Profiles of UKOTCF Council Members and other Officers

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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.
Emma Cary (Volunteer Conservation Assistant; Secretary EuropeTerritories Working Group)Emma holds an MA(Hons) in Social Anthropology with Developmentfrom the University of Edinburgh and an MSc Conservation Biologyfrom the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology. Her interestslie in sustainable development and capacity building for conservationaction. In 2010, she spent time working for a conservation researchcharity in Malaysian Borneo, but has more recently worked closer tohome in the UK; as part of the National Trust’s team in South Devon,and as an assistant with the RSPB’s Cornish chough and corn buntingprojects. In her spare time she is a keen cyclist and swimmer, and hasrecently started learning to play the cello.Sarah Barnsley (Volunteer Conservation Assistant; Support to theSecretary Wider Caribbean Working Group)Sarah has always loved being outdoors and, having grown up in theAlps, she was able to explore the mountains and the wildlife that theyoffer. This developed her passion for nature, therefore leading her tochoose a BSc degree in Animal Science from the University ofReading and then an MSc in Conservation Science from ImperialCollege London, which she completed in September 2014.Having spent time working with animals in various differentagricultural environments including a pastoral farm in the Swiss Alpsand an urban farm in London, Sarah is particularly interested in theinteraction between conservation and agriculture, including areas suchas sustainable farming, and the impact that livestock can have uponnatural habitats and food and water security. Believing that it isincredibly important to engage people with nature and theenvironment in order to promote an understanding of the importanceof, and a respect for, the natural resources of the world, Sarah is alsogreatly interested in conservation and environmental education.Sarah joined UKOTCF as a part-time Conservation Assistant inOctober 2014 and is greatly enjoying learning more about theconservation work that is being carried out in the UKOTs. Some ofher first tasks have included developing the Virtual Tour forAscension Island and helping to update Conservation Projects on thedatabase.Other interests include skiing, travelling, yoga and dancing and, ofcourse, hiking up in the mountains.
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