IUCN Specialist Group - Mid-Atlantic Islands Invertebrate Specialist Group
- July 20th, 2015
- Biodiversity
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Mid Atlantic Islands Invertebrate Specialist Group
Co-Chairs: Vicky Kindemba, Paulo Borges
Contact: Vicky Kindemba, vicky.kindemba@buglife.org.uk, Paulo Borges, pborges@uac.pt
Red List Authority Coordinator: David Pryce,buglife.project@shnt.org.uk
The Mid Atlantic Islands are a geographically discrete grouping, where there is a keen interest and enthusiasm for form a group of people interested in furthering invertebrate conservation. The group would cover the following islands: Gough, Tristan, St Helena, Ascension, Cape Verdes, Canaries, Madeira, Azores, and São Tomé and Príncipe. Most of these islands have a high level of invertebrate endemism and numerous species of conservation concern.
The issues facing these islands are similar: habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation, invasive species, climate change; and also limited data and lack of resources or resolve to undertake research and conservation. This also provides a manageable and realistic grouping for the coordinating and administration of a Specialist Group, and so no other islands will be included at this stage. It is understood, that the proposed group would become the Red List Authority (RLA) for species in the remit of the group, and one of its first tasks will be to agree the appointment of a suitable RLA Coordinator in consultation with the SSC Chair. David Pryce, currently the Invertebrate Coordinator on St Helena (with the Darwin Project) and, over the last year, has been Red Listing the invertebrates of the island, is keen to take on this role.