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2012 News
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AGM News
Government releases Upper Rock report
02 February
Government releases Upper Rock Report
The Gibraltar Government has finally released the 'Upper Rock Nature Reserve; A Management and Action Plan' to the public.
The report, which was prepared in 2005, was part of an EU co-funded project that was researched and written by Charles Perez and Dr. Keith Bensusan of GONHS. At the time, the report was looked into by Government officials, but this was never published or publicly acknowledged.
GONHS is delighted that Minister for the Environment Dr. John Cortes has released this to the public domain, and urges Government to take full advantage of its contents in the formulation of a management strategy for the Upper Rock . Minister Cortes acknowledged the work involved and thanked the authors, informing the press that it contained a wealth of information that would be of interest to many, including those interested in natural history and to educationalists.
Copies of the publication are available at the Department of the Environment at Duke of Kent House and the Nature Shop at Casemates.
A pdf of the document is available here for download. This is a particularly large file of 30MB.
Upper Rock Nature Reserve; A Management & Action Plan
26 January
Subscription Increase
At the AGM of the 25th January, a motion was passed by the membership to increase subscriptions as from 2012. The increase of £5 to each membership category will mean that Family Membership is now £25, Individual Membership is £20 and Junior Members (under 18) and pensioners pay £10.
Members will have noticed that the Programme of Events calender recently posted still reflects the old subscription, but due to the AGM being postponed until the new year, Council was unable to incorporate this change until it was approved by the membership yesterday. Subscriptions are due as from the 31st March 2012.
Annual General Meeting
News
The Annual General Meeting of the Society was held at the Alameda Botanic Garden's Cottage on the 25th January.
The meeting was well attended with many new members present for the first time.
Elections to the post of Council member, which is held every two years, as a requisite, under the Society's Constitution was conducted and the following members were re-elected to Council. Paul Acolina, Harry Vangils, Jean Paul Latin, Jill Yeoman and Albert Yome. Charles Perez was elected to Council and relinquished his post as section head of the Straits of Gibraltar Bird Observatory. This post has now been taken up by Keith Bensusan who has passed his responsibilities as section head of the Invertebrates Section to Alex Menez. Other Section heads remain unchanged, and these are Leslie Linares (Botanical Section), Richard Durrell (Caves and Cliffs Section), Eric Shaw (Marine Section) and Vincent Robba (Raptor Rehabilitation Unit). Section heads also form part of the Society's committee but are ex-officio members and are elected by the members of each section.
The position of General Secretary will be elected from the Council Members at the next council meeting.
The annual accounts of the Society were circulated to the membership and approved. Members will receive a copy of this in the post.
A motion to increase the membership subscription was put to the floor. The increase of £5 to each membership category was deemed necessary because of increased costs of printed material that is circulated to the membership. This was approved by the membership and the new subscriptions will cover 2012.
In view of this it was suggested that the membership be offered the opportunity to receive Nature News as a pdf, although the printed alternative would remain. Sponsorship and corporate membership was also discussed and we will be looking into other ways to encourage participation by the private sector.
The membership was informed that council felt that the GONHS website needed a facelift. We would be looking to professional web-developers to design a contemporary website that will meet the needs of the Society for the future. The possibility of online subscription payment through secure webpages utilising PayPal or other means will also be investigated.
On a final note Council announced that it was very pleased with the reception to the GONHS Facebook page that was receiving a lot of interest from members of the public and is seen as a tool to express, share ideas, and participate in meaningful discussion on environmental matters and the natural environment.
2011 News
Select News title to link directly to item.
Annual General Meeting
New Minister for Environment
John's Farewell
Eurobirdwatch 2011 Results
5th European Bat Night Success
Reply to Government reply
Joint Statement on Eastside Bunkering
UK Government to appeal Spanish 'waters' case
Chronicle covers Lesser Kestrel captive breeding
Meeting with new Opposition Spokesman
New Outings Programme 2011
GONHS Outings Blog by Teresa Leverton
21 December
Annual General Meeting
The Society will be holding its Annual General Meeting (including elections to our Council) on Wednesday 25 January 2012, 6.30pm at the Alameda Botanic Gardens library.
Only members with their subscriptions current for 2011 will be allowed to vote.
We are also planning on holding our drinks evening after the meeting. Details to follow later.
