Minister for the Environment, Energy,
Climate Change and Education
Vanessa Byrne / Managing Director
How long have you been involved with the
environment? Where did you start off your ca-
reer?
I came to be very aware of nature from a very ear-
ly age thanks to my great aunt. I grew up with stories
of her childhood living around animals and nature. I
started noticing flowers and birds around me. The
swifts, starlings and sparrows. Living in Irish Town i
also has swallows nesting in my patio, i became very
aware of nature.
While at school I joined a small group lead by Er-
nest Garcia who took us up the rock bird watching. I
spent most of my teens’ almost on a daily basis go-
ing up the rock to watch the migrations of the birds
of prey in the summer.
In that time from a purely observational interest in
nature I also got to learn about the problems nature
faces which gradually steered to feeling responsible
of preserving it for the future, leading to form the
Ornithological Group of Gibraltar Society in 1976
before going off to study Botany and Zoology in UK.
What is the biggest environmental campaign
you have been involved in?
It goes back to 1974 again in my teens, I was very
OTWO 01 / AUGUST 2019
involved in the Scouts. My father was the commis-
sioner in the scouts, he’d gone to the World Scout
Conference in Nairobi and came back with a first In-
ternational Scout Movement to take up Nature and
Environment Conservation as one of its core aims.
So we run the Scout Conservation Campaign.
This included a lot of material in the media. We
approached a couple of shops in Main Street with
displays on windows, press releases and activity
within the scouts. It was a big campaign and kick
started the conservation movement in Gibraltar.
I was also involved in a tree planting campaign
in the early 80’s. We planted over 100 trees and
can say there are still around 20 or 30 that have
survived from that time.
I have been involved in campaigning all my
life. One of the big campaigns wasn’t based
in Gibraltar. It was to ensure that the Natural
History Society in Gibraltar became a full partner
of Bird Life International, an international body
that connects all bird conservation organizations.
Objections from Spain lead us to run añadir us
run a campaign, attend meetings and eventually
got accepted which was a bit of a dabble in the
political world.
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