March 2007 has seen several exciting events: the first was the transfer of the land from Black Bridge up to the Heart-Shaped Waterfall by Hon. French Consul M Michel Martineau.  The Trust now owns its first area of land which , under the Ordinance, it will hold in perpetuity for the people of the island. The area lends itself to easy walks from Jamestown and the Trust may wish to consider putting a viewing platform and seat near the point from which this photo was taken.

The picture shows M Martineau and Rebecca with the land running up the Heart-Shaped Waterfall.  

The second piece of exciting news for us, is that our request to the Museum of Western Australia to assist the island with a project to undertake a non-intrusive marine survey and support the development of policy and legislation to secure our marine heritage has also been accepted. There is a huge amount of work now to be done to seek sponsors and we are looking forward to working closely with Mack McCarthy the link at the museum who will co-ordinate the project with the Trust.

And a third piece of good news is that the FCO has agreed a proposal to incorporate the digitised archives within a Visitor Centre using the space between the Museum and the ex PWSD Store. The funding can be spent on the building works. To achieve the restoration of this area will take considerably more that the £50,000 available from FCO and, just as with the Museum development, we shall be seeking sponsorship locally and from overseas to complete the development. Clearly, this will be something for the Heritage Society to lead on, but the Trust will give its full support. Of some concern is the time limit put on the building works which have to be finished by the end of December 2007. The plans have not been finalised or approved by Land Planning and the Heritage Society has assumed that 01 July is a reasonable start date for building work given that they have to find a Project Manager for the Building phase and a contractor.

Another huge plus for the Trust has been that our project to enable the Millennium Forest project to develop into a self-financing and sustainable entity along with research into the gumwoods at Peak Dale has been approved by DFID. This project will enable the Trust to appoint a Projects Officer who will assume responsibility for all OTEP and other projects being managed by the Trust, thus releasing the Director to do core activities. More of this from Rebecca, the main creator of the project.

Since  Christmas it has been a busy period and with the departure of our President, Terry Richards and his wife for a well-earned holiday overseas and our Vice President giving essential support to her daughter Lizzie following a nasty bike accident my support / sounding boards have been less available than normal! However, the good news is that Lizzie is now progressing well and the hospital has been hosting work sessions whilst Lizzie does school work.

The Trust has continued to lobby strongly for funding for what we are calling the St Helena Archaeological Project which, after several delays has now gone off to FCO under what is  a newly established fund called the Overseas Territories Projects Fund (OTPF). The work of training local personnel in recording of our historic buildings and in assessing potential developments which will enhance their character is urgently needed here. Three professionals have been identified  and are prepared to come here to give their expertise but funding equipment, travel costs and contributing towards accommodation etc needs to be met.

St Helena Government has published the Investment and Tourism policies with no further consultation which was disappointing to say the least; and , on top this we now have a draft Sustainable Development Plan (SDP) which saw only one round of consultation with Adrian Green, the then Government Economist, and nothing further until SHG had used the plan to support its budgetary negotiations with DFID!  The Trust was eventually invited to a presentation and discussion in March at which our comments were noted but we were told that no further draft would be produced so until we see the final SDP we won’t know if our comments have been taken on board. I don’t consider this consultation process at all satisfactory.

The year ahead will be busy and challenging for the Trust and a new , younger and dynamic director will be needed to build on the firm foundation the Trust has – I shall be happy to support the Trust’s work however I can and should like to end this editorial by recording my thanks to the Trust Executive Committee & Council, members of staff , Trust members here & and overseas and volunteers who have supported me during my time as Director.

Cathy Hopkins, Director