INCREASING efforts are being made to protect this Island’s wildlife and the range of environments on which species as diverse as seabirds and wild flowers depend for their survival.

It has, for example, just been announced that fines of up to £2,000 may be levied on people who pick endangered plant species. This might sound draconian, but if the very existence of a rare variety is at stake, it can be argued that penalties intended to make people sit up and take notice are very much in order.

There is, however, one feature of the new rules that is disturbing. More than 60 plants are on the list of those which will be protected in law. The problem here is that all but a handful of Islanders would have difficulty in identifying half a dozen sorts of wild plant, let alone ten times that number.

But there could, of course, be method in this apparent madness. If the message that plucking certain flowers from the hedgerow could, depending on the variety, cost an arm and a leg, anyone with a less than perfect knowledge of local botany is likely to be discouraged from picking anything at all.

Meanwhile, on the ornithological front, a new conservation group is to be set up with the express aim of protecting sea birds. The Sea Bird Action Group, due to be launched later this year, will pay particular attention to species such as puffins and terns, both of which are under pressure from human activity.
There has, for example, been a decline in puffin numbers in recent years, and last spring 100 tern eggs mysteriously disappeared from a breeding site at the Ecréhous.

In the case of the terns and the puffins – and, indeed, of rare plants – care of the environment is of even more important than looking after small numbers of specimens. Fortunately, there is ample evidence that this, too, is framing policy. Many sites of special interest have been recognised and a huge area of the south and east coasts is now protected under the terms of the Ramsar Convention.

In any community the protection of wildlife and habitats is of importance, but here in Jersey it is a task that we cannot neglect. Pressure here is particularly intense because of the Island’s strictly limited area and its relatively high population density. Without active intervention, there will always be a danger that irreplaceable natural resources will be lost to future generations.