St Helena Island (STH) is one of the UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) that lies in the South Atlantic Ocean. St Helena’s iconic, and highly endemic, biodiversity is of international importance. The Island’s ‘nature’ National Conservation Areas (NCA), cover 38% of the island, helping protect the 502 endemic, and 38 globally threatened native species. To secure the legal status of the NCAs, 13 sustainable-use NCA management plans, analytical tools and frameworks to monitor their effectiveness are being developed. Key activities include reviewing and collecting data and information, identifying knowledge gaps, stakeholder engagement, indicator development, drafting Management Plans and capacity building.
Contents
Project Overview
The ‘Sustainable management planning for St Helena's National Conservation Areas’ (DPLUS154) project is an international collaboration lead by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and St Helena Government (SHG), in partnership with SAERI (Falklands) Limited (SFL). The project was awarded Darwin Plus (DPLUS) funding in 2021 to address some of the pressures the Island’s unique flora and fauna is under from climate change, invasive species and land-use pressures associated with economic development. JNCC, SHG and SFL will work in collaboration to develop sustainable-use National Conservation Area (NCA) Management Plans for the 13 NCAs of St Helena. Alongside these, analytical tools and a monitoring framework for the NCAs to help conserve and restore biodiversity will also be developed. Further, through active engagement with local communities, businesses, and landowners, in and around the NCAs, the partnership will develop management options for sustainable land-use and identify opportunities for alternative livelihoods created within the NCAs and within the legal conditions.
This will be achieved through activities under the following four integrated Work Packages:
- Work Package (WP1): Reviewing and gathering evidence for Management Plan development (including criteria, data collection and methodology for NCA assessment).
- Work Package (WP2): Training for SHG and St Helena National Trust (SHNT) on data collection and management plan effectiveness tools.
- Work Package (WP3): Modelling and assessment of Management Plans, including framework for monitoring effectiveness.
- Work Package (WP4): Stakeholder engagement, including public consultation on NCA Management Plan options.
As well as supporting SHG to ensure legal adoption and local buy-in of the NCA’s, the project will lay the foundation for effective governance of STH’s NCAs. This will serve to help protect and enhance the Island’s unique biodiversity and improve resilience to future pressures.
Outcomes
- 13 NCA Management Plans, which include governance arrangements, and Monitoring Evaluation Frameworks produced.
- Trained SHG/National Trust Officers able to manage, monitor, assess, report, intervene and undertake future reviews of Management Plans and determine the effectiveness of NCA sites.
- Models created to test management options for effective and sustainable Management Plans to achieve better nature conservation and socio-economic outcomes.
- Stakeholder awareness raised about the need for sustainably managed NCAs to maximise stakeholder buy-in and engagement during development of the Management Plans.
Future Work
- Training of St Helena-based stakeholders in the use of skills for implementing and reviewing management plans, including train-the-trainer skills.
- Continued partnership among key stakeholders to manage NCAs as determined by the project and to continue utilizing the NCA database to ensure effective management.
- Local communities and stakeholders adopting sustainable land-use activities through understanding the value of biodiversity.
Resources
Reports produced throughout the project will be displayed here as they become available.
For further project information please visit the Darwin Plus website.
Published: .