MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands chairs UK Overseas Territories Association

FIGO Representative in London Ms. S. Cameron MBE

FALKLAND Islands Government Representative in London, Sukey Cameron, was this week elected to chair the UK Overseas Territories Association (UKOTA) for the coming year.

Ms Cameron has previously served as Chair of the group four times; in 1996/7, 2001/2, 2002/3 and 2006/7. Ms Dawn Smith, Representative of the British Virgin Islands was elected as Secretary and Mr. Albert Poggio OBE, Representative of Gibraltar has been elected Treasurer. The two main projects concerning UKOTA in the coming year will be the administration of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) Scholarship, which will be awarded to a citizen of one of the Overseas Territories, to study Applied Ecology and Conservation at the University of Reading; details of the scheme will be announced shortly. UKOTA will also be working with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on a Forum to take place at the time of the Overseas Territories Consultative Conference, later in the year. The Forum will be looking at the progress made in Overseas Territories since the White Paper, which was published in 1999. It will include key stakeholders and examine the progress made and what remains to be done, as well as agreeing on how to take forward the White Paper agenda. UKOTA was established in 1994 and the members are: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn, St. Helena and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Except for Pitcairn, all the Territories have Representatives in the UK. By Lisa Johnson - SeAled PR - Stanley