Turn disputed Chagos Islands into marine reserve, say conservationists

by Stephen Adams

from The Telegraph

A marine reserve comparable to the Great Barrier Reef and the Galapagos Islands could be created in the contested waters of a British-owned group of tropical islands.

Conservationists want to create the reserve in the Chagos Islands, a group of coral atolls in the Indian Ocean that were forcibly and illegally depopulated by the Britain between 1967 and 1971 to make way for an American-run military base.

The Chagos Environment Network is planning to launch its new proposals at the Royal Society in London in early March, but it has already come under attack for not consulting thousands of homeless Chagossians.

The Chagos Islands, which lie a few degrees south of the Equator, are some of the most remote in the world. They include the Great Chagos Bank, which at about 100 miles across is the biggest atoll structure in the world.

William Marsden, chairman of the Chagos Conservation Trust, told Economist.com that the 250,000 square mile reserve would be "in the big league".

He said: "It is going to be compatible with defence and do something for the Chagossians".

But Julian Hanford, a spokesman for the UK Chagos Support Association, warned: "Now everyone is saying that we should keep it in perpetuity for world heritage or whatever. Again the Chagossians don't get a look in. This can be used as another excuse not to let them back."

He said the islands were of great conservation value because they had been "swept clean" of people.

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour MP and chair of the Chagos Islands All Party Parliamentary Group, said it was "regrettable" the exiled Chagossians had not been consulted. 

He said: "Examples of conservation done against the wishes of local people are disastrous."

In 1966 Harold Wilson agreed to allow the Americans to operate a base on Diego Garcia, the biggest land island. They demanded the group was emptied for security reasons and some 2,000 people were evicted by 1971.

Diego Garcia has been an important strategic base ever since.

The legality of the islanders' eviction has always been disputed.

Last October the House of Lords ruled that the Chagossians could not return home, after the Government appealed an earlier court ruling that they could.

A Foreign Office spokesman said that while the Government "welcomes and encourages" recognition of the global environmental importance of the British Indian Ocean Territories, as they are officially known, its policy remains that "no person has the right of abode" or right of entry unless authorised.