St Helena's Cloud Forest Project

The St Helena Cloud Forest Project

Conserving a globally important ecosystem

Project overview

St Helena

The total area of the national park is 81 ha.

St Helena’s cloud forest has declined from an estimated 600 hectares before humans’ arrival to just 16 hectares today.

Habitat

Tropical cloud forest

Current size

16 Hectares

Project commenced

2021

Unique Species

Approx 250

The project

The St Helena Cloud Forest Project is a highly collaborative, multi-year project working to implement the Peaks Management plan for St Helena’s Peaks National Park.

The Peaks National Park, St Helena Island is home to the remnants of an ancient cloud forest. It is a globally significant area:

It holds approximately 250 species that are found nowhere else on Earth – equating to more than one-sixth of the UK’s total endemic biodiversity.
It provides the majority of the island’s annual water resource (through its ‘cloud forest’ role of mist capture and groundwater recharge).
It offers a unique wilderness experience in an area that has been voted one of St Helena’s ‘Seven Wonders’.

Project works are taking place within the National Park under three main pillars: Biodiversity; Water Security & Climate Change; and Socio-economic.

The pillars

Biodiversity: Aimed at improving, restoring and creating cloud forest habitat and the conservation of associated species, with the intention of safeguarding an internationally important wildlife hotspot from further extinctions.

Water Security & Climate Change: Aimed at re-vegetating around native habitat fragments in key areas of mist capture, and conducting monitoring and research to inform and secure the island’s water security and climate change adaptation efforts.

Socio-economic: Aimed at supporting the sustainable development of St Helena by developing opportunities through ecotourism, education, sustainable land use, and conservation training.

Funding and partners

The UK Government, through the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), has committed to funding for the project over 4 years until 2025, with matched funding through project partners and various Darwin Plus projects. Over the first two years of the project (2021 – 2023) the total value of funding was over two million pounds.

Progress to date

For Year 1 of the project (2021/2022), the focus was on scaling up St Helena’s capacity to restore its cloud forest through staffing, international expertise, equipment, and infrastructure.

This involved local recruitment to seven full-time roles; procurement of equipment and assets; upgrading of buildings to support a new lab which will aid in the propagation of rare, endemic fern species; and research and intensive training on water and climate monitoring, soil sample analysis, plant and invertebrate surveys, seed-banking and sampling for genetic research.

Year 2 (2022/2023) intended to begin on scaling up restoration of the cloud forest. However, this year saw significant challenges following confirmation of plant pathogens causing diseases and death of endemic tree species within the Peaks National Park. Partners continued to work together to understand, and begin preparing for, long-term actions necessary to support large-scale conservation of the cloud forest.

In-depth updates of work achieved over Years 1 & 2, and quarterly progress updates for Year 3 can be viewed in the Key documents section.

Latest News

A story map for the project has been published: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/426fd3e280d1401d8136ba22a6f89ef6.
- The RSPB published two stories, where the work of the project was featured, including for:
  - Women’s Day:Carrying out conservation on a global scale – celebrating our team on International Women’s Day (rspb.org.uk)
  - Day of Forests and World Water Day: How cloud forest restoration on St Helena is bringing back wildlife and boosting water security (rspb.org.uk).
- The Natural History Museum published a blog on the new pirate spider species discovered on the island through work funded by the St Helena Cloud Forest Project: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2024/february/new-species-pirate-spiders-discovered-south-atlantic-island.html
- On St Helena, during Quarter 4, a further two public talks were held by the SHCFP:
  - Amy Webster from the University of Birmingham and Jayne Crozier from CABI gave an update on tree disease and plant pathogens threatening St Helena, filmed by WTSDN and made available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/z_b-gxrg17Q
  - Dr Mark Nicholson, during a self-funded trip to St Helena, discussed the methodologies, challenges, successes and failures after a quarter of a century restoring Brackenhurst’s native forests, as he linked the work on St Helena to the cloud forest restoration work being done as part of a Darwin Project in Kenya’s Taita Hills.

5 August 2021: RSPB Funding announcement
5 August 2021: Daily Telegraph article ‘Government backs bid to save UK’s last cloud forest”
8 November 2021: SHG Press Release on “Locally Produced Short Film Wins ‘Impact Award’ At COP26”
6 November 2021:International National Trusts Organisation film promotes the work at the cloud forest
19 November 2021: St Helena Independent feature on the project
20 December 2021: 2-page project update issued to local newspapers.
21 December 2021: SHG press release about project helping restore Large Bellflower
11 February 2022: Sky News Breakfast features the project

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iRecord St Helena is an on-line Biological Recording Database launched in February 2023 by the St Helena Research Institute (SHRI) hosting records of wildlife sightings collected on the island by both professionals and amateur naturalists. Explore further and contribute your sightings via the web portal or app.

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