Brexit to put 1m penguins at risk as Falklands loses EU funding for conservation, Islands minister warns

Work to protect more than one million penguins on the Falkland Islands may be put at risk if the territory loses out on conservation funding from the European Union after Brexit, its trade minister has warned.

The UK overseas territory is home to five species during the summer nesting season, including the King and Gentoo penguins.

There is a risk the island group, in the south Atlantic, may lose hundreds of thousands of pounds in funding from the European Commission’s voluntary scheme for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Territories of European overseas (Best) conservation project, Teslyn Barkman said.

She told the Daily Telegraph: “Independent NGOs undertaking critical research and conservation work in the Falklands are concerned that losing the more long-term grant awards through Best would affect their work.”

According to the territory’s conservation group, threats to penguins in the region include fishing, tourism, unlicensed egg collecting and invasive, exotic diseases like avian pox because of low resistance among the isolated populations.

Best funding has also been used for a climate change project in the Falklands, the European Commission’s website said, designed to model the impacts of global warming on the islands’ plant life, as well as a Sei whale conservation scheme.

Ms Barkman said she had “genuine concerns” that replacement UK funding would not be enough, adding that “we are yet to see any firm proposals” for a substitute.

A government spokesperson said: “As set out in our 25-Year Environment Plan, we remain committed to taking action to recover threatened, iconic or economically important species, and to prevent human-induced extinction or loss of known threatened species in our overseas territories.

“We recognise the great importance of these unique environments, and are considering how environmental funding for them can best be provided after we leave the EU.”

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said overseas territories would still be able to apply for funding from the government’s Darwin Plus scheme, for which £2.5m would be available in 2018-19.

Separately, some £4.8m from the government’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund has been set aside over four years to mitigate environmental security problems, it added.

It comes as new figures revealed hundreds of Whitehall staff working at the Department for Exiting the EU (Dexeu) have left.

Some 357 civil servants have left the Brexit department in just two years, turnover data revealed. The Liberal Democrats said the figures showed the department was being “hollowed out” amid fears of a no-deal Brexit.

“Many of those who have left to date have moved on to other government departments because their loan or rotation ended. Only a small minority have actually left the civil service,” a Dexeu spokesman said.