At the end of November, I spent a week in the UK Overseas Territory (UKOT) of Gibraltar, as a guest of one of Manx Wildlife Trust’s (MWT) corporate partners BetVictor Group (BV). The trip was organized by Kim Alcantara, Director of Legal at BV, and their champion of Environmental Social Governance (ESG).
BV employs c.600 people at their office at the World Trade Centre in Gibraltar (that has a TT motorbike ridden by John McGuinness, in their reception!), with their sister company Mayfly having an office in the Isle of Man (IOM). I’ve learnt that BV are one of many companies who have offices in the IOM and other Crown Dependencies and/or UKOTs. One of the Trustees of MWT, Magnus Grinneback, also sits on the Boards of BV and Mayfly, and Magnus connected me to Kim, who has recently joined the board of MWT’s trading arm, Wildlife Limited (WLL).
I had previously pitched an idea to Kim about how their staff could help MWT, and perhaps more widely The Wildlife Trusts (TWT), and other environmental organizations. In short, on-line gaming companies employ many people who are highly skilled at digital branding, marketing, and income generation online, and my ambition is that MWT harness this expertise to deliver a transformational change to our digital journey to benefit conservation. Kim bounced the idea off their BV user experience/user interface (UX/UI) team, who were immediately enthusiastic and wanted to take up the challenge. They saw this as a great way to deliver ESG/volunteering and at the same time, develop their teamwork and wider transferable digital skills. Kim found some budget to fund my trip and we set the dates for the end of November.
I’d had some interactions with the BV team in the weeks leading up to up to my visit and sent them an outline scope of how I thought they may wish to be involved. On my first day in Gibraltar, we met collectively (some in person and others joining via Zoom from Spain and Ukraine) so I could hear their initial thoughts and ideas, and we agreed a plan of action for the week.
We all reconvened at the end of the week, this time joined on Zoom also by Graham and Ali from MWT, who have oversight of our MWT digital communications. What was immediately apparent was the amount of work that the BV team had carried out, including a detailed analysis of the MWT website, benchmarking against similar charities, the creation of three digital personas to test the digital journey, and making clear recommendations on how MWT could drive more traffic to, and actions on, our website. I had high hopes for what the UX/UI team could deliver, and they went far beyond my expectations. Delightfully, their team are keen to stay involved and I’m aiming that this becomes a fantastic example of how corporate volunteering can make a huge positive difference, by utilizing their core work skills to deliver significant benefits for both the charity and conservation. The BV team each get one day a year that they can volunteer for a charity, but I discovered that most of the staff don’t currently use it.
Beyond my number one goal of engaging with the BV UX/UI team, I had a useful and interesting week in Gibraltar. Kim was keen that my visit stimulated more enthusiasm from the whole BV team towards ESG, the Gibraltar natural environment and about using their volunteer time to help. To this aim I did two lunchtime talks to some of their team about conservation in the IOM and other UKOTs, and both Kim and I were delighted at the interaction from the team. What was particularly nice was when I put up a slide showing the Mayfly team volunteering with MWT on the Calf of Man, one of the ladies on my slide was in my audience and she proceeded to give a better advert for volunteering with MWT than I ever could!
Gibraltarian Dr Keith Bensusan is a colleague on the Council of the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum (UKOTCF) and he chairs the UKOTCF European group. Keith has a key role in conservation in Gibraltar, as the Director of the Alameda Botanical Garden, two other amenity gardens and a team with oversight of the management of Gibraltar’s macaques and yellow-legged gulls.
I’d met Keith several times in Zoom meetings, but this was the first time face-to-face, and he was an excellent host. Following him taking me on an orientation tour on my first morning, I was given a tour of the botanic garden and small zoo within it. This reinforced my opinion that visitor attractions that showcase both plants and animals (i.e. biodiversity) have an important role. It’s a botanic garden that is an integral part of Gibraltar, and engagement with people is one of their key goals. Particularly good to see were the outdoor theatre and the brand-new children’s garden that is set to open soon.
Keith was keen to get my opinion about the botanic garden nursery, including their resources and staffing. We discussed the need for a clear collections policy, nursery production list, and appropriate staff roles to deliver both well. I enjoyed the conversation, and hope that our chat helped, and look forward to commenting on the draft documents Keith is going to send. It was great to join the latest UKOTCF Council meeting online, sat side by side with Keith in his office.
One evening Keith led me on a walk up the Mediterranean Steps to the summit of the Rock (the steepest route!). Fantastic views, lots of close encounters with some of the c.200 macaques loving there, and a great insight on the local flora and fauna.
I was keen to meet John Cortes, the Minister of the Environment, and a past member of the UKOTCF Council, who I’d heard speak at conferences, but never met. Keith arranged for me to join him and the Government vet (Mark Pizarro) for their weekly meeting. Topics on the agenda were the macaques and domestic dog management. Interesting to hear how the Gibraltar government manage the macaque population with contraceptives, ensuring that there is a sustainable and healthy population of this iconic Gibraltar species, but preventing the population growing to a point where they cause nuisance within the town. Also, interesting to learn that the Gibraltar government issues dog licences, holds a DNA registry for all pet dogs, and has a team that collects dog poo samples, does DNA analysis, and is able to issue fines to any dog owners who don’t clean up after their pets.
