Biodiversity Education Officer to lead island's environmental aims

Friday 26 January 2018

Guernsey's first Biodiversity Education Officer has been appointed.

Julia Henney has been appointed to the new role which was created to "deliver the education and communication aims of the Island’s Biodiversity Strategy".

The Biodiversity Strategy itself was approved in 2015, meaning it has taken more than two years to appoint someone to the role overseeing its implementation. 

The Biodiversity Education Officer will work under the remit of the Strategy to ensure the environmental organisations in Guernsey "already doing great work" are well co-ordinated with better "awareness and promotion". Ms Henney will work with schools, charities, community groups, businesses, parishes and States services across a number of areas. 

Ms Henney started work in November and among her current projects, she is working on: "a citizen science project to encourage schools and the wider community to record the butterflies and bees they spot".

“Our environment is under real threat. In the past century we have lost at least 80 species from our island; such as breeding skylarks, small pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly and early marsh orchid. Many more are on the brink of being lost, such as puffin, mole-headed cricket and house sparrow. This is due to loss of habitat and changes in how we look after our land – from agricultural fields or our own gardens" Ms Henney said. 

"There is already so much great work being undertaken in schools and by local conservation groups. What I hope to achieve is to bring all this work together to make the environment and our local wildlife integral to curriculums and open up conservation projects to Guernsey’s community.”

This post is fully funded by the States, through Environment Guernsey. In appointing Ms Henney, the Environment and Infrastructure President, Deputy Barry Brehaut, said: "Julia will be known to many already from her spare time work helping to manage our coastal grasslands with the Guernsey Conservation Herd development which has been a wonderful summer sight on the west coast for the last two years.  Now able to apply her talents on a full time basis, my Committee is confident that Julia ‘s work will be effective in increasing public awareness and understanding of the environmental challenges we face, and what we can all do to help the Island’s wildlife.”