Ministers and senior officials from UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) and Crown Dependencies (CDs) met online on 15th May 2024 to discuss the future of the environment in their jurisdictions. This was the eighth 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 . Previous meetings took place in Gibraltar in 2015, Alderney in 2017, the Isle of Man in February 2018 and online in April 2021,  October 2022 and May & November 2023.

The meeting was chaired by Hon. Professor John Cortés, Gibraltar’s Minister for Minister for Education, the Environment, Sustainability, Climate Change, Heritage, Technical Servces and Transport, 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, St Helena, Sark, and the Turks and Caicos Islands, with apologies from Jersey, Monrserrat, Pitcairn and Tristan da Cunha.

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 internationally. 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.

The meeting photo above shows some, but not all, of the participants. Those included are, from left to right, by rows from the top:

Hon. Prof. John Cortés, Minister for Education, the Environment, Sustainability, Climate Change, Heritage, Technical Services and Transport, Gibraltar
Dr Mike Pienkowski, Chairman, UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum (Secretariat)
Hon. Clare Barber, Minister of Environment, Food and Agriculture, Isle of Man
Conseiller Dr Carol Cragoe, Chief Pleas and La Société Sercquaise, Sark
Deputy Lindsay De Sausmarez, President of the Committee for the Environment & Infrastructure, Guernsey
Ms Tracy Knight, Head of Turks and Caicos Islands Government London Office
Mr Mike Jervois, Head of Environment, Falkland Islands
Mr Glyn Mason, Waste and Recycling Officer, States of Alderney
Ms Chanelle Petty Barrett, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sustainability, Innovation and the Environment, Anguilla
Mrs Catherine Wensink, Executive Director, UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum (Secretariat)
Hon. Christine Scipio, Minister of Environment, Natural Reources, St Helena, and colleagues
Mrs Kedell Worboys, St Helena UK Representative
Mr Jim Robinson, Director Natural Environment, States of Guernsey
Ms Carencia Rouse, Director of Environment, Anguilla
Mr Guy Dumas, Gibraltar UK Representative
Ms Jodey Peyton, Conservation Officer, UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum (Secretariat)
Anguilla UK Office
Hon. Josephine Connolly, Minister of Tourism, Environment, Heritage, Maritime & Gaming, Turks and Caicos Islands, and colleagues
Hon. Minister Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, Minister of Sustainability & Climate Resiliency, Cayman Islands
Ms Angela Burnett, Environmental Officer, Ministry of Environment, Natural Resurces and Climate Change, [British] Virgin Islands
Dr Tasha Ebanks Garcia, Cayman Islands Government Representative to the UK
Dr Ken Milne, Director of Environment, and Dr Richard Selman, Head of Ecosystems, Department of Environment, Food & Agriculture, Isle of Man
Mr Simon Renton, Environmental Protection Unit Manager, Department of Environment Food & Agriculture, Isle of Man
Ms Tessa Smith, Assistant Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change [British] Virgin Islands
Ms Angela Horton, [British] Virgin Islands UK Office
Ms Melissa Meade, Chief Natural Resources Officer, Anguilla
Hon. Rebecca Pow MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary, Defra
Ms Ness Latham, Devolution Team, Defra
Ms Dora Hannyngton, Biodiversity in the OTs team, Defra
Ms Jasmine Parkinson, Biodiversity in the OTs team Defra
Ms Becca Jeffree, Plastics Pollution, Defra
Ms Suzanne Stafford, Disposable Vapes, Defra
Mr Yegor Ryazanov, Devolution team, Defra
Ms Kylie Bamford, Head of Marine Conservation, FCDO
Ms Jordan Newman, Biodiversity in the OTs team, Defra
Professor Paul Shearing, Principal Investigator on the Faraday Institution’s SafeBatt project
Ms Rachel Jones, Zoological Society of London
Mr Matthew Owen, St Helena National Trust
Professor Heather Koldeway, Zoological Society of London