I was also delighted to meet up with Daniella Tilbury for coffee one day, who is a member of the UNECE Steering Committee on Education for Sustainable Development. An interesting meeting which added to my understanding of the Gibraltar environmental landscape.
Keith invited me to join him and Dr Rhian Guillem (an entomologist based at the Alameda Botanic Garden) at 6am one morning to “collect seagull poo from the airport runway before the days flights commenced”. I was intrigued! We were driven onto the runway by a member of RAF personnel (Gibraltar airport is managed by the RAF), and by means of torchlight and the car headlights, we spent the next 1-2 hours on the runway collecting samples of dropping and regurgitated pellets from Yellow-Legged Gulls, which roost in large numbers on the tarmac. The samples are being sent to researchers in Spain to analyse them for microplastic, as part of a wider southern Spanish peninsula project.
Another business that has offices in both Gibraltar and the Isle of Man is Deloitte, and I was pleased to accompany Kim to meet Arianna Costa, a Senior Manager at Deloitte Gibraltar, and Catherine Walsh, the Energy Officer for the Department of the Environment, Gibraltar Government. Great conversation, reinforcing in me once again the tremendous opportunity the environmental sector has currently to work positively with corporate businesses across the UKOTs and Crown Dependencies. It was particularly interesting to speak to Catherine about environmental education in schools, as Catherine is part of a working group that is looking to embed environmental issues within the Gibraltar curriculum, as is the direction of travel in the IOM that is being developed by MWTs Education Officer, Beth Penhallurick. Following my trip to Montserrat for UKOTCF earlier in 2023, MWT are now looking to set up a link between the Montserrat Secondary School and one of the schools in the IOM, and after speaking to Catherine it is possible that we might also link to Gibraltar. Maybe the start of a UKOTCF school/youth forum linkage across all the territories?!
Although it isn’t quite an island, Gibraltar’s history and culture are intrinsically linked to the marine environment that (almost) surrounds it. The University of Gibraltar was founded in 2015 and have an MSc programme in Marine & Environmental Science and Climate Change, coordinated by Dr Awantha Dissanayake, which is already recruiting students from around the world. I’d previously met Awantha on-line to discuss seagrass restoration, and was delighted to be invited by him to do a talk for the MSc students’ course about the IOM, UKOTCF and other territories that I’ve lived and worked in. This proved to be very enjoyable with lots of questions and interest, and I met up with two of the students later in the week to be quizzed some more.
Kim introduced me to Lewis Stagnetto, who set up the marine conservation NGO, The Nautilus Project (TNP) in Gibraltar in 2016. Another enjoyable and interesting meeting, as Lewis gave me his thoughts on the key marine issues for Gibraltar, including the invasive algae (Rugulopteryx okamurae), which is according to Lewis, “everywhere underwater now” and is outcompeting local biodiversity, the oil pollution from the ships, and the raw untreated sewage that is all deposited into the sea as a conservation issue. In addition to Lewis’ post-graduate research into plankton, TNP carry out a great deal of marine education in the Gibraltar schools, and it might be possible to link some of the MSc students to their work.
I enjoy diving in new places, and on my last full day in Gibraltar I joined the local operator Dive Charters, for two shore dives on the wrecks that have been sunk in Camps Bay to create an artificial reef. I was impressed at the marine life, including fan corals, octopuses and nudibranchs, but disappointed to see the large amount of Rugulopteryx okamurae present. It’s certainly a case of living with these algae now, rather than trying to eradicate it. Was good to buddy up with Vivienne, one of the MSc Marine students, who certainly has a good eye for spotting nudibranchs!
It’s always interesting to experience a new culture, particularly in the UK territories, which in Gibraltar is influenced heavily by Spain. The recent census showed there are c.38,000 people living in Gibraltar, but every day this number increases hugely by 10-17,000 (estimates vary) people who travel into Gibraltar from Spain to work. Accommodation is at a premium in Gibraltar, and even if you can find a place, typically it is 3/4 times more expensive to live in Gibraltar than Spain. There isn’t much space in Gibraltar for development, and so the options are to build upwards, and outwards into the sea. The majority who commute in from Spain drive to the border, park up and then cross into Gibraltar for the day. Among these commuters there are a great many who have an electric scooter and use that for the last part of the journey. There are certainly lots of electric scooters in Gibraltar!
It was an enjoyable and useful trip. The work with BV is exciting and will hopefully have a significant positive impact for MWT (and possibly even more widely). It’s always interesting to visit a new UKOT and learn something about their environmental and conservation issues, and this improves my wider understanding of the UK territories and therefore my ability to contribute usefully as a member of the UKOTCF Council. This time in particular there were some extremely good comparisons to be made with, and potential learning for, the IOM and MWT.
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