GIBRALTAR helped members of the British family of nations boost their nature at last week’s council of Environment Ministers of overseas territories.
The Rock’s minister for the Environment and Climate Change, John Cortes chaired the online session, which meets at least once a year.
Environment ministers and senior officials from all the British territories dotted around the globe took part in the discussion.
The UK’s Minister for Biosecurity, Marine and Rural Affairs Lord Benyon took part in the meeting.
Gibraltar pioneered the creation of the Council of Environment Ministers from the UK Overseas territories and Crown Dependencies.
It hosted the first meeting of the group at Garrison Library in 2015.
The ministers covered topics like their desire to take part in conferences of the parties, environmental conventions and agreements.
They examined the different forms of biodiversity and how the territories could get funding for environmental projects and manage protected areas.
Their success at meeting and informing themselves led the ministers to decide to meet every six months.
Minister Cortes said:“All the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies are very different from each other in many ways.
“But they also share many common challenges, problems and opportunities.
“These meetings of the Council have proved extremely useful in pushing the environmental agenda both in our small jurisdictions and also in the UK.”
Cayman Islands and Bermuda have the highest populations of all the British Overseas Teritories.
But apart from Gibraltar the territories have large portions of rural land, with Falkland Islands having over 12,000km2 of land area.
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