The 2018 Year of Our Island has been officially launched.

Chief Minister Howard Quayle, Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas and Douglas Mayor Debbie Pitts led the ceremony at the Villa Marina which was designed to highlight all that is best about the Isle of Man.

The Year of Our Island, Mr Thomas said, is seen as an opportunity for us ’to value our environment, our culture, our heritage and our community, and to remind ourselves how these enhance our quality of life and our health and well-being’.

To celebrate this, Mr Thomas announced there are plans to give many of the coming months a theme.

January is celebrating the dark skies, March will pay tribute to the great outdoors and April will be all about our community.

May will mark the island’s innovation and creativity, July will focus on culture, August our quality of life and October will be a celebration of Manx heritage. Mr Thomas promised more will be announced.

Mr Quayle set out what the island means to him. He said: ’I’m glad to say despite sometimes our best efforts we haven’t destroyed our island! It’s a fantastic place worth fighting for and defending.

’We live in a really special place and I’m really proud to live and work here. Everyone has a personal take on what it is that makes them proud to call this island home.

’For me it is the countryside and our community, the landscape - it’s breathtaking’.

UNESCO

The Chief Minister also noted his pride at the island being designated a World Biosphere Region by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

The status, that was announced in 2016, a month after Mr Quayle was elected, makes the Isle of Man the first and so far only island nation in its entirety to receive the accolade.

With the Isle of Man being one of only eight biosphere regions in the British Isles, the Chief Minister said: ’Receiving the designation from UNESCO was a remarkable achievement for our island and personally something I was incredibly proud of.’

Mr Quayle concluded by adding: ’With this in mind, 2018 has been designated as a year to celebrate everything that makes our island special.

’By encouraging everyone to enjoy, maintain and develop all of the unique characteristics that make the Isle of Man the place it is.

’To encourage people to explore more and do more on and for our island.’

Douglas Mayor Debra Pitts said: ’The Douglas Town Centre Management team will be promoting events like the food markets, supporting long staying businesses and I hope going forward we can work with greater collaboration with the government’.

The evening began with a rendition of Ellan Vannin sang by Ballacottier School’s Year 6 choir. Mr Quayle thanked them for a ’moving rendition’.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: ’Looking back on the Year of Our Island we hope people will have been encouraged to attend more local events, and that people have taken the opportunity to explore what the island has to offer, perhaps for the first time, by experiencing the shores, hills and glens and improving their health and wellbeing in the process.

’We hope that people have thought about the impact they have on our island.’