MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Protecting the Falklands from Alien Invasion.
New Zealand based company Bio Security Ltd has been in the business of protecting fragile environments from alien invasion for over eight years ? in fact partners John Hellstrom and Bruce Simpson pride themselves on being the first to coin the expression ?bio-security' and the first, globally, to register it as their company's name.
"A key company objective is to have fun" said John Hellstrom, when asked why Bio Security Ltd. had tendered for the job of helping the Falkland Islands Government construct an integrated bio-security system. Having previously been employed by governments, vaccine producing companies, non-governmental organizations and environmental groups, they also felt they had the appropriate experience and were consequently pleased to be offered the contract.
The result was a two-week visit to the Falklands, which has taken Messrs. Hellstrom and Simpson to some twenty places where accidental ?pathways' for the introduction to the Islands of new non-native and potentially threatening species of plants and animals might exist.
While the company's original remit emphasized the need for the protection of the Falkland Islands traditional farming industry, John Hellstrom was keen to stress that his company took a more holistic view, encompassing environmental and amenity issues as well as economic. It was important, he said, to discover what the values of a particular society were before building a risk management system to protect them.
Although the consultants will not be producing their final report till mid-November, they were reassuring about the level of risk in the Falklands, where the climate, combined with scattered human and animal populations combine to make the spread of agricultural diseases more difficult than elsewhere. The main challenge, according to Mr Hellstrom, lay in making sure that already existing and adequate regulations were more rigorously applied.
One perceived risk to the Falkland Islands environment would appear to come from weeds, whose seeds might be brought into the Islands on imported vehicles or even dirty boots. Mr.Helstrom reported that he had been very impressed by the rigorous procedures employed by the military at Mount Pleasant to ensure that all imported vehicles and other plant were free from any foreign matter which might contaminate the natural environment.
When asked what effect his company's recommendations might have on people in the Falklands - whether, for example, footbaths and insect sprays would become mandatory, bio-security consultant John Hellstrom told MercoPress that in his view the key issues were ?enforcement of existing regulations' and ?communication and education.' Making people aware of the dangers to their environment posed by the importation of foreign species of plants and animals would, he believed, prove more effective in the long run than a host of extra restrictions. "I'm very resistant to red tape" he added, "that's why I live in a remote community myself".
John Fowler (MP) Stanley
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