Source: https://www.apminebanconvention.org/fileadmin/APMBC/MSP/10MSP/10MSP-FinalReport-ch.pdf
Zimbabwean demining expert Farai Beghede at work on a bleak 荒涼 moorland 荒野 in the South Atlantic
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-39821956
島上二千人居住在市中心史丹利港, 其餘800至1000人分散在全島牧場. 十歲兒童便要進寄宿學校讀書, 十歲以下則以電話教學, 或派老師進駐學生家庭.
島民大病往英國就醫, 大學亦在島外自由選擇, 所有費用由福克蘭群島財政支付. 1984年漁場牌費只為四萬英鎊, 其後增至28萬英鎊, 自此開始全島建設行車道.
島上風力資源豐富, 共有六支風車和三套飛輪,節省了35-40%的柴油消耗. 全島85%農場有全日風電供應 https://www.falklands.gov.fk/our-home/renewable-energy
The Falklands penguins that would not explode 7 May 2017 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-39821956 @matthewteller
"The mines are horrible things, and very difficult to remove - you essentially have to get on your hands and knees to do that, remove bits of earth and dunes, and disrupt the ecosystem. There's a bit of a trade-off in thinking: what are the benefits of having them removed?" Paul Brickle, director of the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute, asks.
"Falkland Islanders weren't enthused by the idea, to put it bluntly," says Barry Elsby, a member of the Falklands Legislative Assembly.
"We would rather have left the minefields as they were. They are all clearly marked, clearly fenced. No civilian has ever been injured. We said to the British government, 'Don't spend the money here, go to some other country where they have a much greater need to free up farming land.'"
"Unfortunately," Elsby adds, "the British government have signed up to the Ottawa convention, which puts a duty on them to do this."
The 1997 Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty compels signatories - which include the UK - to clear minefields in territory under their control.
Since 2009 the British government has spent tens of millions of pounds on mine-clearance in the Falklands. Guy Marot of the Falkland Islands Demining Programme Office oversees a team of largely Zimbabwean operatives, highly valued for their long experience of demining in their home country and further afield.
He takes me out to one of the clearance sites. In a setting of wide open moorland, battling gales and driving rain, demining specialist Innocent Mudzamiri, fully kitted out with protective clothing and visor, explains how he approaches his job, lying prone 俯臥 in the boggy 湿软的 peat, painstakingly clearing dirt from around devices that could blow up in his face.
"It's just caution. You have to do it gently, so that you don't disturb the mine," he says.
"Your mind must be free - no thinking of home, or thinking whatever, but just concentrate."
So far, Mudzamiri and his colleagues have cleared more than seven million square metres of mostly rough countryside. But now, Phase 5 of the demining programme is seeing sensitive sites of environmental concern, such as Yorke Bay, come up for clearance.
The Falkland Islands Government is part of the way through drawing up an environmental impact assessment, examining the risks and benefits from demining wildlife-rich sites.
Yorke Bay is particularly difficult, since in 1982 mines were placed on top of the sand dunes, but, over 35 years, the dunes have changed shape and shifted with the wind. Even with the detailed charts handed over by Argentina to the UK after the war, it's impossible now to know where the mines might be - they could have drifted far from their original position or become buried deep below the surface.
The deminers are facing having to dig up the entire beach, perhaps with armoured machinery, and sift it all. The idea is to do that during the winter, while the penguins are out at sea. But their habitat, and the wider ecosystem, could be entirely destroyed.
Another potential hazard is tourism, a key driver of the Falklands economy. About 50,000 people visit the islands annually, most of them day-trippers from cruise ships plying 定期往返 the waters around South America and Antarctica.
Each time a cruise ship docks, hundreds of passengers at a time come ashore to see the wildlife. If Yorke Bay is reopened, its easy-to-reach location - barely 10 minutes' drive from Stanley - could make it a magnet for tourist traffic.
Another source of worry comes from the locals. Most beaches in the Falklands are on private land. But Yorke Bay is publicly owned - and opening it up could revive its pre-war status as one of Stanley's most popular getaways. There are already concerns about quad-biking 四輪機車 and livestock grazing 放牧 on public land outside the Yorke Bay fences. Whether the rejuvenated land within the minefield could be protected when the fences come down remains uncertain.
In 2010 Marot oversaw the clearance of Surf Bay, another beach near Stanley, which held 1,800 mines. Today, as locals ramble 漫步 over dunes and on to its sandy beach to walk their dogs, it's hard to discern the damage that was done.
"The re-establishment is remarkable," says Marot. "The processes used at the time included blowing up the anti-tank mines in situ 在原本位置. The holes here were 10m deep in some places - this was a moonscape 月的表面. But then we put all the sand back on top, and tried to do it in a way that would allow nature to eventually recover completely, which is what you see now."
So the Falklands is facing a head-on clash between the obligation to clear mines and the imperative for environmental conservation.
Meanwhile the honking 鵝鳴叫 jackasses 鳥 behind the Yorke Bay fences are thriving, ironically because of one of the worst things humanity can do - start a war.
延伸閱讀: http://minekafon.org
http://en.mercopress.com/2016/02/24/falkland-s-demining-project-fourth-phase-draws-to-a-close
