Ministers and senior officials from UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) and Crown Dependencies (CDs) met online on 9th March 2025 to discuss the future of the environment in their jurisdictions. This was the ninth 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, May & November 2023, an May 2024.

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

At the meeting were representatives from Alderney, Anguilla,  Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, St Helena, Sark, Tristan da Cunha and the Turks and Caicos Islands, with apologies from Bermuda, the [British] Virgin Islands, Monrserrat 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 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, Heritage, Transport and Technical Services, Gibraltar (with, not shown: Dr Liesl Mesillo, Principal Secretary, Ministry of Education, the Environment, Sustainability, Climate, Heritage, Transport and Technical Services; Stephen Warr, Chief Executive, Department of the Environment; Dr Keith Bensusan, Consultant to Government)

Mary Creagh MP, Minister for Nature, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), UK

Dr Mike Pienkowski, Chairman, UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum (Secretariat)

Hon. Christine Scipio, Minister of Environment, Natural Resources and Planning, St Helena

Hon. Clare Barber, Minister of Environment, Food and Agriculture, Isle of Man

Deputy Lindsay De Sausmarez, President of the Committee for the Environment & Infrastructure, Guernsey

Conseiller Dr Carol Cragoe, Chief Pleas and La Société Sercquaise, Sark

MLA Pete Biggs, Lead Councillor on Environment, Falkland Islands

Mr James Robinson, Head of Operations, & Mr Glyn Mason, Waste and Recycling Officer, States of Alderney

Ms Melissa Meade, Principal Assistant Secretary, Ministry of Sustainability, Innovation and the Environment, Anguilla

Ms Tiffany Simpson, Director of Conservation, Ascension Island Government Conservation and Fisheries Directorate

Mrs Lisa Hurlston-McKenzie, Senior Policy Advisor for Climate Resiliency, Ministry of Sustainability & Climate Resiliency, Cayman Islands

Ms Debbie Horton, Environmental Policy Officer, Falkland Islands

Mr Guy Dumas, Gibraltar UK Representative

Mr Jim Robinson, Director Natural Environment, States of Guernsey

Mr Peter Barnes, Head of Energy & Climate Change, States of Guernsey

Ms Rachel Lowe, Contracts & Compliance Manager of the States Trading Supervisory Board which has responsibility for Guernsey Waste

Mr Willie Peggie, Group Director of Natural Environment, States of Jersey

Mr Scott Gallacher, Chief Officer, and Dr Richard Selman, Head of Ecosystems, Department of Environment, Food & Agriculture, Isle of Man

Ms Kelly Taylor, Climate Change Partner – Land, Sea & Nature, Isle of Man

Mrs Elizabeth Clingham, Head of Nature Conservation, St Helena (with, not shown, Miss Isabel Peters, Chief Environment Officer)

Mrs Kedell Worboys, St Helena UK Representative

Mr Chris Carnegy, Tristan da Cunha UK Representative

Ms Tracy Knight, Representative & Head of Turks & Caicos Islands Government London Office

Mr Peter Candler, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, UK

Ms Ness Latham, Devolution Team, Defra

Ms Gabrielle Edwards, Defra

Mr Edward Beaves, Defra

Ms Jordan Newman, Biodiversity in the OTs team, Defra

Mr Yegor Ryazanov, Devolution team, Defra

Mr James Butterworth, Defra

Ms Claire Donse, DLA Piper

Ms Marie Kingston, DLA Piper

Professor Paul Anderson, University of Birmingham and Faraday Institution’s ReLiB project

Professor Paul Shearing, University of Oxford and Faraday Institution’s SafeBatt project

Dr Pete Carr, Chagos Conservation Trust

Dr Mark Spalding, Chief Scientific Advisor to BIOT Administration

Ms Sarah Puntan-Galea, Director, Chagos Conservation Trust      

Mrs Catherine Wensink, Executive Director, UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum (Secretariat)

Mrs Ann Pienkowski, Hon. Secretary, Wider Caribbean Working Group, UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum (Secretariat)