| Principal Investigator: | Dr Zoe Davies |
|---|---|
| Co Investigator | Dr Bob Smith |
| Project dates: | 2012-2013 |
| Funding: | Darwin Initiative Overseas Territories Challenge Fund |
| Collaborators: | Falklands Conservation, South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute, Falkland Island Government, en:mapping |
Conservation management in the Falkland Islands are severely hampered by the lack of a landcover/vegetation map. With the human population inhabiting the islands expanding, growing tourism, oil exploration, intensive near-shore fisheries and climate change, such a fundamental resource is required to underpin the designation of protected areas, design effective conservation initiatives in the wider landscape and deliver accurate environmental impact assessments.
Currently, National Nature Reserves are the only designated protected areas, which were established opportunistically with little regard for globally threatened species/habitats. The long-term objective is to undertake a terrestrial systematic conservation planning exercise, and incorporate the findings of the assessment into the Falkland Islands ‘Protected Area Strategy’. This would support the Falklands in meeting existing international conservation commitments under the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD), Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
The aim of this project is to assess the feasibility of developing a landcover/vegetation map, which represents the first step in being able to commence with systematic conservation planning. It will:
Bring together stakeholders to determine which landcover/vegetation types of conservation interest need to be mapped
- Review the lessons learned from previous attempts to map ecological aspects of the Falklands
- Conduct a data availability review
- Embark on a preliminary GIS analysis in orderto evaluate the mapping process and ascertain what resources would be needed to generate a digital landcover/vegetation map for the islands (total area ~12,000 km2)
