Ministers and senior officials from UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) and Crown Dependencies (CDs) met online in October 2022 to discuss the future of the environment in their jurisdictions. This was the fifth meeting of the Council of Environment Ministers (or equivalents) of UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies and took place on the Zoom platform of their secretariat, the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum on 7th October. Previous meetings took place in Gibraltar in 2015, Alderney in 2017, the Isle of Man in February 2018 and online in April 2021.

The meeting was chaired by Hon. Professor John Cortés, Gibraltar’s Minister for Education, Heritage, Environment, Energy and Climate Change, and coordinated by the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum (UKOTCF), a non-governmental organisation.

At the meeting were representatives from Alderney, Anguilla, Bermuda, (British) Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, St Helena, Sark, Tristan da Cunha, and the Turks and Caicos Islands, with contributions and agreement fom Montserrat and Pitcairn.

Although very different in character, finances and their relationships with UK, the islands all boast beautiful environments that are important to economies and way of life. In terms of biodiversity, the UK Overseas Territories hold over 90% of the world biodiversity for which UK is responsible. Many of these species, such as the Montserrat oriole and St Helena wirebird, occur nowhere else in the world.  UK Overseas Territories support more penguins than does any other nation.

An agreed statement was issued and can be seen here.