UK Overseas Territories Research Articles

The United Nations' General Assembly High-Level Meeting on antimicrobial resistance: a joint statement from the Heads of Government and Chief Medical Officers of the United Kingdom's Overseas Territories.

The UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are small, often remote territories with historical and territorial links to the UK. They range from densely populated areas (Cayman, Bermuda, Gibraltar) to land with no permanent inhabitants (British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia). However, they are linked by ecosystem instability (the permacrisis) including antimicrobial resistance (AMR), climate change and biodiversity disruption. The Chief Medical Officers of the UKOTs met in June 2024 and were unanimous in their concerns about the threat of global AMR. They have issued this statement on their hopes and expectations for the United Nations' General Assembly High-Level Meeting, in September 2024. These may be summarized by the hope of achieving united and sustained global political will to reduce the threat of AMR by equitable access to treatments, prevention of AMR by sanitation and accurate diagnostics, and education in health care and the public.

Opportunity mapping for nature-based solutions: Mitigating storm surge and land erosion in the Caribbean

The islands of the Caribbean are particularly susceptible to the effects of climate change due to their low-lying coastal areas and location within the Atlantic basin's hurricane belt. The UK Overseas Territory of Anguilla is one such island. The predicted increase in the severity of hurricanes and sea-level rise is highly likely to increase the flood risk of already vulnerable island communities. In this study, flood risk and erosion models are used to prioritise opportunity areas for nature-based restoration and to identify those that would have the greatest impact on coastal and in-land flood risk reduction. Two study sites in Anguilla were selected to highlight this ecologically-based modelling approach; Cove Bay and Pond, a degraded sand dune system and brackish pond, and the East End Pond, an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area that floods following heavy rainfall events. At the coastal site, the restoration of mangroves, sand dunes and coral reefs have the potential to provide flood risk reduction up to 500 m inland and protect homes, infrastructure and tourism developments. For the in-land East End Pond, areas of high erosion risk were predominately identified as bare or disturbed land within 1 km of the pond's basin. Habitat restoration of these areas was identified as having the greatest impact on reducing flood risk. The creation of flood risk, opportunity and impact models are invaluable tools that can be used to inform, advocate and justify the implementation of nature-based solutions to a range of stakeholders from policy-makers to local communties.

Climate change impacts on the coral reefs of the UK Overseas Territory of the Pitcairn Islands: resilience and adaptation considerations

AbstractThe coral reefs of the Pitcairn Islands are in one of the most remote areas of the Pacific Ocean, and yet they are exposed to the impacts of anthropogenic climate change. The Pitcairn Islands Marine Protected Area was designated in 2016 and is one of the largest in the world, but the marine environment around these highly isolated islands remains poorly documented. Evidence collated here indicates that while the Pitcairn Islands' reefs have thus far been relatively sheltered from the effect of warming sea temperatures, there is substantial risk of future coral decalcification due to ocean acidification. The projected acceleration in the rate of sea level rise, and the reefs' exposure to risks from distant ocean swells and cold-water intrusions, add further uncertainty as to whether these islands and their reefs will continue to adapt and persist into the future. Coordinated action within the context of the Pitcairn Islands Marine Protected Area can help enhance the resilience of the reefs in the Pitcairn Islands. Options include management of other human pressures, control of invasive species and active reef interventions. More research, however, is needed in order to better assess what are the most appropriate and feasible options to protect these reefs.

Fostering place-shaped responsibilities for biodiversity: An analytical framework with insights from the UK Overseas Territories

Accelerated human impacts on the earth system bring urgency to the question of how responsibility can be appropriately and justly distributed across scales and actors. Drawing together theory from international relations and human geography with empirical analysis on responsibilities for biodiversity, this paper has two aims: to develop a framework for examining responsibilities for biodiversity that is applied to the context of the UK Overseas Territories; and to draw out broader lessons for thinking about environmental responsibilities more generally. The analysis draws particular attention to the importance of place-shaped responsibilities for biodiversity, which emerge as localised narratives of responsibility that take account of the enabling and resisting conditions that matter in particular places. Applied in the context of biodiversity governance, this suggests a need to join up policy issues, embed equity, explore multiple meanings, bridge pro-active and retrospective responsibilities, and enhance the role of the social sciences in enabling responsibilities.

