Increasingly, the focus of JNCC's work is
on nature conservation worldwide. The publication of the
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment reports provides us with
an assessment of the status and trends in the natural environment
around the world, and makes clear the unprecedented scale of the
pressures that nature is facing globally.
I am a member of an Inter-Departmental Ministerial Group on
Biodiversity which is presently considering how best the UK can
meet its international biodiversity commitments, in particular
reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. The Group has asked
JNCC to review the UK's present work in this area, and to advise
what more we need to do to make a full contribution towards meeting
these conservation targets. There are many important issues here,
but one aspect I think we need to consider is how to ensure that
governments everywhere value the benefits to people resulting from
fully-functioning ecosystems. Environmental economics have an
important role to play here.
One of the greatest pressures global biodiversity will face
will be climate change. Not only do we need to mitigate its scale
by reducing carbon emissions, but we need to manage land and water
in ways that will enable nature to adapt to its inevitable impact.
Climate change was discussed at the Conferences of the Parties to
the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, and
also at the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals,
which were held last autumn. Climate change is an issue which we
will need to take account of in all our future work, both in the UK
and abroad, and we must plan to meet this challenge.
Another of the issues considered by the Bonn Convention
Conference was the problem of Avian Influenza. JNCC is
co-ordinating the advice of the UK nature conservation agencies to
Government on this issue, which will need very careful monitoring
over the coming months, together with good contingency planning to
prepare for an outbreak, should one occur.
The next 12 months will be a time of change in UK nature
conservation. Our colleagues at English Nature will be uniting with
two other organisations to create Natural England, and, in
Scotland, the Scottish Natural Heritage headquarters will be
relocating to Inverness. Both are huge undertakings, and we wish
them both well in orchestrating a successful conclusion.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank staff
of the JNCC Support Co for ensuring that the transition from our
previous operating arrangements to the new Company has gone so
smoothly. We will now focus our full attention on delivering our
strategy for nature conservation, both at home and abroad.
Adrian Darby OBE
Chairman, JNCC