S.E.H. Conservation Committee Blog

The Conservation Committee of the SEH has been actively involved in amphibian and reptile conservation trough the Bern convention (the “Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats”; see http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/cultureheritage/nature/Bern/default_en.asp). As usual, there were also many case files on amphibian and reptiles discussed at the 2009 meeting of the standing committee of the Bern Convention.

There were three “complaints on stand-by”. The first complaint dealt with Bufo viridis in Alsace (France). The few remaining habitats are threatened by development projects. While the French government reported that sufficient conservation action had been undertaken, the conservation NGO expressed their opinion that much more conservation action was necessary. This was also true for the second “complaint on stand-by” which involves a French population of Testudo hermanni threatened by a development project. The third “complaint on stand-by” involved a population of population of Bufo calamita on the Swedish island of Smögen. Again, the government officials reported that the population was not threatened by a development project. However, the very detailed report of a SEH-CC member convinced that standing committee that the problem has not yet been solved. There was also a follow-up on a recommendation from a previous year that involved sea turtles in Turkey. Here, the situation appears to have improved but the problem is not yet solved.

It is therefore no surprise that no case file was closed because no report from the government officials was completely satisfactory. The member states will have to report again in 2010 on how the conservation problems were solved. Surely, protecting species and habitats through the Bern Convention requires a lot of patience because it may take many years until a conservation problem is solved. Nevertheless, many valuable habitats and the amphibian and reptile populations that inhabit them would have been destroyed without the Bern Convention.

There was one very positive thing at the meeting. For many years, SHE-CC was the only organisation defending the interests of amphibians and reptiles (with the exception sea turtles, where the NGO Medasset has been active for many years). At the 2009 meeting, many national and local conservation NGO spoke up for amphibian and reptile conservation. This shows that conservation of amphibians and reptiles is no longer an exotic endeavour but has entered mainstream NGO conservation activities.

The member states of the Bern Convention have recommended action plans for several European amphibian and reptile species (Rana latastei, Triturus cristatus, Lacerta agilis and Elaphe longissima) in 2006. Unfortunately, not much has happened since then and the action plans were not discussed at the 2009 meeting. It is certainly a job for the SEH-CC to remind the member states of the Bern Convention that these action plans exists and that they should be implemented.

All case files and the minutes of the 2009 Bern Convention meeting are available from the website http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/cultureheritage/nature/WCD/TPVSReports_en.asp#. If you have problems locating them, then please contact <benedikt.schmidt *at* unine.ch>.