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 to protect the 502 endemics and 38 globally threatened native species. Each NCA is required to have a management plan to finalise its recognition as a legally protected area; these should consider the competing types of land use and provide a comprehensive and structured approach to planning when considering environmental priorities and development.
There are 13 NCAs on St Helena which are yet to have a formalised management plan. The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), is leading a Darwin Plus project in partnership with the St Helena Government (SHG) and SAERI (Falklands) Limited (SFL), to develop the sustainable-use NCA Management Plans for SHG, as well as ways to monitor their effectiveness. DPLUS154 funding is provided by the UK Government’s Darwin Plus funding scheme.
The NCAs have great importance to the people of St Helena, and therefore the project will actively involve local community members, businesses and landowners, in and around the NCAs to help develop the management options for sustainable land-use and set out the pathway to achieve positive outcomes for St Helena’s natural heritage.
This Project is funded by the UK Government through the Darwin Plus Fund
