THE ENVIRONMENT
When carbon considerations
conflict with conservation
Not so long ago, hooved herbivores used to roam Jersey’s sand dunes. Now the only larger animals you are likely to see are dogs with their owners. Could you imagine flocks of semi-wild animals returning there? Caroline Spencer finds out why that is being proposed as part of a conservation study
E
veryone is agreed that we need to protect the sand dunes, one of our Island’s treasures. However, if you measured it only on what they brings to the party in terms of carbon capture, it wouldn’t be top of the list. The biodiversity of the dunes, on the other hand, is excellent. There are 400 plant species across the dunes, including early sandgrass (mibora minima), arguably the smallest grass species in the world. It’s extremely rare across the British Isles.
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This conflict, between conserving habitats for their carbon value or their biodiversity, is being studied by Josh Smith. Josh (26), who hails from Wolverhampton, is a PhD student with the Jersey International Centre of Advanced Studies (JICAS) and the University of Exeter. A key aspect of his three-year study, which is funded by the Jersey Community Foundation, is to consider what restorative practices can be adopted to increase carbon sequestration above and below the ground.
What Josh would like to see is the development of a grazing network across the Island. Conservation grazing is the use of semi-wild or domesticated grazing livestock to increase the biodiversity of a habitat. Jersey, he says, is in dire need of having hooved herbivores naturally moving around an area, to put pressure on over-dominant species such as bracken, gorse, burnet rose and holm oak. ‘You need animals that will roll around, trample everything, score pathways. Reptiles can bask, marsh harriers can swoop in, everything comes alive.
