MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Overseas Territories two-day Biodiversity Strategy forum held in the Falkland Islands

Overseas Territories participants of the Biodiversity Strategy workshop held in the Falkland Islands. Lawmaker MLA Leona Roberts in the middle of the pic.

A successful two-day workshop for the new Overseas Territories Biodiversity Strategy, held in the Falkland Islands concluded successfully last Friday. The workshop led by the UK’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee, in partnership with FIG and representatives from conservation, science, rural business, economic development, tourism and fishing sectors.

The two day meeting contributed to a framework for enabling the UK Government and the Governments of the Overseas Territories to agree priorities for biodiversity and nature conservation.

A huge thank you from the Falklands government to everyone who attended the workshop to share their expertise.

The JNCC is the public body that advises the UK Government and devolved administrations on UK-wide and international nature conservation.

JNCC work helps maintain and enrich biological diversity and conserve geological features. It also helps sustain natural systems, which provide the core “services” we all depend on like food, fresh water and clean air. In this way they contribute to economic growth and social well-being and are integral to sustainable development

Good policy-making, planning, development and risk management all depend on reliable, up-to-date information about biodiversity status and trends. Our role is to provide evidence, information and advice so decisions can be made that protect our natural resources and systems.

JNCC itself is a forum that brings together the UK’s four country conservation bodies. It advises Government and a wide range of bodies to help join up policy and to deliver a strong and cost-effective evidence base by helping to see that the best possible return is achieved from investment in research and surveillance in the UK and internationally.

More precisely seas and oceans cover more than 70 per cent of the surface of the planet and a similar proportion of the area under UK control is sea (not including the seas around UK overseas territories). The seas and their biodiversity are crucial to food supply, management of global climate, energy and many other aspects that are vital to human well-being. So it is essential that human activities at sea are managed for sustainability and that biodiversity is conserved.