MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Conservation grants up for grabs

The grants of up to £1,000 can be used to assist projects that benefit conservation in the Falklands, through education, such as site leaflets, or through works, such as fencing or tussac planting that help site protection or restoration.

The scheme, now in its third year, was started to mark the 25th Anniversary of Falklands Conservation, and is supported by a bequest left by the late Mrs. Joan Kenneally.

A wide range of projects has been supported. Improvements to a viewing area on West Point Island has improved access and views for tourists but at the same time has screened visitors and reduced disturbance to the albatrosses and rockhopper penguins. The site can now accommodate more people with less impact on the birds, which carry on oblivious to the visitors close by.

Grant Munro of Falklands Conservation said, "This example of eco-tourism shows that conservation and farm-enterprise can live side by side, both benefiting from protecting our wildlife resource."

In the same sphere, both Sparrow Cove and Bluff Cove have benefited from assistance to produce leaflets that are distributed on-site to better inform visitors of the wildlife at the site and where care should be taken. Grants have also been given for environmental works, such as fencing and tussac planting, and for small research projects, including the study of the killer whales around Sea Lion Island and research into stranded pilot whales.

Mr Munro says there are no strict rules as to what sort of projects can be funded. "The main guiding principle is that in some way the wildlife and the environment of the Falklands must benefit.

"This benefit may occur immediately such as through the clearance of invasive plants, rats or cats or the re-planting of tussac, or occur over a longer timeframe perhaps involving fencing to encourage regeneration of eroded coastal areas.

"The benefit may be direct as for example the construction of artificial rafts for nesting waterfowl or indirect such as the provision of information for visitors or the construction of a bird hide to reduce disturbance.

"Lack of information can at times hamper conservation and surveys or small research programs can also be funded."

Mr Munro said Falklands Conservation is hopeful the grant scheme will encourage people to, "...look at the opportunities around them, in the settlements, on the farm or at that favourite spot out of town and consider the small things that they could do to help ? but without being out of pocket.

"In this way we hope not only to aid conservation on a local scale but also to give something back to the many people that have helped conservation in the past." Penguin News