MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falkland Conservation Director to leave.
The Director of the Falkland Islands principal non-governmental environmental research and protection organization will be leaving the Islands in March 2005.
During one of the first cruise ship visits to the Falkland Islands, Sir Peter Scott, son of the famous British explorer, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and a founder of the World Wildlife Fund, had the idea of setting up a UK charity, the Falkland Islands Foundation, to protect the Islands' natural heritage. Shortly afterwards, in 1979, the Falkland Island Trust was established in the Islands to actively "promote an interest in all aspects of flora and fauna".
In 1991, these two separate organisations merged to form the environmental and wildlife charity, Falklands Conservation, which this year is celebrating 25 years of dedication to the protection of the spectacular wildlife heritage of the Falkland Islands.
From humble beginnings, with two part time staff and no proper office in Stanley, the organisation now has over 600 members and employs 12 full time staff, including a full-time London-based company secretary.
At the helm of this growing organization for the last five years and "trying not to think about" her recently announced departure from the post has been Dr. Becky Ingham. Her decision to leave the Islands, for family reasons, in March next year prompted a large advertisement for her successor in the Islands weekly paper, Penguin News last week. It also prompted Mercopress to talk to her in the organisation's busy office above the Tourist Information Centre, overlooking Stanley's historic waterfront.
Becky, who obtained her first degree in Marine Biology and Oceanography and later took a Masters in Shellfish Biology, Fisheries and Culture, came to the Islands in 1996 to work for a season as a scientific observer for the Falkland Islands Government Fisheries Department. This experience involved long periods on the South Atlantic in fishing vessels and brought about what she describes as an occasionally "horrifying change in scale" from the academic to the practical.
After a brief period ashore at Fox Bay, Becky joined Falklands Conservation as a Field Science Officer in June of 1997, finally succeeding Jeremy Smith as Conservation Officer in 1999. At this time, Falklands Conservation consisted of two scientists and a secretary in the Falklands and a part-time secretary in London, but Becky is keen to shrug off any suggestion that she is herself largely responsible for the remarkable recent growth in the organization and its activities, claiming that her role has been largely one of "simply allowing people to do what they are good at".
In answer to the question why Falklands Conservation now needs so many people, Becky cites the advent of oil exploration in the Falklands in the nineteen nineties and the need to prepare Environmental Impact Assessments, as the event which made the big difference to funding opportunities for environmental research and highlighted its importance to the Falkland Islands Government. Surprisingly, she relates, that against some expectations, the oil companies arrived in the Falklands making suggestions for the protection and monitoring of the natural environment, which were far beyond the government's expectations.
Other external events, like the advent of the commercial fishery or the growth in awareness world-wide that the albatross was being threatened with extinction have helped facilitate funding for the continued seabird research, which from the start has formed the backbone of Falkland Conservation's work. The Seabirds at Sea Project, for example, was initiated in 1998 to survey seabirds in the waters around the Islands and so inform the offshore oil exploration programme. It now focuses on reducing seabird deaths related to fishing and international protection of Falkland petrel species, particularly albatrosses.
Currently a partner-designate, next year, Falklands Conservation will become a full partner in Birdlife International and a member of the Americas regional partnership. This will no doubt facilitate the growing of links with similar organizations on the continent. Already this year staff Falklands Conservation members have attended three conferences in South America and, agrees Becky Ingham, this global cooperation and exchange of information makes good sense, given the migratory nature of so many of the Falklands key bird and fish species.
While Falklands Conservation has been hugely successful in creating interest and support from abroad, Dr. Ingham admits that the local community has sometimes been more difficult to convince. In recent years, she reports that there has been much improved cooperation from the stakeholders of the fishing industry and an unexpected amount of access to the community has come as the result of Falkland Conservation's work with young people. The Watch Group founded in 1999 now has over forty active young members, who are not afraid to criticize their parents for any behaviour that they feel is not environmentally friendly.
Another important new development is the introduction of the Local Grants Scheme. Financed by a bequest from the late Mrs. Joan Kenneally and aimed at landowners, farmers and managers, this scheme aims to provide funds to carry out small environmental projects. Recent projects of this type on individual farms have included the control of gorse, stabilization of erosion, the provision of explanatory leaflets for visitors and strategic fencing. What Becky Ingham would like to see, she says, is more liaison with landowners and more involvement in practical projects which will demonstrate "that it is possible to be environmentally friendly and still improve your farming."
John Fowler (MP) Stanley Falklands Conservation is a non-governmental organisation and a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales number 3661322, registered charity number 1073859. FC is also an Associate Partner of BirdLife International. For further information contact Company Secretary Ann Brown in London, telephone +44 208 343 0831 or Conservation Officer Becky Ingham in Stanley, telephone +500 22247 or email: conservation@horizon.co.fk
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