Democracy during a pandemic in one of the world's remotest islands

'Remote working' has a special meaning in the world's most isolated council chamber. Chief Islander of Tristan da Cunha reflects on a momentous time.

The last year has altered the way many democratic bodies around the world have done their business. For the Island Council on Tristan da Cunha, our way of working has remained unchanged. What did change, however, is the range of issues we've had to consider. Emergency measures to keep our community safe from COVID19 were debated and decided in the face of urgent deadlines. Improvements to our tourism offer were put in place for when the cruise trade returns. And our decision to create the planet's fourth largest marine reserve attracted headlines worldwide.

Tristan’s Council isn't strictly a legislature, because laws for this isolated community of 244 islanders are made by the Governor (who is also the Governor of St Helena and Ascension Island). Our role is to advise, with the Tristan da Cunha Administrator as Council President providing the central link in the chain, and to date our advice has always been taken. Tristan da Cunha's South Atlantic location – 1,500 miles from St Helena and 1,730 from mainland South Africa - means our council chamber is the remotest democratic forum on Earth. The Islands are home to 244 UK citizens living in the world's most isolated settlement of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas.

The Island Council consists of eight elected and three appointed Members, in addition to the Administrator. Elections are held every three years and a special feature of our constitution is that at least one councillor must be a woman (three took office in 2019).

2020: challenges and opportunities COVID-19 presents a special challenge to a remote island with limited medical facilities and no ventilators, where residents are also exceptionally vulnerable to respiratory disease. As 2020 began, we’d been without TV for months following storm damage, and it came as a shock when the service was restored and images of the worldwide trauma of COVID-19 flooded into our homes. So when we gathered as a Council on 4th February and again on 5th March, we had tough decisions to take. Three cruise ships were due to call in quick succession, bringing tourists with much-needed cash to spend. But our discussions considered islanders’ complete exposure to the risk of a novel virus, and we concluded that visitor landings would have to be banned.

A surely unique consequence of our decision was that Tristan da Cunha's only full-time police officer, Inspector Conrad Glass, who was returning from leave aboard the cruise ship Le-Lyrial, had to sail straight past his neighbours and continue to Cape Town where he waited five months before finally reaching home.

The Island Council knew that a few yachts were also due to call at Tristan and would be asking for permission to come ashore. It was agreed that the ‘no visitors’ rule would apply to all, but we would assist them with fuel, water and medical treatment if needed.

Many practical problems had to be tackled. The island hospital was prepared as best we could, and extra medical supplies were ordered from South Africa to last us for more than six months. Plans were made for a mid-year supply voyage, protected by strict quarantine, that would also bring long-term stocks of essential foodstuffs that cannot be home-grown. Council instructed the Island Store manageress to draw up a list of essential items, including cooking gas, that would be rationed in the shop to prevent panic buying.

Members of the Tristan da Cunha Island Council including Chief Islander James Glass (fourth from left) with Administrator, Fiona Kilpatrick (third from left) and other members of the Island Council. Two Councillors were absent overseas.

COVID-19 has impacted Tristan da Cunha in other ways too. The island operates a commercial fishery for gourmet rock lobster (Jasus tristani) that is MSC-certified as sustainable. Its worldwide sales provide over four-fifths of our income and underpin our way of life, but at one point in 2020 they dropped by 75%. The Island Council agreed a wage freeze and Heads of Department were told to find 5% cuts from their budgets. Travel restrictions also impacted inbound research visits and outbound medical cases. The island was without fresh fruit for five months, which highlights that we need to be more sustainable than we currently are. We’re now exploring ways to boost local horticulture and renewable energy.

The pandemic was a significant part of our 2020 agenda, but we also looked to the future. We ruled that cruise operators who adhere to the highest standards of environmental protection will in future be permitted to land guests accompanied only by ships' guides instead of depending on the availability of islanders, many of whom have two jobs alongside their subsistence farming. This will give more flexibility to find windows in the Atlantic weather for visitors to experience our amazing nature. The Tristan archipelago is home to more than 90% of the world’s Northern Rockhopper Penguins, 80% of Subantarctic Fur Seals, and birds such as the Spectacled Petrel that breed nowhere else on earth. Two of our islands, Gough and Inacessible, form a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Ours is a truly special destination for the eco-tourist.

Councillors had a big decision to make on 13th November 2020. For four years, with support from the UK Government's ‘Blue Belt’ programme, we'd been assessing the potential to create new marine conservation measures within our vast 754,000 km² ocean zone. Tristan da Cunha was the first Territory to come to the scheme with both a resident population and an existing commercial fishery. So for us, the decision was always about balancing the health of the ocean with the economic health of the community. In the end we resolved to retain sustainable fishing in a strictly limited part of our waters, but to turn 687,000 km², nine-tenths of the zone, into a fullyprotected ‘no-take’ marine reserve, the largest in the Atlantic and fourth biggest in the world. The Island Council considered that these protections will help improve Tristan’s marine environment to deal with the impact of climate change, which should help safeguard the species which live here and the people who depend on them.

The modest Administration Building in Tristan da Cunha’s only settlement, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, houses the Council chamber.

Looking ahead 2021 has brought the news of a new and more infectious South African strain of the COVID-19 virus: we’ve responded by extending our quarantine rules. But in March 2021, we expect our fishing vessel MFV Edinburgh to come over the eastern horizon from Cape Town with a precious cargo: a batch of COVID-19 vaccine, supplied by the UK Government to which we are hugely grateful. We need the immunity it will provide in order to re-open our links with the outside world.

Tristan da Cunha entered the new year still COVID-free and braced for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for us as guardians of the South Atlantic. But we are anxiously awaiting a strategic approach from London to its support of the UK Overseas Territories in a post-Brexit world. Now that the UK is no longer contributing to the European Development Fund which formerly helped shore-up Tristan da Cunha’s infrastructure, we look to Westminster and Whitehall for reassurance and we're worried by the near-silence to date. Here in the remotest settlement on Earth, the union flag flies proudly as we help the UK deliver on its global environmental promises.

My fellow councillors, and our whole community, send our best wishes to Commonwealth legislators from across the miles.

The world-famous albatross against a backdrop of island life in Tristan da Cunha.

Councillor James Glass is the current Chief Islander of Tristan da Cunha. He was elected for a record fourth term in March 2019 and so becomes the first Chief Islander to serve four terms. The Chief Islander is a Tristanian elected separately from the Island Council and serves for three years. He is also Tristan da Cunha's Director of Fisheries and makes regular trips overseas to oversee the retention of Tristan's valuable Marine Stewardship Council award for its sustainable Tristan Lobster Fishery.