ABSTRACT
In the late 1980s, at the beginning of my research on environmental issues in Northern Ireland, I became involved in efforts to protect some lagoons in Belfast Harbour from industrial development. The lagoons were the result of land claim operations that had begun in the 1930s, and although they were not ‘natural’, they had become important roosting and feeding areas for birds, important enough, in fact, for the government to designate them an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in 1987. In June 1988, I was one of several representatives of environmental NGOs putting the case for nature conservation at a Public Inquiry into a proposed development plan for the Belfast urban area. At this Inquiry it was revealed that, two months earlier, the government had granted the landowners permission to fill in the lagoons. The conservationists were incensed. Statements were issued to the press and letters were exchanged with government officials. In this correspondence and later discussions it became clear that the conservationists and the officials were guided by very different concerns. The conservationists wanted only to protect the lagoons, while the officials were more concerned that the correct legal procedures be followed. This was quite a revelation to me. Until then I had naively assumed that the officials who had designated the ASSI were simply the official face of the conservation movement, dedicated, within the constraints permitted by their position in government, to the same ideals as the NGOs. It was an important lesson in cultural diversity.1