Re-connecting Communities in Biodiverse Places to their Biological Heritage: The case of iguanas on Grand Cayman

For centuries, naturalists from the Global North have traveled southwards to collect specimens of species from regions where there were many. The legacy of this is that the large natural history collections and the biodiverse regions of the world are often distant from one another. The unique and often disappearing species and ecosystems in these regions need conservation, yet much of the data on this biodiversity resides in collections and with the experts that work in them, rather than in the countries where it is needed. In this poster we zoom in on Grand Cayman, a small island in the Caribbean, facing severe threats to its endemic biodiversity - from habitat loss to introduced species. More specifically we focus on the endemic blue iguana (Cyclura lewisi) and the invasive green iguana (Iguana iguana). Specimens from the Cayman Islands are dispersed over American and European natural history collections and give data on the species present, their abundances and the interactions among those species (e.g. their food plants and parasites). Such data can be used in risk assessments and conservation planning, and the specimens themselves can inform research, such as population genetics. While the Cayman Islands are small they provide an excellent case study of the issues of conservation, society, climate and other environmental change in the tropics. Islands are highly sensitive to environmental change, but the lessons learned from them can be extended to other areas, including continents. On this poster, we describe the From Blue Iguanas to Blue Vervain project (Fig. 1), which aims to connect the biodiverse Caribbean UK Overseas Territories of Montserrat and the Cayman Islands with natural science collections around the world. We aim to learn ways to address issues of access and benefit-sharing, particularly how residents of these biodiverse places can benefit from the data and research linked to specimens originating in their islands.

From sealing to the MPA - A history of exploitation, conservation and management of marine living resources at the South Sandwich Islands

The exploitation of marine resources of the South Sandwich Islands (SSI) began with the hunting of fur seals for their pelts in the early decades of the 19th Century. Pelagic whaling in the region started a century later with catches recorded until the mid-1970s. Blue and fin whales dominated the catches accounting for 80% of the total. Trawl fisheries for demersal finfish and krill (Euphausia superba) were established around many sub-Antarctic islands in the late 1960s and through the 1970s, but they did not become established at the South Sandwich Islands despite fisheries research expeditions from several nations visiting the region during this period. The first licensed demersal longline fishery for toothfish (Dissostichus spp.) was initiated by a UK flagged vessel in 2005 following earlier expeditions by Chilean and Bulgarian fishing vessels. The fishery for toothfish is now conducted by a maximum of two vessels and represents the only fishing carried out in the SSI region with total annual catches of around 40 t per annum, with a fishing footprint restricted to less than 4% of the SSI Maritime Zone (MZ). This MZ extends 200 nm from the island chain and forms the eastern half of the 1.24 million km2 MZ of the UK Overseas Territory of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) which was established in 1993. The MZ around the SSI lies within the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) management Subarea 48.4. Fishing within the MZ is licensed by the Government of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI) who, under domestic legislation, are required to adopt all fisheries management regulations that have been agreed for the region each year by CCAMLR. In addition, a suite of additional management measures are enforced. In 2012, GSGSSI established a sustainable use Marine Protected Area (MPA) within the SGSSI MZ to conserve the marine biodiversity of the region. Enhancements were introduced in 2013 and 2019 extending No-Take Zones (NTZs), where all fishing is prohibited, across 261,000 km2 of the MZ around the SSI including the deepest regions of the Southern Ocean, the South Sandwich Trench. The SSI marine ecosystem has been relatively poorly studied but has recently been a focus of two dedicated UK research cruises providing a considerable new amount of information to assist with the management of this remote marine region.

Challenges of conflict of interest, coordination and collaboration in small island contexts: towards effective tobacco control governance in UK Overseas Territories

IntroductionThe UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are semi-autonomous jurisdictions that face distinctive challenges in implementing tobacco control and protecting policy from industry influence. They are not eligible to become independent parties...

Crises & the challenges facing the UK’s non-sovereign territories

The world’s 49 inhabited non-sovereign overseas territories (NSTs) – 13 of which are UK overseas territories (OTs) or Crown Dependencies (CDs)1 – are neither fully independent nor integrated sub-na...

Conservation status of native plant hybrids in the British Virgin Islands.

