Sustainability in the UK Overseas Territories

Supplementary written evidence submitted by Mark Simmonds MP, FCO and
Richard Benyon MP, Defra

Thank you for the opportunity on 9 July to contribute to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry into Sustainability in the Overseas Territories. The OK’s Overseas Territories are among the world’s greatest environmental asset, so we welcome this opportunity to review the work undertaken to safeguard their future.

We undertook to come back to you in response to some specific points raised by members of the Committee. In doing so, we would also like to take the opportunity to provide further detail on the wide-ranging support which the UK Government is providing to the Overseas Territories on environmental issues.

During the evidence session on 9 July there was considerable discussion on the constitutional arrangements of the Territories. There are important and significant differences in the specific constitutional provisions in the individual Territories, which can have an impact on the relationship between the UK and the Territory Government. We would be pleased to provide further information to Committee members on this issue, including a meeting with officials of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

It remains important to note that Territory Governments are constitutionally responsible for the protection and conservation of their natural environments. The UK Government’s role is to work in partnership with Territory Governments to provide them with the technical advice and support they need to enable them to fulfil this responsibility successfully. This support is provided through mechanisms such as Darwin Plus and Environmental Mainstreaming and through direct provision of technical advice and expertise, including via the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).

The aim of Darwin Plus, launched in 2012, is to support the long-term sustainable environmental management of the Territories. The fund dedicates around £2m per year to supporting environment and climate projects and has been widely welcomed, including by the Territories themselves and UK-based environmental organisations.

The 14 projects supported by the first round of funding cover a wide-range of activities, including: invasive lionfish control in the Caribbean; seabird monitoring in the southern ocean; and a census of rare plants in St Helena. These projects range in value from £8,000 to £285,000. We enclose a list of successful projects in the first round. The second round has recently been launched and is open until 23 September. Successful bids should be announced in December.

Our Environmental Mainstreaming inititative is helping the Territories put environmental consideration at the heart of policy decision making. Projects have been completed in the Falklands, British Virgin Islands and Anguilla with funding being made available from the FCO and Defra. The initiative focuses on the value of diverse ecosystems in supporting economies and the need to take account of these values in economic and physical planning, drawing together a range of stakeholders to identify priorities. Completed projects have generated complementary support programmes involving economic assessments, training programmes, capacity building and additional fund raising designed to allow the policy makers to draw on a substantial environmental evidence base. We are in the process of extending the initiative to Bermuda and the Cayman Islands and intend to roll it out to all willing Territories by 2015.

There was a brief discussion at the evidence session about the Joint Ministerial Council (JMC), an annual event which brings together Territory leaders and UK Government Ministers to discuss key issues and identify priority actions. The last JMC took place in December 2012 and enclosed is a copy of the Communiqué agreed between the UK Government and Territory leaders following a session on ‘Cherishing the Environment and Creating Green Growth’. The progress made by the UK Government in a number of key areas agreed in the communiqué is also summarised.

We undertook to provide the Committee with further information on the Aarhus Convention. The UK ratified the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters on 23 February 2005. The Aarhus Convention is a regional instrument open to States who are members of or who have consultative status with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). States from outside the UNECE region may also accede with the approval of the Meeting of the Parties.

UK practice is that Conventions are only extended to Overseas Territories at their request and if they can demonstrate that they can meet their obligations under the Convention. To date, no Territory has requested such an extension of this Convention.

[I] hope you will find this additional information valuable and we look forward to continuing to work with the Committee as the inquiry progresses.

