Buried in the detail of today's Budget (here section 2.259) is the fantastic news that the UK Government intends to create the world’s largest marine reserve around the Overseas Territory of the Pitcairn Islands.

As part of the RSPB-coordinated Great British Oceans coalition, we’ve been working with others towards this designation, as well as campaigning for the creation of similar large scale fully protected offshore marine reserves for Ascension and the South Sandwich Islands too. Here’s my colleague Tim Stowe, Director of International Operations, with more information...

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The RSPB has a long-standing commitment to working in the UK Overseas Territories, building capacity so that local people have the skills and the resources they need to protect their wildlife and habitats. We’ve been working with the people of Pitcairn for the past eight years, and so we’re delighted that today the UK government has granted their wish to see the world’s largest fully protected marine reserve created around their islands.

You can watch the Pitcairn Islanders speak about their wish for a marine reserve to be created in this video from our partners the Pitcairn Island Council, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the National Geographic Society:

The Pitcairn Islands have a near pristine ecology.

Thanks to their remoteness, these islands represent one of the few places in the Indo-Pacific biogeographic region with their full array of species largely intact. Underwater, this means that parts of Pitcairn’s marine environment have some of the healthiest populations of sharks and other top predators known to man. And Pitcairn’s waters are also the clearest ever recorded, with visibility at a staggering 75 metres.

Which means that, if you’re ever lucky enough to dive in the Pitcairn Islands, you’ll not only have one of the best chances of being surrounded by an amazing array of species, but also of seeing them too.

Green turtler swimming in Pitcairn's waters. Photo by Andrew Christian.

Our work on Pitcairn has focused mostly on Henderson Island, the largest island in the group, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site thanks to its status as one of the few raised coral atolls with its ecology largely intact.

Henderson is, without question, one of most important places for petrels on the planet. Henderson is an important home for Murphy’s and Herald petrels, as is the only known breeding site for the endangered Henderson petrel.

This is why since 2008 we’ve been working on the Henderson Island Restoration Project, with the aim of eradicating the invasive rats that are devastating the Henderson petrel population. This work is still ongoing (our 2011 attempt was sadly unsuccessful) but we are excited by the possibility that what is now the world’s largest marine reserve could one day be one of the world’s largest rat-free island groups as well!

Henderson petrel nesting on Henderson Island. Photo by Alve Henricson.

The creation of a marine reserve around the Pitcairn Islands means that the UK will have the two largest marine reserves in the world under its jurisdiction. The Chagos marine reserve, established in 2010 by the previous government, will stand at the world’s second largest.

We’d love to see the next government go even further and enable the creation of marine reserves around Ascension Island and the South Sandwich Islands as well. The governments of these territories don’t have the resources to protect their waters themselves and will need assistance from HMG to make this happen. But in doing so the UK would have protected more ocean than any other nation in history and have a large scale fully protected marine reserve in each of the Indian, Pacific, Atlantic and Southern oceans.

For now though, we’re very happy to be celebrating Pitcairn’s good news. Please do visit http://www.GreatBritishOceans.organd join us on social media in celebrating this government’s historic commitment to the marine conservation of the UK Overseas Territories using the hashtag #GBoceans.

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I'll offer further thoughts on today's Budget in due course, but for now, let's celebrate this excellent news.

  • Fantastic RSPB in coordinating all the effort needed for this declaration of the world's largest marine reserve. So often the RSPB is publically critised and so often that criticism is either grossly unfair or down right wrong. Yet so often major achievements like this go almost unnoticed by the general public but for the future of this planet this annoucment is worth its weight in gold.