C O N T E X T 1 4 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 6 37 Director’s cut The Manx connection: better, with less IHBC Connection Days are, in effect, facilitated conservation learning programmes writ large: costeffective, rich in practical application and networking opportunities and, we hope, experiences that are both enjoyable and enlightening for members and colleagues. This idea of connections is inspired by a seldom-expressed but very important idea for the IHBC. This is that if we make the right connections, in the right way, the base line of what shapes conservation outcomes might be a bit better, and so free up capacity for the sorts of specialists that the IHBC cultivates, letting them focus their skills on the more complex challenges. It is why we see such value in conservation accreditation within professions, for example, as it lifts the baseline standards of practitioners in any discipline. If, sadly, too much of the time involves lifting standards to what they should have been at the start, they are nevertheless a critical tool in supporting conservation outcomes. But how do we prove such large benefits from lesser inputs? And could the compact but still complex Isle of Man offer the opportunity to test any of this out? The idea of the Isle of Man as a relatively circumscribed, but still sufficiently populous and sophisticated, test bed for the diverse variables of place management is not new. From 1996 to around 2001 it served as what was presented by no less than the EU as a lab-like ‘experiment’ to assess the impacts on the construction industry of offering VAT relief on domestic repairs. Many will recognise such VAT relief as one of the core aspirations of conservation advocates today, as they understand the links to the sustainable benefits such relief can bring, as well as the economic ones. The beneficial outcomes from that initiative were sufficiently substantial When Popeye and Cloudy drew together the threads of a drugs intrigue in William Friedkin’s 1971 crime movie The French Connection, they had to look to France to understand better what was shaping their own local – and extremely unpleasant – experiences. Infinitely less dangerous, of course, but there is a lot to be said for conservation practitioners looking to the Isle of Man for sources and samples of conservation processes; of what might be done, and even done better, both on and off the island. For conservation specialists, exploring the Manx connection offers a rare opportunity to see at first hand and in microcosm the tangled threads that shape conservation outcomes in a system that, crucially, is close to the management models operating in the UK. There are some significant variations – for example curtilage does not apply there, which can cause some serious issues – but Manx systems have sufficient in common with the UK, culturally and operationally, to help people on and off the island see how things might be done more successfully but with less strain on economic resources: how to get better conservation outcomes, but at less cost. The idea of ‘conservation connections’ already offers a rich theme for the IHBC, as many will know already. Activities themed around the connection paradigm extend from our annual Branch Connection Day – where we build capacity across, and cooperation between, our local and national voluntary interests – to our annual Course Connection Day programme. That last is modelled on the Branch Connection Day, and so includes free, expenses-paid, UK-wide travel to a targeted event that raises awareness of what can help in the successful practice of conservation – not just in theory – and of accessible, cost-effective and relevant resources (not least, but also not only, those of the IHBC). In effect, our connection days help practitioners at all career stages make life in conservation just a little easier.
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