26 July 2013

Annex A-Successful Darwin Plus Bids (First Round)

Bermuda invasive Lionfish control initiative, Bermuda Zoological Society, £169,898

An autonomous seabird monitoring network for the southern ocean, University of Oxford, £215,848

Biodiversity action planning in the Falkland Islands, Falkland

Conservation, £105,200

Upgrade and revision of reef survey resource, Charles Sheppard, £8,000 Sustainable management of the marine environment and resources of Tristan da Cunha, RSPB, £285,673

Seed conservation in the Caribbean UKOTs, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, £95,755

Using seabirds to inform Caribbean marine planning, University of Liverpool, £226,367

Rare plant census of St Helena, St Helena Nature Conservation Group, £8,650

Antarctic and sub-Antarctic marine protected areas: using penguin tracking data to identify candidate areas, British Antarctic Survey, £142,176

Coral nursery project in Little Cayman: enhancing resilience and natural capacity of coral reefs in the UKOTs, Central Caribbean Marine Institute, £41,631

Ile Vache marine restoration project, Chagos Conservation Trust, £32,256

Conserving plant diversity and establishing ecosystem based approaches to the management of forest ecosystems in the E3V1s, National Parks Trust of the Virgin Islands, £83,915

Promoting the creation and appropriate management of protected areas in Anguilla and the Cayman Islands, Anguilla National Trust, £193,568

Building capacity to develop and provide long term sustainability for St Helena’s paper and card recycling unit, St Helena Active Participation in Enterprise (SHAPE), £99,200

Annex B-Joint Ministerial Council Communiqué (Environment section)

We recognise that the Territories are home to many species and environments found nowhere else in the world and that sustainable economic growth and livelihoods within the Territories depend on the responsible stewardship of these natural resources. Territory Governments recognise their responsibilities for the sustainable management of the natural environment and the need to put environmental considerations at the heart of policy and decision making. The UK recognises the supportive role that it can play with Territory Governments to help make this shared agenda a reality, in cooperation with NG0s, the private sector and other stakeholders.

We have agreed to work together on the following priority actions:

· to develop sustainable fisheries-including developing sustainable management plans and facilitating development of the sector (with the UK providing–as necessary–support for scoping studies on fish stocks, model legislation and fisheries monitoring and patrols);

· to create sustainable long-term incentives and encourage private sector investment in renewable energy;

· to take a more strategic approach to the management, protection and conservation of the natural environment, including embedding that understanding into Government policies and decision-making;

· to ensure that where commercial use of natural resources takes place, it is carried out in the most sustainable and environmentally responsible way (including through the use of environmental impact assessments, evidence-based management plans, and protection of important areas);

· to share knowledge and best practice in the areas of food security and agricultural and aquaculture production;

· to continue to implement Environment Charters, and to work towards the full implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements where these have been extended to the Territories;

· for the UK to strengthen the way it represents Territory interests in relevant international fora;

· to identify and share best practice

Annex C-Progress made by the UK Government

1. Strategic Approach to the Environment

At the JMC both UK and Territory Governments agreed to adopt a more strategic approach to the management, protection and conservation of the natural environment. To facilitate this, the UK Government has been working with a number of Territories, including Anguilla, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, to support Territory Governments mainstream environmental policy into the decision-making processes. We are working to extend this initiative to other Territories and develop a shared agenda for sustainable environmental management.

2. Financial assistance

We announced in April 2013 the funding of 18 new projects in the Territories totalling £2.6 million. This included 14 projects under the new Overseas Territories Environment and Climate Fund (known as Darwin Plus) which is co-funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Department for International Development (DfiD) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). These projects and other Defra funding will support many of the actions identified in the JMC communiqué.

Darwin Plus is only one source of funding for activities in the Overseas Territories. Defra has, for example, also initiated a series of research projects to address threats to biodiversity in the South Atlantic and Caribbean Overseas Territories. These projects were designed to bring UK and Territory expertise together to address issues specifically identified by the Territory Governments.

3. Identifying and sharing best practice

Many of the activities funded by the UK Government seek to identify and share best practice amongst the Overseas Territories. We are conscious that to do this it is necessary to bring representatives of the Overseas Territories together. This is all the more important when addressing issues that impact on more than one Territory, such as the review of the UKOT Biodiversity Strategy held at Kew Gardens earlier this year, where participation of Territory representatives was facilitated by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), the public body that advises the UK Government on international nature conservation.

JNCC also undertakes activities in the Territories themselves, such as the organisation of workshops for the Caribbean Territories, to address the cross-territory threats to biodiversity from the invasive lionfish and to exchange expertise in this area. Work to address threats from lionfish has received funding from JNCC, FCO and through the Darwin Plus funding mechanism.

