This issue we focus on
Committee member Patrick Casement, Chair of the Council for Nature
Conservation and the Countryside, representing Northern Ireland on
JNCC. His previous public appointments were committee member of the
Committee for Nature Conservation, including Chair of their
scientific sub committee, from 1985 to 1989, council member of the
CNCC, including Chair of their Antrim/Londonderry sub committee and
member of their scientific sub committee, from 1989 to
1996.
Q. Species that
inspired you as a child?
A.
Birds generally. In particular, the swallow, with its association
with human habitation, its flying ability, and its re-appearance
each spring from Africa, which seemed both highly romantic and
scientifically fascinating at the same time.
Q. What concerns you
most about the natural world in the next two decades?
A.
Climate change, both in terms of its effects and its causes.
Natural ecosystems seem well able to cope with gradual change, but
I fear that what awaits us is more rapid and extreme than they will
be able to adapt to.
Q. What would you do
with a £1 million grant for nature conservation?
A.
Invest in an education programme that would enable every primary
school child in Northern Ireland to get out of the classroom and
experience wildlife first hand while learning something of the
practical issues of nature conservation.
Q. What would you
like to achieve in your time at JNCC?
A. To
ensure that Northern Ireland is fully engaged with the rest of the
United Kingdom in conserving its natural heritage, while gaining
the benefits of the experience and expertise of Great Britain.
Q. Who is your human
hero in the natural world?
A.
Robert Lloyd Praeger (1865-1953), remarkable Irish naturalist,
whose explorations and descriptions of every corner of this island
have provided an incomparable baseline for much of our
understanding of Irish wildlife.
Q. What is your
favourite place?
A.
Murlough Bay, on the north-east corner of Ireland – beautiful
scenery, fabulous views to Scotland and Rathlin Island,
extraordinary geology, rare plants, and an other-worldly
atmosphere.
Q. What’s your
pet hate in nature conservation?
A. Too much paper, too many
meetings!
Q. Desert Island
disc?
A. All along the Watchtower by Jimi
Hendrix.
Q. What do you do
when you’re not saving the world?
A. I
run a farm, rearing quality beef from suckler cows.
Q. Porritt,
Attenborough or Titchmarsh?
A.
Attenborough – in a class of his own.
Q. Place you’d most
like to visit?
A.
South Island of New Zealand.
Q. When I’m
reincarnated, I’m coming back as………?
A. A
dolphin. I would love to be able to experience the marine
environment as an integral (and intelligent) part of it rather than
being rather frightened by its magnitude and power and literally
out of my depth.