27 April 2017
The Minister for the Environment is to join representatives from UK Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories to discuss how to work more closely together on environmental issues at a meeting in Alderney tomorrow (28 April 2017).
Representatives from 11 UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) and Crown Dependencies from as far afield as Bermuda, Pitcairn and the British Virgin Islands will be travelling to the Channel Island to discuss a diverse range of issues including:
- The potential impact of Brexit and the subsequent changes to UK laws
- Climate change
- Sharing limited resources
The event has been co-ordinated by the non-governmental organisation the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum and is being hosted by the government of Alderney.
Combined, the UKOTs and Crown Dependencies are home to a far greater concentration of endemic (found nowhere else) and endangered species than any other part of the UK, with an estimated 100,000 native species of which 300 might be endemic species restricted to a single location.
This is the second meeting of its kind. The first was hosted by Gibraltar in 2015 and attended by officers from the Department of the Environment. In Alderney, the Minister for the Environment, Deputy Steve Luce will be accompanied by the Environment Department Deputy Chief Executive and Director of the Environment Willie Peggie.
gov.je