The islands’ sheep stations (ranches) vary in size and may be owned by individual families or by companies based in Britain. Almost the whole area of the two chicken road games main islands, outside of Stanley, is devoted to sheep farming. The port settlement of Stanley has regained the islands’ economic focus, with an increase in population as workers migrate from Camp. The islands’ major exports include wool, hides, venison, fish and squid; its main imports include fuel, building materials and clothing.

Economy

In the first half of the 20th century, the Falklands served an important role in Britain’s territorial claims to subantarctic islands and a section of Antarctica. Buenos Aires named Vernet military and civil commander of the islands in 1829, and he attempted to regulate sealing to stop the activities of foreign whalers and sealers. The port, located in the Brittany region of western France, was named after St. Malo (or Maclou), the Christian evangelist who founded the city. Bougainville, who founded the islands’ first settlement, named the area after the port of Saint-Malo (the point of departure for his ships and colonists). The name Falkland Islands comes from Falkland Sound, the strait that separates the two main islands.

The main settlements are linked by roads and a government-operated air service, which also provides interisland passenger service. Such efforts have enabled the islands’ economy to enjoy sustained growth since the late 20th century. In 2002 a slaughter facility was built, and the following year sheep and lamb meat began being exported to the United Kingdom.

Tierwelt der Falklandinseln

Tourists, mostly cruise ship passengers, are attracted by the archipelago’s wildlife and environment, as well as activities such as fishing and wreck diving; the majority find accommodation in Stanley. A little over a quarter of the workforce serves the Falkland Islands government, making it the archipelago’s largest employer. By 2023, oil exploration was still proceeding off the shelf of the islands with a deepwater project led by Rockhopper Exploration. Fear of dependence on fishing licences and threats from overfishing, illegal fishing and fish market price fluctuations led to increased interest in oil drilling as an alternative source of revenue.

Executive Council Papers

The islands’ cool and windy climate offers few temperature extremes and only minor seasonal variability. The two main islands, East Falkland and West Falkland, and about 200 smaller islands form a total land area nearly as extensive as the U.S. state of Connecticut. (2012, excluding British military personnel stationed on the islands) 2,563. In South America the islands are generally known as Islas Malvinas, because early French settlers had named them Malouines, or Malovines, in 1764, after their home port of Saint-Malo, France.

Four years later, nearly everyone relocated to Port Jackson, considered a better location for the government, and merchant Samuel Lafone began a venture to encourage British colonisation. Spain’s Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata became the only formal presence in the territory. The British and Spanish settlements coexisted in the archipelago until 1774, when Britain’s new economic and strategic considerations led it to withdraw the garrison from the islands, leaving a plaque claiming the Falklands for King George III. Although Fuegians from Patagonia may have visited the Falkland Islands in prehistoric times, the islands were uninhabited when Europeans first explored them. In Spanish, the territory was designated as Islas Malvinas (Falkland Islands).

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• The Falklands are treeless and have a wind-resistant vegetation predominantly composed of a variety of dwarf shrubs.
• The islands’ British heritage is apparent in Stanley, where pubs, bright red mailboxes, and well-kept gardens are numerous.
• The islands’ judicial system, overseen by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, is largely based on English law, and the constitution binds the territory to the principles of the European Convention on Human Rights.
• The remaining 2 per cent identified as adherents of other religions, including the Baháʼí Faith, Buddhism, and Islam.

Executive Council papers, forward plans and public minutes. The islands have one weekly newspaper, The Penguin News, and television and radio broadcasts generally feature programming from the United Kingdom. The Falkland Islands government pays for older students to attend institutions of higher education, usually in the United Kingdom. The main Christian denominations are Anglicanism and other Protestantism, and Roman Catholicism. The remaining 2 per cent identified as adherents of other religions, including the Baháʼí Faith, Buddhism, and Islam. The Falkland-born population are also descended from English and French people, Gibraltarians, Scandinavians, and South Americans.

The islands’ only native terrestrial mammal, the warrah, was hunted to extinction by European settlers. The archipelago’s two main islands are separated by the Falkland Sound, and its deep coastal indentations form natural harbours. The islands are predominantly mountainous and hilly, with the major exception being the depressed plains of Lafonia (a peninsula forming the southern part of East Falkland). The archipelago consists of two main islands, West Falkland and East Falkland, and 776 smaller islands. Though asserting “We will not relinquish our sovereignty” over the islands, Milei said they would not “seek conflict with the United Kingdom” over them, preferring to resolve the dispute “within the framework of peace.” The islands’ judicial system, overseen by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, is largely based on English law, and the constitution binds the territory to the principles of the European Convention on Human Rights.

