Honourable Claude E.S. Hogan, Minister of Agriculture, Housing. Lands and Environment (MAHLE)
The Honourable Claude E.S. Hogan, Minister of Agriculture, Housing. Lands and Environment (MAHLE) joined other Environment Ministers of the UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, and their representatives, at a meeting in Alderney in April 2017 to discuss common challenges, the responsibilities of UK Government, and to share issues and ideas for the way forward.
Upon his return, Minister Hogan issued a Media Statement from the Meeting at Alderney, Channel Islands which underscores the importance of UK Overseas Territories (OTs) as the host of over 80% of the Biodiversity for which the UK has an international obligation to conserve and protect.
At Alderney, where 14 of the territories – ranging from Bermuda to Pitcairn and Gibraltar – joined the meeting of the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum on the Channel island of Alderney, Hogan reported, “we agreed that we need the UK Government to live up to its obligations to engage and properly assist the OTs with environment protection, management and adaptation to climate change. We have transmitted formally to the UK that we now have new institutional arrangements in which the OTs will set the priorities for interventions in our environment.
We are concerned that lots of projects leave us in a worse situation when competitive bids are won by international companies/actors that take little or no account of the sustainability of the projects they bid for. We attach great importance to our Environment and our Biodiversity as crucially linked to Tourism and other elements of our Sustainable Livelihoods, such as Agriculture.”
Prior to this release, an article by Roger Harrabin, 2 May 2017 from the section Science & Environment, the BBC environment analyst, quoted the OT ministers as saying that the O.T’s have been negatively impacted by the U.K.’s decision to cut funds and the fact that Britain had been distracted by BREXIT, that HMG has cut funds and been distracted by Brexit.
According to the article the claim is, “there is huge confusion among government departments about responsibility for the territories,” but’ “The government calls the criticism unfair and points to its creation of large marine protection areas.”
Meantime, the article quoted Minister Hogan to say, undoubtedly supporting the ministers claim: “There is confusion in policy. We don’t know the best person to approach and we end up going round in circles between different ministries.”
The B.B.C. article quoted the ministers are saying that the O.T’s have been negatively impacted by the U.K.’s decision to cut funds and the fact that Britain had been distracted by BREXIT, while Hogan goes on to complain: “To protect the island and adapt to climate change we need to put in sea defences – but we only get enough money to go from one consultancy to the next.”
This must be part of HMG’s reason for calling the statements or the Ministers’ position unfair, since while Hogan was saying this about sea defences, there were funds allocated under Montserrat Priority Infrastructure Needs 2015-2018: To provide financial assistance to the Government of Montserrat for priority infrastructure requirements to the tune of £4.9million with £0.3 million for the sea defeTnces specifically in Little Bay.
The BBC article noted, “The UK holds jurisdiction over 19 British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies – parts of the British Empire that have not been granted independence or have voted to remain British territories.”
It also noted that the territories had previously received support for environment-focused programmes from the aid department DFID. But they said that ministers have now switched interest towards traditional job creation – even though the islanders said their economic future depends on a healthy environment.
And, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said the government was already working to improve cross-departmental policies on the territories.
Montserrat has suffered recently or in the early years of this decade from a show of lack of serious concern for its environment by those in authority. Claude Gerald in support of Lawyer Jean Kelsick who questioned actions relating to the environment, had this to say: “You are asking much and in fact too much but ask you must. The dye is already cast and the stain of allowing the physical degradation of nature’s gifts to our island shall not be altered. We are in a different mold of management. It is a now paradigm and not tomorrow or later. Sell our patrimony for dollars. Smash down Gun hill and bury Piper’s pond. Chase the egrets and ravish native trees. Just Brok Dong and gwarne bad because a we run things!
Nothing of value matters anymore Mr. Kelsick. Save your breath. (See from a year ago: where the Minister was reminded about the debacle in environmental matters: https://www.themontserratreporter.com/early-follow-up-response-and-more-on-lawyer-kelsicks-carrs-bay-beach-letter/)
Minister Hogan could not be aware of the previous environmental support the island has received prior, and recent years. This reference from a TMR article. “The foregoing confirms HMG’s Audit Committee on Environmental Sustainability finding that in Montserrat “It is notable also that, against much local feeling to maintain sites of biological and cultural importance, the DFID-dominated government in Montserrat is allowing—and indeed promoting—destructive development at Pipers Pond (the only remaining mangrove area on the island), Carr’s Bay Battery historical site and the historic cemetery.” (https://www.themontserratreporter.com/mdc-ceo-browne-is-wrong/) 18 April 2014
See also the following dealing with the deception surrounding Little Bay regarding the environmental degradation. https://www.themontserratreporter.com/pipers-pond-has-montserrat-been-intentionally-mislead-by-the-dfid-and-the-mdc/
