ensure the future safety of rare, endemic plant species from the Territories; > supporting, through the provision of direct grants, enhanced environmental work in the British Indian Ocean Territory, British Antarctic Territory and South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands, for example to support non-native species eradication, fisheries patrols and heritage conservation; and > ensuring the needs and concerns of the Territories are represented at international meetings, and providing advice and support in meeting the demands of international agreements. Much of this work is led by DEFRA who assist the Territories in meeting the requirements of: > the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species; > the Convention on Biological Diversity; and > the Convention on Migratory Species. This work has included supporting an officer in the Falkland Islands responsible for implementing the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, part of the Convention on Migratory Species. In addition, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has shared with the Overseas Territories information on the development of UK negotiating positions under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Case Study: Assistance to the Caribbean Overseas Territories on Climate Change For four years, DFID funded the Caribbean Overseas Territories’ participation in a regional project entitled “Enhancing Capacity for Adaptation to Climate Change in the Caribbean Overseas Territories”. This helped these Territories adapt to climate change and variability within the context of sustainable development. During the project each Territory developed public education and outreach programmes, established National Climate Change Committees, completed climate change vulnerability and capacity assessments and developed a climate change policy document. This has helped underpin action by the Territories to plan and implement measures to mitigate climate impacts.
Case Study: UK Overseas Territories Online Herbarium The Overseas Territories Environment Programme has supported The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew through a 2-year project to create an online herbarium cataloguing the native and introduced plant species of each Territory. The project is contributing to the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and will better enable Territory Governments to understand the wealth of their natural environments and ensure they are adequately protected. In particular, this ‘one-stop shop’ for plant information should help enable effective protection and management of native plants, including through the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, and create a better understanding of their importance. To date, over 17,000 specimens and 10,000 taxa have been collated into the database held at Kew and freely available through the website: http://herbaria.plants. ox.ac.uk/bol/UKOT
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