Exchange of best practice is also achieved through secondments and placements. At present, a JNCC staff member (a St Helena national) is on a two year secondment to St Helena as director of the new Environmental Management Department, with funding for the secondment provided by DFID. In her absence, a marine expert from Bermuda has been seconded to JNCC for 9 months. Defra also funds a JNCC officer in the Falkland Islands, who works with the Falkland Islands Government on issues related to the conservation of endangered albatrosses and petrels.

4. Access to Expertise

We are conscious that the Overseas Territories often need access to expertise within Defra and its executive agencies. Defra has established a joint mailbox (UKOTenquiriesadefra.qsi.qov.uk) as a first point of contact for all environment related enquires from the Overseas Territories. The mailbox is monitored on a daily basis, and queries are directed to the officials who are best placed to assist.

Defra also funds the Overseas Territories Pest identification service, operated by the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera). This service was set up to identify invasive invertebrate plant pests in the Territories in order to improve bio-security. At least 77 of the invertebrate species examined to date have never before been reported from the Territories A total of sixteen species new to science have been observed and are being studied further.

There is a clear demand for an identification service for invasive invertebrate plant pests to improve bio-security in the Territories (132 samples were received during 2012/13) and the service has produced a wealth of new and useful data In 2012 alone, at least 15 economically important, invasive, plant pests, were recorded from three of the Territories.

The FC0’s Jubilee Programme supports public services in the Overseas Territories and includes the exchange of expertise between public servants in the Territories and the UK through a programme of secondments providing Territory officials with opportunities to train and work with colleagues in the UK, and UK experts to work in the Territories.

As well as providing support from the UK Government, we are also encouraging Territory Governments to share expertise amongst themselves. Recent examples include Gibraltar’s offer to host a meeting for the Territories Geographic Information Systems and a cross-Caribbean effort to coordinate a response to combat the invasive lionfish.

5. Sustainable Fisheries

The UK Government is working with a number, of Territories including St Helena, Tristan da Cunha, Ascension, Pitcairn and the Turks and Caicos Islands to establish baseline information on fisheries resources and to scope opportunities for developing sustainable fishing industries. JNCC is currently developing a marine strategy for the Overseas Territories and is organising a series of technical workshops, bringing together marine experts from Defra and the Territories, to, address priorities in marine conservation and marine biodiversity. These workshops are anticipated to start later this year.

We have a good working relationship with UK-based NGOs such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), but we also want to engage with a number of Territory-based NGOs though the Environmental Mainstreaming initiative.

6. Renewable Energy

Many of the Overseas Territories have the potential to exploit renewable energy and reduce their dependency on fossil fuels. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is ready to provide advice and technical expertise in matters relating to energy and climate change and has established a single point of contact for any enquiries. The Falkland Islands are already making significant progress on reducing their dependency on fossil fuels with the capital, Stanley, now deriving 40 per cent of its energy needs from a wind farm.

7. International Commitments

UK Officials continue to support the Territories in implementing a range of multilateral environmental agreements, including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Defra lawyers have drawn up guidance for Territories considering extension of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and several of the daughter agreements to the Convention on Migratory Species, such as the Memorandum of Understanding on Migratory Birds of Prey (Raptors MoU) and the African-Eurasian Waterbirds Agreement (AEWA). We are also working actively with Territories to which CITES has been extended to ensure that their legislation meets the four basic requirements of the Convention.

8. Representing Territory interests internationally

We work hard to ensure that Overseas Territories are involved in activities under Multilateral Environmental Agreements that are of interest to them and both Defra and DECC ensure that the Territories are consulted prior to and following major international meetings.

In addition to this consultation process, Defra included a marine expert from one of the Overseas Territories in the UK delegation to the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity held in Hyderabad, India, in October 2012. Territory interests were also represented at the 16th Conference of the Parties to the CITES, held in Bangkok, Thailand, in March 2013,for example in respect of work regarding the queen conch, which is of significant economic interest to some of the Territories.