12 December
Ex General Secretary becomes
new Minister for the Environment
Former General Secretary John Cortes has become Gibraltar's new Minister for the Environment. Dr Cortes proved to be the second most popular out of thirty candidates, coming only second to the new Chief Minister. He shares the environment portfolio with that of health.
GONHS wishes Dr Cortes every success and looks forward to working with him for the benefit of Gibraltar's environment.
19 October 2011
FAREWELL FROM JOHN CORTES
Dr John Cortes has stepped down as General Secretary after 36 years with the Society. His last action with GONHS was to write his farewell to all GONHS Members. We reproduce the full text of his letter below.
Dear Friends
Those of you who live in Gibraltar may have already heard that I have decided to stand for election to the Gibraltar Parliament, an election due in the next few weeks or months. In order to maintain the essential political neutrality of the Society, I have informed Council that I will be standing down from my position of General Secretary and as a Council member with immediate effect.
Writing this will in fact be my last act in this role.
Needless to say, this has not been an easy decision. I have been Secretary, then General Secretary of the Society since it was created in 1976, and have seen it grow from a small group of school friends to the well respected organisation it is now.
During this time GONHS has become internationally recognised as a research and conservation organisation. It has established links with organisations around the world, and research links with institutions globally. Most notably, and despite objections from Spain, we became a full Partner of BirdLife International. We have also been involved from the start in the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum.
Our research has taken us from Gibraltar to Spain and Morocco, and has led to both our own publications and publications by our members in scientific journals.
GONHS has organised conferences and seminars in two continents, and supported researchers and research in Morocco, while its work on the Barbary macaques has involved scientists from the UK, Germany, the Czech Republic, USA, Morocco and Tunisia, among others.
In Gibraltar, through our work in the Development & Planning Commission and through our general advocacy, we have contributed significantly to maintaining Gibraltar's biodiversity, a biodiversity that for years now we have been actively cataloguing.
Our original area of activity, and what first got us together as a Society, was our work with birds. This continues, with monitoring of migration, particularly through ringing, and our bird rehabilitation work.
Nature, and nature conservation in Gibraltar would not be what it is now without GONHS. We drafted the Nature Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act, prepared Gibraltar's submissions for designation under the Habitats Directive, and were the first to identify the problems subsequently in relation to Gibraltar's waters.
Add to that our educational work and our members' activities, talks and outings, and I can say that it has been a busy 36 years for me.
But the time has now come for me to move on and to apply the experience that I've acquired, elsewhere. For this reason I have decided to put my name forward to one of Gibraltar's political parties as a prospective candidate in the coming General Elections. I hope that, if I am entrusted by the people of Gibraltar, I will be able to continue my work for nature and the environment in Parliament.
I am very sad to leave this position, which has in fact shaped my whole life, but I am glad to say that I leave behind a mature organisation, led by sound, experienced scientists and nature conservationists, with their own vision of how to continue to develop the Society and how to contribute to the future of Gibraltar.
I would like to thank my colleagues, my friends, in GONHS Council for all their help and support through the years, and to thank you, the membership, for your own support in making what to me is one of the most hard working and successful organisations Gibraltar has ever seen.
With all my best wishes
John Cortes
General Secretary (1976-2011)
1 October 2011
EUROBIRDWATCH 2011 RESULTS
The first event was a ringing session at the Alameda Botanic Gardens. Four nets had been placed in non-public areas of the Gardens and were unfurled at around 8am. Initially, this yielded a small number of visitors who enjoyed seeing resident birds such as Sardinian warbler, Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, House Sparrow being ringed, with the cloud cover afforded by the Levanter allowing the session to continue late into the morning, when more participants visited the temporary ringing station above the Nature Shop.
There was also a wintering species (Robin) and of course the individual Little Bunting which was seen and then caught in the gardens, having moved down from Jews Gate, Upper Rock Nature Reserve, where it had been ringed earlier in the week as a 'first record' for Gibraltar.
Below: Blue Tit. A common bird in Gibraltar's trees and gardens which due to its sized often goes
unnoticed by its human neighbours.
