The Friends of Charles Darwin

FALKLANDS CONSERVATION has received a massive boost in the form of a grant of over £100,000 from the UK Darwin Initiative. The money will allow the charity to undertake a three year project on invertebrates, an aspect of Falklands wildlife widely ignored in the past… According to the spokesperson, 70% of the invertebrates of the Falklands are believed to be endemic. "They comprise the largest, yet most poorly documented, proportion of the Islands’ total biodiversity." The first substantial collections were made by Charles Darwin (after whom the award scheme is named) in 1834, on his famous voyage in the Beagle. Many of the specimens Darwin collected are still to be found in the Natural History Museum, London.