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Tristan da Cunha, an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom in the South Atlantic, is one of the World’s smallest communities, with a permanent population of just 264 islanders.  Impressive then, that it has this month created its first Conservation Department, with a staff of three, led by Trevor Glass as Head of Department and Norman Glass as his assistant (see http://www.tristandc.com/newsconservation.php).

Previously conservation issues were covered by the Tristan Agriculture and Natural Resources Department, led by James Glass.  The TANRD will continue to cover Tristan fisheries, including conducting research, issuing of licenses and arranging for observers aboard vessels.

The Tristan Conservation Department will be active in several spheres relating to ACAP-listed species, including monitoring of banded populations of Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses Thalassarche chlororhynchos on the main island of Tristan and on Nightingale Island, as well as working closely with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the University of Cape Town on monitoring of Tristan Diomedea dabbenena and Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses on Gough Island.  Three other ACAP-listed species are monitored in the Tristan Group: Spectacled Petrels Procellaria conspicillata on Inaccessible Island, and Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus and Dark-mantled Sooty Albatrosses Phoebetria fusca on Gough.

No less than three of Tristan’s five ACAP-listed breeding species are endemic to the island group, and all face serious conservation issues.  Click here to find up-to-date accounts of two of them, the Tristan Albatross and the Spectacled Petrel.

Information on monitoring and research projects on Tristan’s birds, and plans to eradicate Tristan’s rodents, may be found at http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/projects/tristandacunha/publications.asp.

Tristan da Cunha was included within the United Kingdom’s ratification of the Albatross and Petrel Agreement by diplomatic note on 13 April 2006.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, posted 22 February 2008