The Herpetological Conservation Trust and Froglife will soon be no more...
Froglife lost its relevance to grass roots amphibian and reptile conservation several years ago. For reasons that elude me, the organisation has managed to retain its media following and is still frequently consulted on various issues by journalists working for various publications. In essence, Froglife became little more than a brand. In my opinion it was a brand with little substance, but a successful brand none the less.
To the public, The Herpetological Conservation Trust is an almost unknown entity. It consists of knowledgeable and experienced herpetologists who just put their collective heads down and get on with things. HCT are one of the lead partners on herpetofauna biodiversity action plans and play an important role lobbying government both nationally and internationally. Unfortunately they tend to do this without widely communicating their work in any meaningful way. The result is an organisation that is eminently qualified to advise on various conservation matters, but one that is largely unknown to the public.
Since Froglife and HCT clearly have complementary qualities their respective trustees have decided that merging the two organisations into a new unified body will better serve herpetofauna conservation. The new organisation will retain most if not all existing staff and go by the snappy name of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust. This will inevitably be shortened to ARCT. The first public appearance takes place this week at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, where they will be promoting Dragon Gardens. More on that in another post.
I consider that merging the two organisations is the right thing to do. I'm not sure about the name though. They should have retained the Froglife branding. I'm also less than thrilled by some aspects of their internal structure. Despite rumours that ARCT will launch a 'friends' scheme, the new trust will not be a democratic membership organisation. ARCT Friends will not be members of the organisation, just financial supporters. I'm not a great fan of this approach and it really smells of the old Froglife.
These concerns aside, I really do hope that the new organisation will be successful in re-energising herpetofauna conservation and not become just a new facade on two tired old faces. Time will tell.
