Getting to present on #TeamWilder at IIEM was a great privilege. It was also a wonderful opportunity to spend some time with the Jersey team of Lloyds Bank International.

At the beginning of September, I was lucky enough to attend IIEM; a conference for island based governments, charities and organisations working in the environmental sector. This year the conference was held in Jersey and had a theme of Delivering Science and Policy into Action. The lecture based portion of the conference took place at the Société Jersiaise where I was very privileged to be asked to give a presentation. It was fantastic to show my work and share how community organising and #TeamWilder is helping to deliver Manx Wildlife Trust’s strategy and policy.

As MWT’s Community Ranger supported by Lloyds Bank International, it was also particularly nice to spend some time with the Jersey based Lloyds Bank team. On one day I was able to work from the branch, getting to learn more about Lloyds’ community work in Jersey. I also met with Tanya from the Lloyds marketing team and Tom Mckenna, Sustainable Finance Lead from Jersey Finance. Like in the Isle of Man, there is enthusiasm for collaboration between finance and charities. It was great to meet the Lloyds Jersey team, and I look forward to attending their Corporate Social Responsibility meeting on zoom next month.

It was a great experience to visit the Channel Islands for the first time, even travelling to the conference was an experience in itself! Although flying has become a more regular part of my life since moving to the Island, I thought it would be interesting to try and travel to the conference via other, lower carbon, methods! With a brief stop in Bristol to visit home, I travelled to Jersey via Poole and Guernsey. Although clearly a longer journey, the trip gave me a good amount of time to practice my presentation, as well as giving me a greater appreciation of the different styles of ferry (The Manannan is still number 1 in my eyes!).

While in Jersey, the conference offered an opportunity to meet with other members of different conservation organisations. These included Pollinator Project Guernsey, National Trust for Jersey, Birds on the Edge and Alderney Wildlife Trust. It was really interesting to learn more about the shared opportunities and challenges that we face working on islands. I know that we left with a lot of inspiration for future ideas, and I think we were also able to share some new thinking too.

As well as attending lectures, we were also able to take part in a field trip. I was lucky enough to have a guided tour of the National Trust for Jersey’s biggest nature reserve, La Mare au Seigneur (St Ouen’s Pond) and wetland centre. As one of my key projects is helping a local community group at MWT Onchan Community Wetlands, it was particularly interesting to learn more about how this wetland is managed.

In my free time, I was also able to visit a local farmer who is working on changing their farm towards organic and permaculture methods. It was particularly interesting to hear about the diversity of planting and how the farm has changed from just purely potatoes to now a great variety of produce. The farmer is working towards organic dairy farming, giving me an opportunity to meet lots of Jersey cows!

I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to go to IIEM in Jersey, especially as it’s being hosted by the Isle of Man for its 25^th anniversary next year! This has given me a fresh impression of the conference and has also given me the opportunity to be involved in its organisation next year. The majority of the people I spoke to at the conference hadn’t visited the Isle of Man before, therefore I’m very much looking forward to welcoming the IIEM delegates and showing off our Island!