BackgroundHybridization is an evolutionary event present in the natural world. Several studies suggest that natural hybridization is an important process in plant evolution, creating new genetic combinations which can play a vital role in speciation (Soltis and Soltis 2009, Soltis 2013, Neri et al. 2017, Taylor and Larson 2019). Therefore, it is important to understand and protect naturally occurring hybrids, conserving their ecological novelties and new traits, such as the ability to explore new niches, different from those of the parental species (Soltis 2013, Supple and Shapiro 2018).The British Virgin Islands (BVI) is a UK Overseas Territory situated in the Caribbean biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al. 2000). To date, three natural hybrids are known to occur within this territory: Tillandsia × lineatispica Mez, Anthurium × selloanum K.Koch and Coccoloba krugii × C. uvifera R.A.Howard (Howard 1957, Acevedo-Rodriguez and Strong 2005, Acevedo-Rodriguez and Strong 2012).Tillandsia × lineatispica is endemic to the Puerto Rican Bank, occurring in Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands (USVI) and the British Virgin Islands with an extent of occurrence estimated to be 3,390 km2 and a limited number of locations. The suitable habitat for this hybrid is declining mainly due to the negative impacts of feral ungulates, development for tourism and residential infrastructure and the impact of human-induced wildfires. In addition, it is suspected that the global population does not exceed 10,000 individuals with the largest subpopulation on Beef Island in the BVI thought to have no more than 1,000 mature individuals. This hybrid is therefore evaluated as Vulnerable, based on IUCN Red List Criteria, B1a(iii)+2b(iii) + C2a(i).Anthurium × selloanum is an endemic hybrid to BVI and USVI with a very restricted extent of occurrence which was estimated to range between 103 km2 and 207 km2 and an area of occupancy which was estimated to range between 56 km2 and 188 km2 and a limited number of locations. The suitable habitat of this species is declining mainly due to the negative impacts of feral ungulates, development for tourism and residential infrastructure and the negative impact of recreation activities in protected areas. This species is therefore evaluated as Endangered, based on IUCN Red List Criteria B1a+ b(iii) + B2a+b(iii).Coccoloba krugii × C. uvifera is native to the BVI, USVI, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Anguilla. It is estimated to have an extent of occurrence of 89,412 km2. This value exceeds the threshold for any threatened category. Despite an observed continuing decline of suitable habitat for this species, which is being degraded mainly through ongoing development pressures, this species occurs in more than 10 locations. It is therefore assessed as Least Concern (LC).New informationIn this paper, we discuss the conservation status of all the known, naturally occurring, native hybrids in the the British Virgin Islands and we provide distribution data, including new records, from across these hybrid species ranges. Although conservation assessments of hybrids are out of the scope of the published IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN Standards and Petitions Committee 2019), we use the IUCN Red List Criteria and Categories (version 3.1) to establish an equivalent conservation status of these hybrids and discuss conservation action due to the potential evolutionary importance of these naturally occurring hybrids. These assessments provide the necessary baseline information for prioritising species conservation and making informed management decisions, such as establishing the BVI's Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAS) network (Sanchez et al. 2019).

Colonising geology: Volcanic politics and geopower

This paper discusses the experiences of Christian Montserratian residents through the 1995-present eruptions of the Soufrière Hills Volcano, highlighting that while the earthly powers of the volcano are fundamentally nonhuman, they are known and understood in a diversity of ways by different actors – and they interfere in politics and the production of knowledge. Montserrat, as a UK Overseas Territory, is a non-sovereign territory with a strong Christian identity that has been enhanced by its geological experience. At the same time, the UK has used the eruption to hold greater legislative control over the island. A final group of stakeholders in the eruption is the volcanologists, mainly from the UK until 2010, whose terminology and knowledge-world has had significant impact on the island, but has also been significantly extended by it. The paper ultimately uses this example to suggest that while there are useful and important insights from the “ontological turn” (incorporating vitalism, materialism, speculative realism) in thinking about the “lively earth”, the enactment of volcanic risk management at the governmental level also constitutes a knowledge-practice that must be approached critically to avoid the pitfalls of modernist science and ensure meaningful political change.

Birds of the UK Overseas Territories

BIRDS OF THE UK OVERSEAS TERRITORIES—Roger Riddington (ed.). 2020. T & AD Poyser, London. 336 pp. ISBN 978-1-4729- 7726-7. $45.00.

