News
Defra awards first David Macdonald Fellowship
The first David Macdonald Fellowship has been awarded by Defra to Shayla Ellick. Shayla graduated from the University of Hertfordshire in 2012 with a BSc (Hons) 1st class in Environmental Management. During her degree she undertook a placement year with the UK Overseas Territories Programme at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, working on their Online Herbarium Project. Following graduation she returned to St Helena where she currently works in the terrestrial conservation section of the government Environmental Management Division.
St Helena, a UK Overseas Territory, is currently only accessible by ship, but an airport is due to open in 2016. The St Helena National Trust hopes to develop a carbon off-setting scheme once the airport is operational. Projections suggest tourist numbers will peak at 30000 by 2022, the scheme will allow each visitor the opportunity to offset their carbon footprint at one of St Helena’s Community Forest sites through the planting of some of the world’s rarest tree species.
The fellowship will support Shayla’s research investigating the carbon sequestration potential of five St Helena endemic tree species, providing the data for a local-based carbon offsetting scheme.
