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British-Irish Council – Annual Report – 2012
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Vogrie Country Park
Environment (Led by the UK Government)
Pollution, climate change, invasive species and other environmental hazards and threats do
not respect borders making intergovernmental co-operation vital to protect and improve the
environment across these islands.
The Environment work sector was established at the first British-Irish Council Summit
in 1999 and is led by the UK Government. Ministers have discussed a very broad range of
environmental topics since then, including sustainable development, marine management,
waste management, adaptation to climate change and most recently biodiversity.
Ministerial Meeting
The Council’s Environment Work Sector held its latest and twelfth Ministerial meeting, hosted
by the Scottish Government, at the Vogrie Country Park, Midlothian on 7th September 2012.
The meeting was chaired by Mr Paul Wheelhouse MSP and focused on biodiversity, and
covered strategies, awareness campaigns, managing invasive species, ecosystems approach,
public engagement and strategies used to monitor and survey habitats and species. Before the
meeting, Ministers took part in a ‘BioBlitz’ with local school children to gather information
and boost records of species in Vogrie Country Park. Ministers welcomed the news that
as a result of the Council’s work, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) would
be enhancing the existing network to allow the Channel Islands to share their monitoring
and surveillance data with the wider society through the National Biodiversity Network
Gateway (NBN). Ministers also recognised the threat that invasive species pose to the island
ecosystems which make up the Council’s membership. Ministers discussed existing awareness
campaigns, how to improve monitoring, warning systems and risk assessment across Member
Administrations and the potential for an expert meeting in the run-up to the planned related
EU Strategy.