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The government of Gibraltar invited the overseas British territories from around the world to meet on July 9-15, 2015 for the United Kingdom Overseas Territories Conservation Forum (UKOTCF).This event, which was last held in 2009 in the Cayman Islands, saw the participation of managers of protected British areas in the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, the North and South Atlantic, and the Caribbean basin. These territories have access to the European project BEST, through which the European Commission diffuses indispensable information for selecting and financing the “best” projects for the conservation of ultramarine biodiversity. Romain Renoux, responsible for project BEST for the 15 European territories of the Caribbean, as part of the European cooperation division of the Réserve Naturelle, presented a progress on his work for the identification of key biodiversity, as did his counterpart Maria Taylor, who is based in the Falkland Islands, for her southern Atlantic region. A major interest for this forum is to share common experiences - at the end of the day it is evident that the methodologies remain the same, even at distances of thousands of miles and in wildly differing environments.
Romain Renoux, also in charge of managing the Agoa sanctuary Saint Martin, and Amandine Eynaudi, representative of the Agoa sanctuary for the Agency of Protected Marine Areas, took advantage of this occasion to make a presentation about Agoa, as well as the cooperation that will be put into place with the Netherlands Antilles islands. Next was suggesting to the British islands in the Caribbean (Anguilla, British Virgin Island, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Turks & Caicos) to get on board with this adventure, and taking the first step by inviting them to join in the effort. The answer is “yes” and a first official contact with the government of Anguilla will encourage technical and scientific exchanges for the protection of marine mammals. This first step could well lead to increasing the size of the zone already protected, thanks to the results of a communication and awareness campaign led by Agoa since its creation. Bravo !
