wildlife and conservation and so indirectly lead to (even) greater contributions to conservation organisations - so perhaps in the long term they are cash positive. That cash can then be diverted to less high profile foreign projects (e.g. grants to Birdlife, the RSPB project offices in West Africa, the Sumatran Rainforest project, the WWT overseas projects etc etc).

Unfortunately the UK is not imune to this. Instead of spend on Crane reintroduction and the plight of Henderson Rail, think of the spend on the IBWO nonsense and the plight of the Hawaiian endemics.

cheers, alan
 
To put the costs into context...

  • The RSPB has reportedly calculated that the cost of safeguarding all wildlife in the 14 UK Overseas Territories would be £16m per year.
  • Yet the RSPB alone (of the various UK conservation bodies) has an annual income of £112m.
It seems indefensible to me that maintaining UK biodiversity (Bittern, Corncrake, Avocet...) is awarded higher priority than conserving the Globally Threatened species under UK responsibility. If a British bird species was Globally Threatened, I'm sure we'd be throwing money at it.

Richard
 
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Richard Klim said:
To put the costs into context...

  • The RSPB has reportedly calculated that the cost of safeguarding all wildlife in the 14 UK Overseas Territories would be £16m per year.
Click to expand...



  • Guess that depends upon how you define safeguarding all wildlife. Having spent a lot of time in the Caribbean BOTs I'm not convinced. BVI, Cayman and Turks & Caicos for example all have multiple species of highly endangered reptiles best served by headstart programs. A number of the caribbean territories also have nesting turtle species like leatherback best served (in my view) by hatchery programs. Feral mammals (mongoose, cat, rat, dog, goat, cattle) are a serious problem in almost all the territories which would not be cheap to "fix". Add to that the logistical, social and political issues associated with someone from the UK coming in to a territory and spending that kind of cash on conservation and I'm inclined to think its not as easy as one would hope.

    None of the above is to say that we shouldn't try, I would have loved my time in the wider caribbean to be punctuated with wild cyclura iguanas, snakes, tortoises and flamingos the way it was in my (all too brief) time on the private nature preserve at Guana Island and the potential for real achievements is illustrated by that and other projects (such as the Cayman Island Blue Iguana Project), just that its harder than we might think and tangible results visible to the donating public (like bloody great cranes wandering around the place) may be understandably preferable.
 
Richard Klim said:
Have we got our priorities seriously wrong?
Click to expand...

It would be certainly very valuable for RSPB to be active in UK overseas territories.

I would not, however agree that projects like corncrake or avocet are a waste of money. For British species, I would say that the rare species should still get a priority. So I see a priority of raising numbers of bitterns from 50 to 55 over raising a number of skylarks from 5,000,000 to 5,500,000.

In any case, I hope that 'British' parrots, flightless rails and penguins get some interesting nature programs and succesful conservation projects!
 
jurek said:
I would not, however agree that projects like corncrake or avocet are a waste of money.
Click to expand...

I wasn't for one moment suggesting that such projects were a waste of money (nor that conservation in the UKOTs should be solely RSPB's responsibility).

But as with any limited resources, there must be priorities. And surely the UK should consider its Globally Threatened species to be the very highest conservation priority, with the minimum necessary funding essentially ring-fenced. Then let's spend the balance as effectively as possible on maximising domestic biodiversity. But it requires strong leadership and education...

Richard
 
In many of the Overseas Territories, peoples' sensitivities are luckily not a problem because they are uninhabited.
The piece about Henderson Island in BB was very interesting in showing that work at Oeno and Ducie had already been successful. I assume that getting rid of mice on Gough would be very expensive, but definitely worth it.
 
Xenospiza said:
I assume that getting rid of mice on Gough would be very expensive, but definitely worth it.
Click to expand...

Certainly a better use of resources than shooting a few inert Ruddy Ducks that might or might not one day occasionally cross-breed with another duck in another country that itself has seen population growth of 1000% or so in recent decades.
 
Xenospiza said:
In many of the Overseas Territories, peoples' sensitivities are luckily not a problem because they are uninhabited.
Click to expand...
Indeed. When I referred to the need for strong leadership and education, I meant leadership and education in the UK - so that people understand and recognise the importance of national funding for UKOTs conservation measures.

Richard
 
I couldn't agree more. UKOT's hold not only some spectacular endemics but huge numbers of seabirds in the South Atlantic. While the expertise of NGO's like the RSPB does - occasionally - get put to use in these areas the REAL responibility lies with HMG ( therefore US ), whether we like it or not. If we want to claim the areas as "ours" we must start aknowledging this and stop trying to pretend that because they are far away and most people have never heard of them it's alright to ignore them.
Chris
 
British Birds

Richard Porter's compelling editorial in the latest British Birds is online on the BLI website:

As Xenospiza mentioned, the Henderson Island article in the same issue is very interesting:

  • Brooke 2010. Important Bird Areas: Henderson Island. BB 103(8): 428-444.
Also highly recommended:

  • Ryan 2008. Important Bird Areas: Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island. BB 101(11): 586-606.
Richard
 
An expensive way to do it, but sounds like it might be the only way -- hope they succeed.

Niels
 
njlarsen said:
An expensive way to do it, but sounds like it might be the only way -- hope they succeed.

Niels
Click to expand...

peanuts and (hopefully) remarkably good value. We spend £5m eliminating the Ruddy Duck for fairly intangible conservation gains based on unquantified risks to a relatively widespread, if rare, species.

cheers, alan
 
Perhaps this project can serve as a template for future efforts on remote islands, whether UK Overseas Territories or not. They offer the chance of complete success, so that 'peanuts' don't have to be spent over and over again.
MJB
 
MJB said:
Perhaps this project can serve as a template for future efforts on remote islands, whether UK Overseas Territories or not. They offer the chance of complete success, so that 'peanuts' don't have to be spent over and over again.
MJB
Click to expand...

And: now that the ship has been customized, helicopters have been purchased (I assume) etc, it would be a bit cheaper to do this even more places than what was planned. I think there are a couple of places in the Caribbean that could benefit ...

Niels
 
South Georgia

MJB said:
Perhaps this project can serve as a template for future efforts on remote islands, whether UK Overseas Territories or not...
Click to expand...
I was privileged to be aboard the Marina Svetaeva in February, when she delivered the two Bölkow 105 helicopters for the South Georgia Heritage Trust's Habitat Restoration Project - flown aboard in Stanley, Falkland Islands, and flown off at Grytviken, South Georgia. It was great to share a few sea days with 'Team Rat' - they were confident of success, and were looking forward to some very exciting flying amongst South Georgia's mountains and glaciers!
 
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