This week, I am fortunate to be making my first visit to our Overseas Territories. I shall be meeting partners on the Cayman Islands and Turks & Caicos in the Caribbean to discuss how we can support them to address the many conservation challenges they face.
It seems timely to remember why we work in these places and, this week, through this blog, I shall give you an insight into the breadth of our work on the UKOTs.
Strategic context
Through the RSPB's strategy we make a contribution to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi targets – especially 11 and 12 which commit the world to managing for nature at least 17% of land and 10% of sea and recovering threatened species by 2020.
We want to have impact in the UK, our overseas territories, the African-European flyway and globally where we can make a difference. Outside of the UK, where they exist, we always work with and through the national BirdLife partners.
The conservation importance of the UKOTs
The UKOTs are particularly important, given that they are home to 1,547 endemics (although conservation status has been assessed for just 9% of these), and that 85% of critically endangered species for which the UK is responsible are found on these places. There are three main geographical UKOTs groupings: those in Europe (Cyprus and Gibraltar), those in the South Atlantic (Ascension, the Falkland Islands, St Helena, South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands and Tristan da Cunha) and those in the Caribbean (Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat and Turks and Caicos). The outliers are Pitcairn and the British Indian Ocean Territory.
Ultimately, the rationale for saving nature in our Overseas Territories is the same as it is in the UK: we have a responsibility to live in harmony with the species with which we share this planet and a healthy natural environment underpins our own species’ prosperity.
The pressures on nature in the UKOTs and our response
The threats to these places are no different to elsewhere in the world: habitat destruction from inappropriate development (both built and agricultural), the introduction of non-native invasive species (often cats and rodents, but in the case of the Cayman Islands, green iguana) pollution especially that which results in climate change (which for low-lying islands might be catastrophic), and over-exploitation (most dramatically through bird killing on Cyprus which we highlighted a fortnight ago).
Endemic Rock Iguana on Little Cayman threatened by the non-native invasive green iguana
Our conservation response is applicable wherever we work around the work: we need more, bigger, better protected areas that work for both people and wildlife, targeted action for the most threatened species and the political space to influence the drivers of loss.
Yet, the UKOT context is different. The Overseas Territories are not part of the UK but rather territories under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the UK (unlike the Crown Dependencies such as the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, whose relationship is technically directly with the British Crown rather that the UK Government). The Territories are to a greater or lesser extent self-governing devolved administrations – a bit like Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Some powers are reserved, some devolved and, as illustrated this week in the way Gibraltar has been caught up in UK-EU Brexit talks, the politics can at times become quite fraught.
Each of the Overseas Territories has its own unique written constitution which is approved by the UK Government. The Cayman Islands constitution, for example, includes a duty for the local government “to have regard to the need to foster and protect an environment that is not harmful to the health or well-being of present and future generations, while promoting justifiable economic and social development ... [and] should adopt reasonable legislative and other measures to protect the heritage and wildlife and the land and sea biodiversity.”
The role of the UK Government
The UK Government has traditionally been very supportive of conservation action on the UKOTs (both the FCO and Defra), for example funding successful seabird recovery projects for example on Ascension and designating marine protected areas. Yet, they could do so much more by helping to identify conservation priorities and then supporting action by the local government.
While in the Caribbean, I shall be exploring how well the constitutional duty is translated into action on the ground and how we can improve the way we work with our partners and the local governments to safeguard some of the most threatened places in the Caribbean. We shall also be launching a new joint project on Turks and Caicos to reduce the impact of invasive non-native species (more on that later in the week).
On my return, I shall make the case for the UK Government to reinforce its commitment for targeted funding and action for UKOTs as part of their promised (but still unpublished) 25 year plan for nature.
Saving nature is a shared agenda and together we have to do more to save our shared home.
Well done RSPB for taking up the driving seat on the wildlife of the UKOTs.
94percent of species unique to the UK are found in our Overseas territories and the UK has more penguins under its jurisdiction than any other country. So many of these unique species are threatened or endangered it is therefore vital that the UK directs much of its attention and effort to this unique wildlife. Hopefully although the £ has fallen in value it will still "go further" in most of the UKOTs than in the U.K. Itself. Hopefully, as well, the UK Government will be more responsive to saving the endangered wildlife in these areas in the world than they are at present towards wildlife in the UK itself. Good luck Martin, nothing but the fullest support for saving nature in the overseas territories..