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United Kingdom - Ascension Island

Status: UK overseas territory

Population: 1,000 (2007)

Time: GMT

Geography

Area: 88 sq km

Main settlement: Georgetown

Topography: Ascension Island is the peak of a 3,500m volcanic mountain range mostly submerged and rising 875m above sea level. There are on the island 44 dormant, but not extinct, volcanoes. There are no surface streams.

Climate: Tropical with strongly moderating and stabilising oceanic influence. Mean temperatures show very little seasonal variation (27–31°C) and rainfall is light (165mm at sea level and much higher on Green Mountain).

Vegetation: Though previously barren, with increasing precipitation, the island is becoming greener, with lush tropical vegetation on Green Mountain, where there is a farm, and increasingly in other parts of the island. An invasive thorn tree of Mexican origin has spread over half the island, transforming the bare volcanic scenery. Biological and mechanical measures have been adopted to limit further spread.

Wildlife: The island’s 32 crescent-shaped beaches provide a critical breeding area for the endangered green turtles which visit each year from December to May. It is the most important sea bird breeding site in the tropical Atlantic. Many thousands of sooty terns breed on the island while others including the endemic Ascension frigatebird, the red and yellow-billed tropic birds and the rare red-footed booby breed on Boatswain Bird Island and offshore rocks. The waters surrounding the island are rich in marine life, including tuna, sharks, marlin and sailfish.

Transport/Communications: There are 40km of roads. The RMS St Helena provides a regular service between the UK, Ascension, St Helena and Cape Town. A UK Ministry of Defence charter cargo ship calls monthly and a US supply ship calls six times a year. There are regular flights of the UK and US air forces. From October 2003, non-scheduled civilian charter flights were permitted to use the military Wideawake Airfield.

The international dialling code is +247. There are 490 main telephone lines per 1,000 people (2002).

There are 500 internet users (2002).

Society

Population: 1,000 (2007); 1,123 (1998 census), 719 St Helenians, 192 Americans and the rest from the UK. There are no permanent residents; the population comprises employees and their families on contract to one of the organisations operating on the island or to the local government. Ascension is part of the Anglican diocese of St Helena and the Roman Catholic Apostolate of the South Atlantic and Antarctica.

Media: The Islander is the weekly newspaper (www.the-islander.org.ac). There are separate US and UK radio and TV channels. Radio broadcasts are received via the BBC’s Atlantic Relay Station and US Air Force’s Volcano Radio. The administrator’s website, providing information on the territory, is at http://www.ascension-island.gov.ac/.

Education: free and compulsory from age five to 16 years. There is one primary and one secondary school.

Economy

Overview: Sales of postage stamps and raising of transit charges only provide limited revenue. A fiscal regime was introduced in April 2002, providing additional revenue through a combination of income tax, customs duties and a property tax.

The British Broadcasting Corporation established its Atlantic Relay Station in 1966 (for broadcasts to South America and West Africa). Cable & Wireless has had a presence on the island since 1899 and now both provides telecoms services via satellite and manages the European Space Agency tracking station. Since April 2001, the Ascension Island government has provided and funded public services such as education, health care and infrastructure management. It also runs the savings bank, the post office and police force.

Ascension experienced rapid development in 1982 during the Falklands conflict between the UK and Argentina, and has continued to be utilised as a supply link to the South Atlantic. Agreement on use of Wideawake Airfield by civilian charter flights opened up opportunities for new economic activities.

History

Ascension was discovered by the Portuguese in 1501 and named on a subsequent visit on Ascension Day 1503. When Napoleon was exiled on St Helena in 1815, such was the respect he engendered that the British also placed garrisons on Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. After Napoleon died in 1821, the island was used as a base for ships engaged in the suppression of the slave trade on the West African coast and remained under the supervision of the British Admiralty until it was made a dependency of St Helena in 1922 and was then managed by the Eastern Telegraph Company (renamed Cable & Wireless in 1934), until the appointment of an administrator in 1964. The US first established a war-time air base there in 1942, which it then reoccupied in 1957 and later, for a period, used in connection with the tracking of the Apollo Space programme. In 1982 it was an important staging post for the UK in the Falklands conflict.

Administration

The Governor of St Helena is concurrently Governor of Ascension. There is a resident administrator, who administers the island on behalf of the governor and is also the chief magistrate (and is assisted by six justices of the peace), the coroner, registrar of births, marriages and deaths, immigration officer, harbour master and receiver of wrecks. Elections were held in November 2002 for the island’s first advisory island council.