Management Plan prescriptions for the Gough and Inaccessible Islands World Heritage Site now online

The Gough and Inaccessible Islands World Heritage Site is made up of two of the four Tristan islands in the South Atlantic, themselves part of the United Kingdom Overseas Territory of St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.  Both Gough and Inaccessible (and their surrounding waters) are nature reserves and since 2008 Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance, reflecting their high conservation values.  The islands support breeding populations of six species of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels, including Critically Endangered Tristan Diomedea dabbenena and Endangered Atlantic Yellow-nosed Thalassarche chlororhynchos Albatrosses and the Vulnerable Spectacled Petrel Procellaria conspicillata, all endemic to the island group.

Spectacled Petrel - endemic to Inaccessible Island

Photograph by Peter Ryan

A single management plan for the World Heritage Site available on-line from the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) - that replaced earlier individual plans for each island - has now been joined by a series of 19 appendices that include a Description and Resource Inventory, Management Policies and Prescription Guidelines, applicable legislation and a Scientific and Historical Bibliography, along with species lists and other documents (click here).

Reference:

RSPB and Tristan da Cunha Government 2010.  Gough and Inaccessible Islands World Heritage Site Management Plan April 2010 – March 2015.  32 pp. & 19 Appendices.

With thanks to Clare Stringer for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 June 2014