Ascension : Ascension Island Sends Rep to Convention on Island Biodiversity
Submitted by The Islander (Juanita Brock) 23.04.2006 (Article Archived on 07.05.2006)
Stedson Stroud of Ascension Conservation writes about his trip to Brazil to discuss Island biodiversity.
ASCENSION ISLAND SENDS REPRESENTATIVE TO THE CONVENTION ON ISLAND BIO DIVERSITY
By Stedson Stroud (Ascension Conservation)
Each year the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) invites representatives from the UK Overseas Territories to attend either the subsidiary body on scientific, technical and technological advice (SBSTTA) or a conference of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP). This year the eighth conference of the parties to the convention on biological diversity was held in Curitiba, Brazil and it was attended by Stedson Stroud of Ascension Conservation. These meetings evolved from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.
Normally people on the street don’t know what biodiversity is and why it is important. Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth and it comprises of variability within species of plants and animals, as well as micro-organisms. Environmental services responsible for maintaining life on earth are vital for ensuring that we know about the species of plants and animals around us and how they relate to the environment locally and ultimately interact with the whole world’s ecosystems - for example, food, water, air and medicines. The loss of any one of these would mean the collapse of the earth’s ecosystems as we know them.
Biodiversity also includes species that are wild and those domesticated by man over the past 10,000 years. A single domestic species such as rice can be divided into as many as 2,000 varieties. Biological resources that are the object of economics used by humans are also included, whether by hunting, fishing, timber extraction or cultivation of domestic species. Over-use any one of these and the results will not be kind to the earth at all.
Availability of these resources is under threat by habitat loss, over-exploitation degradation, pollution, invasive species and climate change. Sustaining biodiversity in the face of human impact on it is one of the greatest challenges of the modern human era. In specific, sand extraction from beaches on Islands in the South Atlantic can be carried to far, thus for example, sand extraction destroying habitat for Green Turtles on Ascension Island would mean a decline of the species. Invasive species, such as the Mexican Thorn on seabird nesting areas or even on beaches would not only destroy Green Turtle populations but also nesting areas for seabirds. Endemic plants on Green Mountain are being destroyed and some have gone extinct due to the introduction of invasive plants, some of which were sent from the Royal Botanical Gardens at KEW in London around 200 years ago.
Ascension Island is not the only South Atlantic Island to suffer with envasive species. Most infestations are accidental, with mice and rats leaving ships with cargo and escaping from sinking vessels. The recent reports of mice on Gough Island – part of the Tristan da Cunha group – eating Albatross chicks is one example of invasive species gone wrong. Even moggies have a negative role to play, when Ascension Island had its own endemic flightless rail that was the first to go when introduced cats opted for the flightless rails rather than rats and mice. Introduced wild goats on St. Helena, in the past had destroyed acres of St. Helena’s flora each year, leaving defoliated ground that was prone to erosion as well as other invasive plants.
Mr. Stroud’s comments mentioned above were put to Dr. Ian Bainbridge, the spokesman on Island biodiversity with the UK delegation at the conference. Dr. Bainbridge added his voice to 4,000 other representatives to the main conference and the 1,800 people who attended the islands biodiversity section.
Home to over 100,000 islands, with more than 5 Million inhabitants, islands cover more than 1/6th of the earth’s surface area. Each island has its own unique and fragile ecosystem. There are islands off the coasts of countries as well as island-states. While a small proportion of islands are rich in species and endemism, others – far too many others have little endemism and are in danger of losing what little they have due to over-fishing – some vessels even using demersal raking of the seamounts that evolved over millions of years - taking up chorals, endemic plants and fish of all species.
The world needs to look on biodiversity as a whole. Poor people who are hungry are not going to be worried about biodiversity, when the money from a tree can feed a family for a week. We need to help not only in educating these people but also in giving them food and other incentives to look after the environment around them. Hunger caused by disastrous weather, earthquakes, wars, poaching of fish and animals as well as plants can be abated if someone steps in to help.
Dr. Bainbridge put all relevant points to European Union representatives at the conference. These points cover conserving and restoring key terrestrial and marine ecosystems important for island biodiversity and this includes societies and economies. Establishing national and regional systems of protected areas to conserve viable populations of selected island species was also discussed as well as improving knowledge and conserving the genetic material of significance to islands. The final two points discussed were the prevention of the movement of invasive alien species between and within the islands while developing long-term management plans for priority species and implementation of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures in land use and coastal zone planning and strategies.
For islands, whether island states or islands of the coasts of countries, this is a land-mark document that was approved by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Conservation International, United Nations Environmental Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, the Equator Initiative and the European Union.
Votes of thanks go to Dr. Ian Bainbridge for his intuitive leadership, Mrs. Glynis Parry from DEFRA and her staff as well as the Ascension Island Government and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, who all made my attendance at the conference possible.
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