Current knowledge, status, and future for plant and fungal diversity in Great Britain and the UK Overseas Territories

Societal Impact StatementWe rely on plants and fungi for most aspects of our lives. Yet plants and fungi are under threat, and we risk losing species before we know their identity, roles, and potential uses. Knowing names, distributions, and threats are first steps toward effective conservation action. Accessible products like field guides and online resources engage society, harnessing collective support for conservation. Here, we review current knowledge of the plants and fungi of the UK and UK Overseas Territories, highlighting gaps to help direct future research efforts toward conserving these vital elements of biodiversity.SummaryThis review summarizes current knowledge of the status and threats to the plants and fungi of Great Britain and the UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs). Although the body of knowledge is considerable, the distribution of information varies substantially, and we highlight knowledge gaps. The UK vascular flora is the most well studied and we have a relatively clear picture of its 9,001 native and alien taxa. We have seedbanked 72% of the native and archaeophyte angiosperm taxa and 78% of threatened taxa. Knowledge of the UKOTs flora varies across territories and we report a UKOTs flora comprising 4,093 native and alien taxa. We have conserved 27% of the native flora and 51% of the threatened vascular plants in Kew's Millennium Seed Bank, UK. We need a better understanding of the conservation status of plants in the wild, and progress toward completion or updating national red lists varies. Site‐based protection of key plant assemblages is outlined, and progress in identifying Important Plant Areas analyzed. Knowledge of the non‐vascular flora, especially seaweeds remains patchy, particularly in many UKOTs. The biggest gaps overall are in fungi, particularly non‐lichenized fungi. Considerable investment is needed to fill these knowledge gaps and instigate effective conservation strategies.

Island-based Information Management System-GIS Data Centre as a key tool for spatial planning in the South Atlantic UK Overseas Territories

Island-based Information Management System-GIS Data Centre as a key tool for spatial planning in the South Atlantic UK Overseas Territories

935. VACHELLIA ANEGADENSIS

SummaryVachellia anegadensis (Britton) Seigler & Ebinger, a spiny tree endemic to the British Virgin Islands (BVI), a Caribbean UK Overseas Territory, is described and illustrated. It is one of the four known endemic plant species to occur in the BVI, an archipelago of only 153 km2. It has been assessed as Endangered (EN) based on the IUCN categories and criteria. Its botanical history and conservation status are described, and ex situ propagation discussed.

Reconstructing the history of ocean wildlife around Ascension Island

Abstract In 2016, the UK government announced plans for a large‐scale Marine Protected Area around Ascension Island, a UK Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic. To improve baselines for marine life to support ambitious conservation and assess change over time, archives were searched for historical accounts of wildlife from Ascension's discovery in 1501 to the present. For more recent changes, 139 interviews with past and present inhabitants were conducted. Ascension's marine life has, from first discovery to the present, been consistently remarked upon for its exceptional abundance. Historical sources indicate declines in seabird and turtle populations from human exploitation and introduction of rats and cats. They are recovering with good management, although still below pre‐settlement abundance. Interviews with residents indicate more recent changes, notably declines in catch per unit of fishing effort at popular shore angling sites, a decline in yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) and increase in Galapagos sharks (Carcharhinus galapagensis). What is very notable, however, based on the interviews, was that there was no temporal signal suggestive of recent systemic decline, in marked contrast to many parts of the world where recent wildlife declines have been pervasive and steep. Ascension represents a remarkable and immensely important centre of abundance in a sea of depletion and change, warranting full protection for all the island's waters.

Commonwealth SIDS and UK Overseas Territories sustainable fisheries programmes: An overview of projects and benefits of official development assistance funding

In recent years, Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding has decreased for sustainable fisheries projects worldwide. However, the UK Government has committed to ringfencing 0.7% GDP to international development assistance to support a large range of programmes worldwide including, where appropriate, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture capacity building in Overseas Territories and the Commonwealth. This is with the aim of reducing poverty, increasing resilience in the fisheries sector to climate change impacts and increasing food security.The primary objective of this paper is to demonstrate the significant support by UK Government to the Commonwealth Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and UK Overseas Territories (OT) and the impacts of such interventions. This support is illustrated through an introduction to the Commonwealth Marine Economies programme and the Blue Belt programme.In this paper the emerging trends for ODA support are set out, then the importance of fisheries to a selection of ODA-eligible states is highlighted. Finally, illustrative examples of projects from two key UK Government programmes in Commonwealth states and UK Overseas Territories that demonstrate a wide range of potential capacity building support activities and derived benefits to the states are summarised. We explain how activities to sustainably develop the fisheries sector in Commonwealth Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and UK Overseas Territories (OT) enhance biodiversity protection and create opportunities to support ‘Blue Growth’ (the long-term strategy to support sustainable growth in the marine sectors).