Above: Willow Warbler in the hand. Below: Little Bunting
Later in the morning a static display of raptors by GONHS Raptor Unit provided an opportunity for members of the public to see these magnificent birds as close quarters. The unit not only provides a rescue and rehabilitation service for birds of prey injured or otherwise handed in to GONHS, but is also involved in captive breeding programmes, notably the Lesser Kestrel. A male Golden Eagle was the star attraction. The raptor unit works 365 days a year and this is one of the few opportunities we have to bring these birds to the public and for the members of the unit to answer the many questions posed by visitors.
Although there was eventually a decent amount of visitors, the event remains unsatisfactory and GONHS will be redoubling its efforts to attract more visitors for EuroBirdwatch 2012. Other NGOs and agencies receive a lot more support, to the detriment of events such as these.
GONHS is now considering keeping the sea-watch on the Saturday afternoon, but may move the ringing and raptor display to a Sunday morning in order to attract more participants.
EuroBirdwatch has been held in its various guises in Gibraltar for around 20 years and as part of a European event cannot be moved from when it is held on the first weekend of October every year.
From 3pm in the afternoon, a group of observers carried out a sea-watch from GONHS' Europa Point Marine Observatory. Most prevalent were flocks of Cory's shearwaters feeding on flying fish (Exocetidae), together with these were small numbers of mostly juvenile Northern gannets, with Mediterranean shearwaters flying East between these.
Other marine species observed were several Pomarine and Great skuas, a Sooty shearwaters, Sandwich tern, Black-headed, Yellow-legged, Audouin's and Lesser black-backed gulls and a resident immature Western Mediterranean Shag.
Overhead there were flocks of Booted eagles, which have been massing on the Northern shores of the Strait of Gibraltar, having been unable to cross over to Morocco because of high easterly winds and poor visibility.
These birds are reluctant to fly out to sea without being able to see the North African coast. Other species seen flying South into the Strait were Yellow Wagtail, House Martin and Red-rumped swallow.
All the above photos © Silaika Yome/ GONHS
18 September 2011
5th EUROPEAN BAT NIGHT SUCCESS
The Eurobats 'European Bat Night' held at the Open Air Theatre at the Alameda Botanic Gardens was attended by over fifty participants and quite a few bats as well.
At around 8.30pm most participants were sat down in the auditorium where some were able to see a migrating Osprey fly over Gibraltar on its way to Africa. A visiting European Kingfisher also arrived onto the stage where it selected a branch on which it settled down to roost for the night.
For the fist time in our local event, participants were able to hear a selection of recorded bat calls prior to the real bats making their appearance. It was therefore appropriate that the last recorded call played was that of a pipistrelle bat, as moments later, the first of several feeding Soprano pipistrelle bats Pipistrellus pygmaeus fluttered over the pond hawking after insects.
This was the first of several visits by this species during the course of the evening. During short periods of bat inactivity, Albert Yome, Bat Group coordinator for GONHS took a number of bat related questions, in which he took great delight in being able to answer. "How do you tell male and female bats apart?" was one little boy's memorable question. Albert's answer was, "The same way as you would cats or dogs."
Later the first of several one a larger, faster bats swooped in from over the trees. For what seemed like greater effect, these and some of the pipistrelles flew in form directly behind their audience, taking them by surprise.
This year, the bat detector was linked to the theatre's own sound desk, giving participants 'surround sound'. The theatre's lights were also in operation, being balanced to provide enough lights for foraging bats to be seen yet not so bright so as to deter them from visiting. A big thanks here to Danny Montovio and Mark Cortes for the sound and lights respectively.
We would like to go out to search for Gibraltar's largest bat species, the powerful European Free-tailed bat Tadarida teniotis one evening, so please email bats@gonhs.org to register your interest soon.
22 August 2011
GONHS REPLIES TO GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO JOINT STATEMENT
The Government has issued a reply to the Joint Statement (see below) issued by a number of organisations on the question of east side bunkering.
The Government has made an assurance that all the necessary procedures will be followed. This is welcomed by GONHS, although the Society feels that east side bunkering should not go ahead on any account.
However, the implication in the Government statement that a full EIA is underway with all the stakeholders being involved needs qualifying. GONHS was consulted during the scoping report, following which Government agreed that a full EIA should be carried out. A meeting with Gifford, the firm that was to carry out the EIA was scheduled for the beginning of March, but was canceled at very short notice. No contact has been made since. If indeed an EIA proper is proceeding, GONHS has not been consulted on this. GONHS is therefore justified in supporting the joint statement.
