From Pete Double, chairman, Action for Wildlife Jersey
JERSEY’S coastline is the meeting place of the Island’s rich ecology, marine and terrestrial.

The international importance of 31 square kilometres of the intertidal south-east coast with its variety of species and habitats has been recognised by Ramsar, but is still threatened by negligence.

The west coast, combining a magnificent storm beach, ancient sand dunes, natural freshwater with extensive reed-beds and wetland marsh has, in part, been the scene of neglect and rubbish-dumping in past years, with rescue conservation work on La Mielle de Morville opposite Kempt Tower restoring the area for wildlife, and as open grassland for recreational use, gaining a Civic Trust Award.

There was even a post-war scheme to create a ‘new town’ along the Five Mile Road, the lack of provision for sewerage saving this sensitive area from such disastrous development (which took place more appropriately at Les Quennevais instead).

The entire coastline with heathland and rugged headlands between the bays, the cliffs intersected by narrow freshwater streams and pockets of woodland in steep valleys, all combine to make the Island our home.

We are the residents of this Island, and its coast represents the way in which we treat our home, how we present it to visitors, and, of course, to future generations.

There is a desperate need to protect our coastline from further building, to allow wind, tide and weather to meet the land, providing natural habitat for the many creatures dependent upon it, without thoughtless and often selfish developments which break up Jersey’s natural vistas.

This is why members of Action for Wildlife Jersey will be standing in line on a day which will, I hope, send a message once and for all to those individuals and corporate developers who take advantage of Planning loopholes and cause irreparable damage to an Island that is still breathtakingly beautiful to those who visit it, and those who live here, and love it.