The future of marine biodiversity and marine ecosystem functioning in UK coastal and territorial waters (including UK Overseas Territories) – with an emphasis on marine macrophyte communities

Abstract Marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning – including seaweed communities – in the territorial waters of the UK and its Overseas Territories are facing unprecedented pressures. Key stressors are changes in ecosystem functioning due to biodiversity loss caused by ocean warming (species replacement and migration, e.g. affecting kelp forests), sea level rise (e.g. loss of habitats including salt marshes), plastic pollution (e.g. entanglement and ingestion), alien species with increasing numbers of alien seaweeds (e.g. outcompeting native species and parasite transmission), overexploitation (e.g. loss of energy supply further up the food web), habitat destruction (e.g. loss of nursery areas for commercially important species) and ocean acidification (e.g. skeletal weakening of ecosystem engineers including coralline algal beds). These stressors are currently affecting biodiversity, and their impact can be projected for the future. All stressors may act alone or in synergy. Marine biodiversity provides crucial goods and services. Climate change and biodiversity loss pose new challenges for legislation. In particular, there are implications of climate change for the designation and management of Marine Protected Areas and natural carbon storage by marine systems to help control the global climate system. The UK currently has legal obligations to protect biodiversity under international and European law.

More thoughts on core-periphery and tourism: Brexit and the UK Overseas Territories

ABSTRACTThis article draws on recent debate in Tourism Recreation Research regarding issues of core-periphery and the sustainability of small island tourism. Using the context of Brexit it is concerned with the core-periphery relationship inasmuch Brexit affects subnational island jurisdictions (SNIJ) on a number of fronts including trade, financial aid, access and mobility, identity and tourism. Framed within a postcolonial lens the paper extends the notion ‘decolonizing without disengaging’ to argue for a ‘revisionary core-periphery’ approach in which periphery becomes re-inscribed by a substantial political shift (Brexit) that inverts, or reimagines peripheral islands as sites of reciprocal power projection. As such, the longstanding core-periphery narrative surrounding small island development is revised in an analysis of Britain’s 14 Overseas Territories including a case study of Pitcairn Island. The paper makes a conceptual and empirical contribution to existing knowledge within tourism studies generally, and more particularly in its study of SNIJ as places of differentiated development processes.

The nature and extent of terrestrial protected area coverage on the UK's Overseas Territories

SUMMARYSignatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) agreed to the effective protection of at least 17% of the terrestrial environment by 2020 (Aichi Target 11). Here, we assess the coverage of terrestrial protected areas (land protected by legislation) on the UK's Overseas Territories. These 14 Territories are under the sovereignty of the UK, a signatory of the CBD, and are particularly biodiverse. Eight Territories have protected areas covering 17% or more of their land, but the extent of protection across these Territories as a whole is low, with only 4.8% of this land designated as protected. This protection covered 51% of sites already identified as of conservation importance (Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas), although only 8% of the area of these sites was protected. The expansion of effective protection to meet the 17% target provides an opportunity to capture the most important sites for conservation. Locally led designation will require an improvement in knowledge of the distribution and density of species. This, together with measures to ensure that the protection is enforced and effective, will require provision of resources. This should be seen as an investment in the UK meeting its obligations to Aichi Target 11.

Основы конституционного статуса островов Святой Елены, Вознесения, Тристан-да-Кунья как заморской территории Великобритании

This article gives general characteristic of the constitutional status of the overseas territories of the UK, show the directions of cooperation between the UK and the overseas territories. The author has made some conclusions on the flexibility and quality differentiation of constitutional and legal approaches of the organization of the political-territorial structure of the UK. The political and territorial relations between the UK and relevant overseas territory were proposed to classify as unitary with the elements of federalism. The author has confirmed the actuality of the question of the constitutional concretization of the competences of the Governor of St. Helena, Ascension Island, Tristan da Cunha. In order to provide a more complete account of interests of population of the overseas territories was raised the problem of the lack of constitutional provisions on the appointment of the Administrators on Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha with the opinion formed by elected Councils. The position on the advisability of the constitutional consolidation of the form and order of consideration of the interests of the Islands of Saint Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha in the government of the Kingdom, as well as when considering the UK Parliament of legislative acts on issues relating to the whole Commonwealth was argued.