On 23 March this year, GONHS issued a press release expressing concern at a report in the Gibraltar Chronicle that, according to the Minister for Enterprise, Development, Technology and Transport, The Hon Joe Holliday,'Gib designation of waters [as an SAC] does not affect bunkering'.
GONHS is pleased to note that Government has now changed its view.
16 August 2011
JOINT STATEMENT BY COALITION OF STAKEHOLDERS ON
THREAT OF EAST SIDE BUNKERING
AUGUST 2011
It is now two months since the Environmental Safety Group first contacted the Chief Minister on behalf of concerned stakeholders to register strong objections over the possible expansion of bunkering off the east side of the Rock. A folder containing detailed concerns from each party was also sent at the time to No. 6. No formal response has been received from the Gibraltar Government on this matter so far. All parties submitted their concerns to UK scientists last October during a preliminary EIA consultation exercise.
The groups believe it is critical for this issue to be kept in the public domain in view of the widespread public interest and today issue a joint statement providing many reasons why bunkering expansion to the east side of the Rock should not be allowed. It is important to note that the various groups have specific reasons for objecting to bunkering expansion. However there is a large area of broad agreement which forms part of this statement.
These are centred on five key areas:
- Environmental legislation and laws
- Bunkering impacts on the environment
- Bunkering impacts on quality of life
- Mitigating issues relating to bunkering
- Other, more general considerations
1. The most important issue is the continued lack of EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment), or Appropriate Assessment such as required under the Habitats Directive in view of the area’s status as a Special Area of Conservation. Not only has an Appropriate Assessment not been carried out but the initial EIA announced several months ago appears to have faltered and never been produced. This could indicate that the project has also been dropped which would be strongly welcomed by the undersigned groups.
We would however, like to publicly set out why we oppose this type of industrial activity on the east side of Gibraltar.
2. Bunkering impacts on the natural environment in a number of ways. Chronic spills of fuel and chemicals are detrimental to marine life and vegetation. This has a knock-on effect on our local biodiversity. The accidents off Gibraltar’s coastline over the years have starkly demonstrated the lingering impacts of oil pollution on the marine environment which must be avoided at all costs. The severe impacts from dragging anchors on the seabed and reefs are highly damaging and must be minimised not increased. Any significant increase in shipping activity will also automatically increase the risk of a serious accident with the long-term consequences this would have on the natural environment.
3. Quality of life is also a hugely important factor when objecting to east side bunkering activity. Bunkering is also associated with regular impacts such as fumes, noise pollution and general environmental degradation. The East coast being what it is means that the introduction of such industrialised activity would threaten a major recreational and bathing area for a large part of our community. West coast bunkering continues to carry all these impacts which are exacerbated in certain wind directions. If bunkering were to proceed on the east side we would not only be creating a problem on the east but increasing problems to west flank communities who would now receive fumes no matter the wind direction.
4. In the course of any analysis conducted on the possible bunkering expansion, a number of mitigation measures would need to be considered. “Vapour Recovery Technology” (VRT) is such a measure that, if applied, could eliminate some of the fumes entering our common airspace when servicing vessels. The long awaited “Vessel Tracking Technology” (VTS), introduced long after the boom in bunkering business should now play its role in safely policing shipping movements within and adjacent to the Bay area and not be used to pave the way for further shipping activity. Increased monitoring should also involve close liaison with regional port authorities which needs to be actively pursued. Mitigation could also be applied by introducing fixed anchorage points to limit the destructive impacts of lowering anchors onto fresh areas of seabed and ensuing dragging. It’s clear that response time to any future marine accident on the east side would throw up problems of time, distance and weather conditions. Any spills would be impossible to contain in open waters and absence of adequate response equipment locally for a major incident would result in disastrous long term impacts to the natural environment, residents and the tourism trade.
5. Hotel owners in the area are totally opposed to such bunkering activity due to the degradation of the environment this will bring and how this will affect their business as well as jeopardise any future tourism development in Gibraltar. The special environment which exists on the east side of the Rock deserves sensitive development and management given it provides a much needed haven in an otherwise densely populated and busy urban environment that Gibraltar is today. Developing the east side with these points in mind would bring long term, sustainable benefits to both the local community, the tourism industry and to the environment.
