GUERNSEY plants and wildlife need more protection from dangers that threaten to make them extinct. And a local conservationist believes the States could do more to protect endangered species.

‘There is no such legislation in Guernsey and the States have been speaking about this for many years, but they’ve just put it on the backburner,’ said Bridget Ozanne, botany secretary of La Societe Guernesiaise.

‘The UK has wildlife-protection acts, but we don’t have things like that here. You would hope that they ‘the States’ would adapt the law and do something similar. They held a seminar, 10 years ago to discuss this, but nothing ever came of that.’

Mrs Ozanne said there were a number of species under threat, some of which were native only to Guernsey.

‘The mole cricket is particular to the island and has become extinct in the rest of the British Isles. However, it is becoming rarer here because it needs damp meadows as a habitat,’ she said.

‘The Guernsey fern is also under threat, mainly due to large lorries and other vehicles scraping the side of the hedges.’

Mrs Ozanne said that there were currently between 15-20 Guernsey ferns left around the island.

Freshwater fish appear to be suffering a similar fate. ‘There used to be many more sticklebacks and eels in local douits and streams, but numbers have been decreasing over the years.’

A spokesman from the Environment and Commerce and Employment departments said the safeguarding of Guernsey’s wildlife was regarded as being extremely important.

‘Effective protection of wildlife starts with the conservation and protection of habitat which supports wildlife, together with initiatives to enhance the environment,’ he said.

There were some specific ordinances in place to protect wildlife, such as those preventing the trade of flower plants and the ban on killing or trapping birds. The spokesman also said building was being strictly controlled on habitats earmarked with special significance and that Guernsey had gained international recognition through its Ramsar designation on the west coast.

The comments come after a conservation report listed over 16,000 species around the world under threat of extinction due to population growth and climate change. Mrs Ozanne blamed Guernsey’s ongoing development for the decline in the island’s biodiversity.

‘Generally it’s all to do with an increase in the population, which leads to overcrowding, overbuilding and pollution – it’s always the same basic theme,’ she said.