British government urged to save birds on threatened islands

The British Government must take urgent action to protect birds threatened with extinction in UK overseas territories, a wildlife charity said yesterday.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said two of the UK’s five natural world heritage sites could be blacklisted because rats and mice are killing and eating unique bird species on them.

The charity said it was “extremely embarrassing” Unesco had warned the British government this week that two of its overseas territories’ listings are at risk.

The warning comes amid fears unique birds on the two islands are being driven to extinction by non-native pests.

The charity said at a meeting in Brasilia, Unesco warned a listing for Henderson Island in the Pacific will be jeopardised if rats are allowed to continue plundering unique seabirds and their eggs.

Gough and Inaccessible Islands, in the south Atlantic, are also under threat of being added to a danger list if non-native house mice are not removed before 2014.

Between them the two islands support eight species of bird found nowhere else on earth, the RSPB said, but several of these are being driven to extinction by rodents that have been introduced.

RSPB international director Tim Stowe said: “There are only 180 natural world heritage sites, and the UK has responsibility for five.

“It is extremely embarrassing that the UK is failing in its duty to protect sites and species solely in our care.

“We are urging the UK government to take action to ensure the future of the 33 species of bird found in the UK overseas territories that are threatened with extinction.

“The removal of rats from Henderson Island is one of the most pressing conservation actions of our time.”

He said the planned cost was £1.7 million and the RSPB had already raised more than half the sum, with a detailed plan in place and specialists on stand-by.

““Unfortunately, time is running out,” he added. “If the outstanding funds are not raised within the next two months the eradication cannot take place in 2011, with the result of the cruel death of another 25,000 chicks and the knowledge that species are at greater risk of extinction.” The UK is responsible for 14 overseas territories, mostly small islands or island complexes across the world’s oceans, all of global importance for their biodiversity, the RSPB said.

The charity said a new report confirmed 33 species of bird are globally threatened in the UK overseas territories, with four listed as critically endangered.

Conservationist Richard Porter, of Birdlife International, also called on the government to fulfil its responsibilities towards UK overseas territories, the RSPB said.

Writing in the August issue of journal British Birds, he said if the number of threatened species was put together, the islands of the UK overseas territories were fifth in the world league table of bird extinctions.