Don’t follow the Dodo

I was lucky enough to attend some of a celebration of the first 50 years of the University of Kent at the weekend. The Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology held a conference on the future of conservation in Kent.

There were some very interesting talks and I’ll just touch on a couple of them.

The main talk of the day, which I was keen to hear, was by Prof Carl Jones, the Chief Scientist of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.  I’ve heard Carl talk before of his work on saving species from extinction – especially on Mauritius. I’ve heard about it before – but probably not for about 30 years, so I had some catching up to do!

It was an uplifting talk – well given, with humour, by someone who knows what he is talking about, and offering a message of hope. Even species on the very brink of extinction, such as the Mauritius Kestrel whose world wild population was as low as a couple of pairs (in 1974), can be saved. There are now 350-500 birds in the wild, and over the years over 300 birds have been reintroduced from captive-bred populations.

We also heard of successes with the Mauritius Pink Pigeon and the Echo Parakeet.

One lesson that Carl wanted us to take away was that long-term care and attention are needed with species recovery projects – there are rarely quick fixes.  He also said that it may sometimes be necessary to bend the IUCN reintroduction rules a bit – how can you know whether the reasons for extinction have been sorted without releasing some individuals and seeing what happens? And zoos probably aren’t arks – they are places where we can learn about species and implement that knowledge back in the field.

But there was also a mention of work on Chough reintroductions on Jersey (which I didn’t know about) and also thoughts of the same for Kent. Red-billed black birds over the white cliffs of Dover anyone?

The second talk that I’ll mention was that from Will Day. Will told a great story from the time when he was running Care International and how shot farmers in hospital relate to the way that we do nature conservation and international development. It was a memorable story which made the point well – so I won’t ruin your enjoyment of it if you are ever in an audience to which Will is speaking.

Some of Will’s messages were that in heading towards a more sustainable future, enthusiasm isn’t enough – in fact it makes decision makers wary of you! Also, rather unfortunately, being right, and knowing the science of the issue (with or without enthusiasm) isn’t enough either. The world is a complicated place.

It’s unclear whether better valuation of nature will help either.

More questions than answers – but the questions were clearly and beautifully posed. This talk will have sent many of us away thinking.

So, as well as the main reason for going to Canterbury (seeing an old friend) this was a very good morning with plenty of intellectual stimulation and it left questions rattling around my head on the way home.

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