In conclusion the groups reiterate that the social marginal utility gained from the increase in commerce is clearly outweighed by the social marginal disutility brought on by the environmental risk exposure. At what social and environmental cost will this relatively small % increase in GDP be enjoyed?
£ is not the scarce resource – our waters, marine life, coastline and quality of life are.
The groups call upon all political parties, including the present Government, to publish their policy on bunkering expansion to the East Side of Gibraltar. This massively important social and environmental issue represents a critical time for balancing industrialisation in Gibraltar with preserving our quality of life and natural environment and as such deserves full transparency by all political parties ahead of the next general election.
=====================================================================================
GONHS, ESG, Gibraltar Federation of Sea Anglers, Caleta Hotel, Gibraltar Sub Aqua Club, Both Worlds Residents Committee, Both Worlds Retirement Committee
The individual organisations' statements can be accessed here.
19 July 2011
UK Government acknowledges GONHS contribution to Waters case
HMG to appeal European Court decision
HM Government in the United Kingdom has said it will be appealing the European General Court (EGC) ruling that dismissed, on technical grounds, its challenge to the granting by the European Commission rights over British Gibraltar Territorial waters in designating the Estrecho Oriental (Eastern Strait) Site of Community Interest (SCI). Details have been published in the Gibraltar Chronicle.
FCO Ministers made a written Ministerial statement on 18th July which referred to the case and the main UK Government arguments. These include the inability of Spain to provide any information regarding Gibraltars waters, and that only the UK can submit sites covering British waters.
The FCO statement explains that on 24 May the EGC ruled the UK's case inadmissible on technical grounds ruling that the UK should have challenged the Commission's original rather than subsequent confirmatory decision to list the site. The UK rebuts this, criticising the Commission's procedures and making the point - made by GONHS at the time - that while the original UK-Gibraltar designation was referred to Spain for comment, the Spanish designation was not in turn referred to the UK.
The Gibraltar Government announced that the EGC had made a decision in a press release issued on 1 June 2011, but gave no information as to the reasons for the Court's decision, nor its own proposed appeal. GONHS has subsequently requested this information but it has not been fortchoming.
GONHS notes that UK Government statement states that 'in February 2009 environmental experts in Gibraltar identifed that the European Commission adopted ...' the Spanish proposals. While not referring to GONHS by name, these Gibraltar experts were in fact from GONHS.
18 July 2011
Gibraltar Chronicle covers captive breeding success
Today's edition of the Gibraltar Chronicle carries a front page photograph and a report on the successful captive breeding of Lesser Kestrels at the GONHS Bird of Prey Rehabilitation Unit. Congratulations are in order for Vincent Robba and his team. These birds will form the basis of future releases into the wild, Meanwhile the results of this year's survey of nesting wild birds of prey will be released shortly.
Note: The team makes sure the young chicks are well fed, but please note that the second photograph on the Gibraltar Chronicle page is of Gyr/Saker hybrids used for gull control and not of overgrown Lesser Kestrels!
04 May 2011
Meeting with new Opposition Spokesman
Steven Linares, newly appointment 'Shadow Minister' for the Environment, contacted GONHS shortly after his appointment requesting an opportunity to meet GONHS Council. He was invited to attend the next scheduled meeting of Council, which he did on 3 May.
At the meeting Mr Linares explained the environmental policies of the Opposition Alliance (Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party/Gibraltar Liberal Party), and GONHS Council members aired their comments, views and aims.
GONHS is not party political, but will engage with politicians of all parties and would, if approached, hold similar meetings with representatives of other political parties.
05 March 2011
GONHS Outings Blog by Teresa Leverton
For the past few years, Theresa Leverton, a staunch supporter of the GONHS outings has been publishing vivid pictorial accounts of these outings in our 'Reports' page and these, in PDF file format, can be viewed from here. Theresa has now created a 'Members Outings Blog' that will contain these reports, and we have provided a link in our Reports page and here as well so that our members and other interested parties can now view them directly from there. The La Janda winter outing is already on line and can be viewed from this link:- Members Outings or at this website http://gonhsoutings.blogspot.com/ .
01 January 2011.
New Outings Programme 2011
The new outings programme for 2011 can be found in the events page. Among the popular outing venues, will be the Mushrooms outing that was very successful last year and provided the members present with a broad outlook to the mushroom species encountered in the vicinity, and an opportunity to take home and sample some of the delightful edible ones.
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