I'm back!

Hi everyone,

Sorry I seemed to drop off the face of the earth there for a while. I was away at RBG Kew for a couple of months doing some training, and have been flat out with consultation meetings and other similar activities since then.

I'll try to catch up in the next week or two and let you know what I've been up to.

One thing I'm working on right now is a plan to open up a new nature reserve, Chartres Horse Paddock on West Falkland, owned by Bill Luxton, to sustainable public access. I've been wrestling with management planning, interpretation plans and so on, and a funding application to the Environmental Studies Budget (fingers crossed for that). All quite dry and difficult.

So I was pleased to get some nice mail today; a Trails Toolbox and Happy Families Toolkit that I ordered from Kate Measures. I met Kate at Kew, and I want to give her a plug as she is full of excellent down- to- earth advice and support for anyone wanting to develop interpretation at any kind of visitor attraction. (Alternatively, you can ask her consultancy firm to do it for you!) http://www.katemeasures.co.uk/home

I hope to be able to pick up some tips to help Bill develop something really great at Chartres Horse Paddock . I'll be looking for volunteers to act as guinea pigs later on this season.

Have you seen these plants?

I have been having a tidy up of my desk at conservation towers and found some CD copies of Rebecca Upson's guides to identifying these and other special plants of the Falkland Islands. If you would like one, do drop me a line and I'll put one in the post for you.

Public Consultation Workshops

I have been putting together some presentations for the first phase of the wider public consultations on the Protected Areas Strategy. The Project Steering Group has already done some work on the fundamental principles that will guide the strategy; now it's time to ask the wider community what they think.

After several months reading around  the more obscure corners of protected areas theory and research, it's been useful to go back and ask 'What are protected areas for?' and 'Why do we need to think about this now?'. I've gathered what I think are some useful points and I'm looking forward to hearing what friends and neighbours on West Falkland think.

The first two workshops are this Wednesday at Fox Bay, 7pm, Southern Cross Social Club, and Thursday at Hill Cove Club, same time. I hope people will go if they have something to say or want to learn more; the strategy will move on anyway, and this is a good chance for the community to help define what shape it will take.

I'll leave you with this to be going on with. It's not final, but it's not secret either.It will be aired at the meetings, after which a final version will become the first part of the Strategy:

Our principles for building the protected area system

Building on scientific guidelines and national and international commitments, the following principles have been developed for the Falklands through the Falkland Islands Protected Areas Strategy Project.

The highest priority is to develop a comprehensive protected areas system that includes the full range of the Falkland Islands’ plants and animals, landscapes, seascapes and ecosystems for the conservation of biodiversity and for the use and enjoyment of present and future Falkland Islanders.

Conserving natural landscapes, ecosystems and species

The system will include enough areas and sufficiently large areas to allow for ecological viability and the survival of species.

We will give priority to protecting areas that we know contain concentrations of special species and habitats.

The protected areas system will be designed to build in resilience to environmental change.

We will look for opportunities to act to help wildlife at a landscape scale to encourage connections between protected areas. (Not finalised)

Providing social, health, educational and economic benefits to the community

Socio- economic impacts and benefits will be considered. Stakeholders will be fully consulted to ensure that the maximum benefits are realised and negative impacts avoided.

Educational opportunities and health benefits provided by the enjoyment of protected areas will be actively promoted.

Cultural, scenic and heritage values will be considered when choosing areas to protect.

Practicality and urgency of designation and management

The legal and regulatory framework will ensure that any development within protected areas does not conflict with the aims of the designation.

Consistency will be achieved by the application of standard criteria and processes for the creation and management of protected areas.

Availability, practicality and future costs of management will be taken into account in the selection and prioritisation of protected areas.

The level of threat to defined biodiversity areas will be considered in the prioritisation of designation.

Falklands 30 Theme Week

We had a great week in the Infant and Junior school and Camp Education thinking about what we love about the Falkland Islands. Sixteen Falklands artists and craftspeople gave up their time and shared their enthusiam and expertise to teach the children new techniques and help them to realise their ideas. 
The art that the children produced will be photographed properly and exhibited in the school on June 13th; meanwhile, here are some pictures of some busy hands at work to give you an idea of what we got up to.
I'd like to thank everyone who took part, children, teachers and volunteers. What a great effort by you all.

What do you love about where you live?

As part of the preparations for the commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Falkland Islands, the Infant and Junior School and Camp Education will be holding a theme week of linked lessons and activities. The Week begins on 5th March and will focus on both the past and the future, gathering memories and eye- witness accounts of the conflict, looking at how the islands have changed in the last 30 years, and thinking about what we love about our home now.

We camped in the valley - it was a great place to wake up.  It was great here.  It was a bit windy the day before and rainy in the night but in the morning it was calm, it was awesome just like a mirror lake. (Jack Cartwright)

The Protected Areas Strategy Project is helping to sponsor and organise the week, and we plan to involve local artists in workshops to help the children turn their ideas about Falklands landscapes into art using different media. This is an important first step in encouraging children, families and the wider community to think about what they value about our natural heritage.

Some children have already sent some photos; they will be laminated and used as a resource bank for the theme week. We still need more photos, and a few words about them makes them even more special. Email them to me at protectedareas@conservation.org.fk