Profiles of UKOTCF Council Members and other Officers

Dr Keith Bensusan (Chairman, Europe Territories Working Group) isfrom Gibraltar. He is a council member of the GibraltarOrnithological & Natural History Society (GONHS) and is the head ofits Invertebrate Section. He is also Director of the Gibraltar BotanicGardens and an environmental consultant with Wildlife (Gibraltar)Ltd, the company that manages the gardens.Keith has had a lifelong interest in birds. He began birding at a veryearly age and his interests eventually diversified to other aspects ofnatural history. This led him to read Zoology, to take an MSc inBiodiversity and Conservation and finally a PhD on the ecology ofmigrant and resident birds around the Strait of Gibraltar. Apart frombird migration and ecology, Keith also has an interest in plants and isa keen entomologist, having worked on faunistic and taxonomicstudies on a range of groups. He has published on all of thesesubjects. His responsibilities at the Gibraltar Botanic Gardens includemanagement and data-basing of collections, and his consultancy workincludes monitoring of terrestrial sites listed under the EU HabitatsDirective.Keith has an ever-growing interest in the wildlife of the UK OverseasTerritories and its conservation. He finds the parallels and differencesbetween the territories fascinating and believes that interchange ofviews, ideas and experiences via the Forum is an ideal way of tacklingconservation problems effectively. Following some years as Secretaryof ETWG, Keith took over the Chair in 2014.Tim Earl (Joint Secretary, Southern Oceans Working Group) Is aprofessional international wildlife tour leader and lecturer. He isprincipal leader for The Travelling Naturalist taking groups on toursworldwide and serves on MV Minerva as naturalist / lecturer for thecruise company Swan Hellenic.Born in Guernsey (but raised in Sheffield and educated in Cardiff) hereturned to the island in 1974 after two years as research assistant tothe professor of pharmacology at Bristol University. Tim Earl’sinterest in birds led him to serve as secretary of the OrnithologicalSection of La Société Guernesiaise, a Victorian research organisationwhich, under his influence and leadership became Guernsey’s leadingwildlife conservation organisation. He was president of La Société in1988/89. Sometimes known as the Father of Guernsey Conservation,Tim Earl was instrumental in setting up most of the island’s naturereserves including La Claire Mare and Colin Best reserves which weredesignated as part of Guernsey’s first Ramsar site in March 2006. Hepersuaded the States of Guernsey to revise their Protection of WildBirds Ordinance which resulted in most species of bird, including allwildfowl, being protected.Tim Earl spent most of his working life as a journalist with theGuernsey Press for whom he still has a regular wildlife column. Hewent into marketing before becoming a full-time tour leader.He first went to the Falkland Islands in 1987 to advise the governmenton setting up an eco-tourism industry. He has since taken 28 tours tothe islands and is the most experienced tour leader to that destination.His extensive travels have also resulted in two visits to St Helena andthree to Ascension Island. He moved to the Isle of Man in February2013 to live with Liz Charter who introduced him to the UKOTCF.