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Scotland to host global conference on species management |
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Tuesday, 07 October 2008 |
The management of wildlife species for conservation, conflict resolution and sustainability, will be the subject of a major international conference to be held in Scotland this month (October).
The conference is being organised by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), in order to encourage different countries to share information and experiences and improve species management on a global scale.
The three-day event will hear from experts from New Zealand, Iceland, USA and Canada, as well as Norway and the UK. Topics to be covered will range from butterfly conservation to beaver reintroductions. The difficult and, at times, controversial issue of dealing with invasive non-native species, such as mink and grey squirrel, will also be a major feature of the event.
Species Management: Challenges and Solutions for the 21st Century will take place in Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh from 29 to 31 October.
The conference will include a session on species reintroductions, led by Simon Milne of Scottish Wildlife Trust and David Windmill from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. Don Newman, threatened species science manager of the Department of Conservation in New Zealand, will cover strategic and adaptive species management.
Contributions on managing invasive non-native species will include a session by Ingrid Salvesen of the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre. Norway has a particular problem with the small non-native leech-like parasite, Gyrodactylus, and its impact on wild salmon. Tackling the problems of the rapacious predator, the American mink, will be covered by Arnor Signusson, mink control consultant to the Icelandic Government, and Iain Macleod of SNH's Hebridean Mink Project.
Details of the conference are available from the SNH website at www.snh.org.uk .
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