Welcome to the December 2011 newsletter of the St Helena National Trust.

I have to admit to be really enjoying being temporarily back in the hot seat again. Working as the Acting Director of the National Trust is challenging and absolutely exhausting. There is always much to do but it is a privilege and wholly satisfying being involved in the many exciting Trust projects and working with such a great team of dedicated and go-getting people.

The Pinkincredibles – National Trust fire engine pull team

That said we were sorry to say farewell to our former Director Jamie Roberts who left in August at the end of his two year contract. Jamie brought a huge amount of energy and passion to the Trust and did a tremendous job securing valuable project funding, developing our five year strategy and building up the organisation. Since returning to the UK Jamie has been working as a Strategic Advisor to the Trust on a short term contract. Amongst other things he has been advising on the establishment of a UK based National Trust charity to help us access funding streams that are not currently available to us.

Ben Jeffs returned to the island for four months from June to September to carry out fieldwork for the Historic Environment Record commissioned under the Tourism Development Plan. Working with a small team of assistants, he mapped and recorded details of the island's historic assets as the basis for producing a comprehensive database. Ben's been working to collate and analyse the data and compile the HER database and is due to be complete this month. The database will be used….

The Trust has been heavily involved in the Government review of the Land Development Control Plan, a requirement of the Memorandum of Understanding between Her Majesty's and St Helena Government in preparation for air access. As the critical planning document for the island we've not only made representations on the draft but also worked with the Lands and Housing Working Group and supported the Government's advisors on Protected Area Planning and Strategic Environmental Assessment for the LDCP. The time constraint placed on the production and adoption of the LDCP by 31st March 2012 has challenged us all. Although fully supported by stakeholders in the mid-term review of the process, a landscape characterisation approach to policy planning was not adopted. The second draft of the LDCP is expected to be available for a second round of public consultation from mid January for six weeks. We eagerly await its publication to see what representations have been accepted and adopted. The RSPB also took a keen interest in the process and made their representations which were much appreciated.

Alongside this we've been lobbying to secure a management framework for the island's historic assets. The initial focus will be drafting planning policy guidance documents, design guides and construction handbooks, and providing assistance in the implementation of legislative changes to adopt the documents as part of the islands planning framework. Comprising new law to protect the island's terrestrial and marine heritage, enshrine the HER and provide mechanisms to help people manage their historic properties; historic environment planning guidance and historic building guidance. This has received the full support of two councillor committees, the Tourism and Leisure Committee and Natural Resources, Development Planning and Environment.

I am really pleased with the progress being achieved through the Darwin project and new Wirebird Predator Control Programme and there are two articles in this newsletter describing some of the work being done. In October a new funding proposal was submitted to Defra (Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs) for Darwin funding by Buglife in partnership with the Trust which we hope will lay the foundations for invertebrate conservation on St Helena. We have been successful in securing funding through the Flora and Fauna International – Defra Flagship Species Fund to help conserve the Critically Endangered Spiky Yellow Woodlouse and She Cabbage tree. Another busy year lies ahead.

Finally more good news, after a protracted recruitment period we're delighted to say that we've found our new Director and are very much looking forward to welcoming him to St Helena in April. More on this story another time.

Thanks are extended to all our partner organisations for their support over the last year.

Season's Greetings and best wishes for 2012

Rebecca Cairns-Wicks

Ag Director

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