Mike shows the way for conservation

AN ecologist is back in Edinburgh after training forest officers in a small village in Asia.

Mike Jordan spent ten days in the forest village of Lobessa in Bhutan, training staff in conservation techniques so they can begin surveying the country's small animals.

Mr Jordan, who works for Atmos Consulting in Liberton Brae, said Bhutan's biodiversity was threatened by a lack of training and support: "In Bhutan the focus has been on the conservation of large charismatic animals like elephants and tigers and very little has been done to monitor the falling populations of smaller mammals like bats, rats and squirrels, many of which face a similar threat of extinction.

"One example of the biodiversity of the country is that it has more than 60 known species of bats – compared to 17 in the UK."