TIMELINE

The islands are located in the South Atlantic Ocean, on the Patagonian Shelf, about 300 mi (480 km) east of Patagonia in southern Argentina. A British military garrison is stationed on the islands, and the Falkland Islands government funds an additional platoon to company-sized light infantry Falkland Islands Defence Force. The governor acts on the advice of the islands’ Executive Council, composed of the chief executive, the Director of Finance and three elected members of the Legislative Assembly (with the governor as chairman). The Monarch of the United Kingdom is the head of state, and executive authority is exercised on the monarch’s behalf by the governor, who appoints the islands’ chief executive on the advice of members of the Legislative Assembly.

In 1965, at the 20th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Fourth Committee determined that, in all languages other than Spanish, all UN documentation would designate the territory as Falkland Islands (Malvinas). The common Spanish name for the archipelago, Islas Malvinas, derives from the French Îles Malouines—the name given to the islands by French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville in 1764. The name Falklands was not applied to the islands until 1765, when British captain John Byron of the Royal Navy claimed them for King George III as “Falkland’s Islands”. The name Falkland was applied to the channel by John Strong, captain of an English expedition that landed on the islands in 1690. Oil exploration, licensed by the Falkland Islands Government, remains controversial as a result of maritime disputes with Argentina. The islands lie at the boundary of the subantarctic oceanic and tundra climate zones, and both major islands have mountain ranges reaching 2,300 ft (700 m).

The Legislative Assembly, a unicameral legislature, consists of the chief executive, the director of finance and eight members (five from Stanley and three from Camp) elected to four-year terms by universal suffrage. Dr Clausen is the first woman and the first Falkland Islander to become Chief Executive of the Government.The UK minister responsible for the Falkland Islands since 2024, Stephen Doughty, administers British foreign policy regarding the islands. Argentina and the UK re-established diplomatic relations in 1990, but neither has agreed on the terms of future sovereignty discussions. Landmine clearance work restarted in 2009, in accordance with the UK’s obligations under the Ottawa Treaty, and Sapper Hill Corral was cleared of mines in 2012, allowing access to an important historical landmark for the first time in 30 years. The war also left some 117 minefields containing nearly 20,000 mines of various types, including anti-vehicle and anti-personnel mines. In April 1982 the Falklands War began when Argentine military forces invaded the Falklands and other British territories in the South Atlantic, briefly occupying them until a UK expeditionary force retook the territories in June.

Welcome to the Falkland Islands Government

There is no party-political activity on the islands. Argentina says it has a right to the islands, which it calls the Malvinas, because it inherited them from the Spanish crown in the early 1800s. Argentine forces, who had landed on the Falklands to stake a territorial claim, were ejected by a British military task force. Each section of the website is crafted to enrich your understanding of the islands, offering both practical tips and engaging narratives. The governor presides over the Executive Council and must consult with it in the discharge of most of his or her duties but may, in certain circumstances, act against the advice of the council.

History

An international airport is located at the Mount Pleasant Military Complex. In the late 20th century the government instituted policies to encourage an increase in the number of smaller, locally operated farms rather than corporate-owned farms. The wool is sold in Great Britain and is the Falklands’ leading land-based export. The population of the Falkland Islands is English-speaking and consists primarily of Falklanders of British descent. Dolphins and porpoises are common, and southern sea lions and elephant seals are also numerous.

Several hundred thousand sheep are kept on the islands, producing several thousand tons of wool annually as well as some mutton. The pattern of living on the islands is sharply differentiated between Stanley and the small, isolated sheep-farming communities. Squid are abundant in the waters surrounding the islands, but overfishing became an issue in the 1990s, and measures were taken to correct the problem. About 65 species of birds, including black-browed albatrosses, Falkland pipits, peregrine falcons, and striated caracaras, are found on the islands. The islands’ vegetation is low and dense in a landscape with no natural tree growth.

• Stanley Harbour is the islands’ main port; it has a commercial wharf and receives cruise ships.
• Executive Council papers, forward plans and public minutes.
• Executive authority is vested in the British crown, and the islands’ government is headed by a governor appointed by the crown.
• Both the chief executive and the director of finance are appointed by the governor.

Education

The government began selling fishing licenses to foreigners in 1987, and the revenue generated from such sales became a major contributor to the economy. Attempts were also undertaken at that time to diversify the islands’ economy. The Falkland Islands Company, incorporated in 1852 and granted a Royal Charter in 1851, played a notable part in the economic development of the islands and was for many years the single largest sheep rancher there.

Since the end of the Falklands War in 1982, the islands’ economic activity increasingly focused on oil field exploration and tourism. Economic development was advanced by ship resupplying and sheep farming for high-quality wool. Based on 2010 data, the islands have a high Human Development Index of 0.874 and a moderate Gini coefficient for income inequality of 34.17. Introduced species include reindeer, hares, rabbits, Patagonian foxes, brown rats, and cats. The Falklands are treeless and have a wind-resistant vegetation predominantly composed of a variety of dwarf shrubs.