UK Overseas Territories
Introduction
The UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) comprise 16 former colonies that have elected to retain their direct British links and as such form part of the nation state of the UK. Mostly islands, UKOTs support important UK biodiversity in terms of both species and habitats and are covered under the UK’s commitments to Multilateral Environmental Agreements, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (RAMSAR). Many are under extreme pressure for development. Whilst rich in biodiversity many lack the resources needed to document their biodiversity and manage it sustainably. The recognition of the importance of UKOTs resulted in the formation of a UK Overseas Territories science team as part of the Science Strategy developed prior to the 2001 Science Audit. A key driver in our work with UKOTs is helping to build botanical capacity.
The UK Overseas Territories science team is a small multidisciplinary team concentrated in the Herbarium, but with strong links to the Jodrell, HPE, and the MSBP enabling it to draw upon wide ranging expertise to undertake conservation, and help build capacity in the Territories for the documentation, conservation assessment and management of botanical resources. Our overall aim is to work with our in-Territory partners to enable them to better understand and sustainably manage their plant diversity and so implement the CBD, the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) and their Environment Charter.
The vast majority of the UK’s unique biodiversity is not in the UK mainland, but in its Overseas Territories. The last remaining fragments of British overseas administration include some of the most remote and biologically interesting places on Earth. UKOTs have an extremely diverse variety of habitats ranging from ice fields and windswept rocky islands in the Antarctic to the pristine white beaches of tropical atolls, plus a wide diversity of tropical forest types. Because they are mostly small islands, they have a high rate of endemism across many taxa. At least 180 endemic species of plants, including endemic genera, 54 endemic birds, 39 endemic reptiles and amphibians and 685 endemic terrestrial invertebrates have already been described, but there are big gaps in our knowledge of the biodiversity in these Territories. Many UKOTs are archipelagos that include numerous uninhabited islands of great significance for biodiversity. The flora and fauna of these tiny remnants of the British Empire are a conservation priority on the global stage. Eight UKOTs are located within ‘biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities’ sensu Myers et al. 2000 (Caribbean, Mediterranean Basin and Polynesia/Micronesia). Two are World Heritage sites – Henderson Island (part of the Pitcairn group) and Gough and Inaccessible Islands (part of the Tristan da Cunha group).
Geographical location of the 16 UK Overseas Territories:
|
Geographical Location |
UK Overseas Territory |
|---|---|
|
Indian Ocean |
British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) comprising the Chagos Archipelago and surrounding ocean (54,400 km2) |
|
Mediterranean Basin |
British Sovereign Air Bases on Cyprus Gibraltar |
|
Pacific Ocean |
Pitcairn Islands (Pitcairn, Henderson, Oeno, Ducie) |
|
South Atlantic |
British Antarctic Territory Falkland Islands South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands St Helena Ascension Island Tristan da Cunha (including Nightingale, Gough and Inaccessible) |
|
Wider Caribbean |
Anguilla Bermuda British Virgin Islands (BVI) Cayman Islands Montserrat Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) |
The UK’s 16 Overseas Territories are diverse communities. They range from the tiny island of Pitcairn (7.5 km2), in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with its 54 inhabitants, to Bermuda (55 km2) in the western Atlantic Ocean with its population of 61,000 and which is one of the world’s major financial centres.