Coming hot on the heels of the European Commission’s Strategies for islands and coastal communities and the current debate on conservation financing in the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), this timely event saw Europe’s outermost and overseas territories put at the forefront of a debate touching on regional policy, biodiversity, and climate.
The event brought together a number of speakers from Europe’s outermost regions and overseas countries and territories, with the BESTLIFE2030 programme serving as the discussion’s leitmotif.
Mr do Nascimento Cabral opened the event with and set the tone for the remainder of the conversation. The Azorean MEP was unequivocal on the importance of islands and outermost regions to EU Policy. However, in his view, despite growing EU-level cohesion on regional policy in recent years, islands are yet to be regarded as the strategic asset they are. As an example, the EU’s commitments to climate and biodiversity rely in no small part on these islands’ essential contribution to their own protection, conservation, and prosperity. Some, such as the Açores archipelago and Madeira, have taken decisive steps in this direction through an extensive designation of protected areas (both marine and otherwise). Mr do Nascimento Cabral also called for stronger recognition of territorial specificities in EU policy and remarked candidly that, to him, it sometimes seemed that certain decisions made in Brussels ignored their regional impact.
MEP Younous Omarjee, hailing from La Réunion, emphasised the vital role outermost regions and overseas territories have to play in safeguarding the environment and biodiversity. He recalled the history of the BESTLIFE2030 programme as an instrument – born in collaboration with the European Parliament – built notably to compensate for the non-application of Natura 2000 in these territories. He insisted on the need to defend the LIFE programme in the next MFF, a sentiment echoed by numerous speakers.
Moderated by a representative from the EU IUCN office, these interventions were promptly followed by a series of local actors who provided concrete examples of how actions funded with the help of BESTLIFE2030 were being implemented on the ground. The three presentations broached aligning the interests of fishers and conservationists (which were deemed non-mutually exclusive), the protection of rivers and water resources in Mayotte, and the conservation of birds in Madeira.
Representatives from the European Commission also took the floor, with DG ENV’s Alexandra Vakrou telling attendees the European Parliament must be thanked for its efforts on BESTLIFE2030 and that biodiversity can bolster EU competitiveness (which is why LIFE actions were enshrined in the European Competitiveness Fund proposal). DG INTPA’s Aurélie Godefroy added that EU overseas countries and territories are critical for climate and biodiversity policy.
This was followed by an insightful intervention by the Mayor of Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe), Mr Harry Durimel, who explained the necessity of involving local actors and ensuring perennial funding for conservation projects. He gave the example of BESTLIFE2030 project LAPWENT LOKAL (La pépinière des Caraïbes), a tree nursery which seeks to restore local biodiversity and create an urban forest, while preserving traditional techniques and providing training and education for the community.
As a native of the Canary Islands, MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar wrapped up the discussion with a short defence of the importance of outermost regions and cooperation across political groups to defend them and their biodiversity.
It was no surprise that the event saw the European Parliament’s longstanding support for the EU’s outermost regions, overseas countries and territories, and islands on full display. Nevertheless, it proved how pressing the issues they face are to the EU at large, reinforcing the notion underpinning the whole discussion: these territories must not be forgotten in EU policy, but seen as a truly strategic asset.
At a time when climate change increasingly threatens biomes and biodiversity and, with that, the livelihoods of countless affected communities, and when growing competitiveness, defence, and security concerns dominate, so the relevance of these regions soars. Speakers urged people to remember these places are on the conservation front line, and without them succeeding the EU is likely to struggle to meet the challenge it has set itself.
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