TNAG-1874-FCO40-2665-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-other-British-Dependent-Terr-1989 — Page 126

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CONSERVATION IN THE DEPENDENT TERRITORIES

RRITORIES

'FRAGMENTS OF

PARADISE": BIOT

1. I attach a copy of an extract from a report on conservation in the Dependent Territories entitled "Fragments of Paradise" for the British Indian Ocean Territory. The report was launched by the British Association of Nature Conservationists in November last year. It is critical in some respects of Government policy on the handling of environment issues in the Dependent Territories. We have been asked for comments and I should be grateful for your views on the legal aspects.

2.

The Report consists of a general resumé followed by individual reports on each of the Dependent Territories. Each "territory" report concludes with a series of recommendations. With regard to the BIOT:

Recommendations 1 and 2. These would seem to need very careful consideration. We discussed the implications with John Robbins, Director of Rural Affairs, DOE, who told us that proposals for World Heritage Sites are accepted or rejected by the World Heritage Convention Committee (of whom the UK is a signatory); this acceptance then imposes an obligation on the proposing country to protect the area and to co-operate with other signatories to ensure its conservation. Protected Area Status can be granted in various ways (eg. through the Bonn Convention) and for various reasons (eg. unique habitat) and thereafter obliges the country to protect the area from any interference.

3.

Mr Robbins' general attitude was that both of these measures are vulnerable to a variety of interpretations, including the extreme of thereafter regarding the designated area as "sacrosanct" and protected from all further development. His advice therefore was to propose only such areas which could live up to this narrow interpretation.

4. At present, all atolls in the Chagos Archipelago other than Diego Garica are totally uninhabited and the only environmental threat comes from visiting yachtsmen. However, the 1966 Agreement provides for the islands' availability to meet the needs of both governments for defence (para 2), and specifies this as including the entire Archipelago. In view

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