Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 19
19
To further improve the state of biodiversity in the Overseas Territories, we recommend that gaps...
Recommendation
To further improve the state of biodiversity in the Overseas Territories, we recommend that gaps in their protection be rectified. Namely, we recommend that: a) Ministers assure and set out the long-term funding plan for the Blue Belt Programme. In response to this report the Government should set out the programme’s long- term timetable, budget, and status following the Government’s 2021 Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy. b) Ministers review the environmental funding gap implications for the Overseas Territories following the UK leaving the EU. In response to this report Ministers should set out how the UK could fund landscape scale environmental projects with the potential for transformative biodiversity restoration. c) In the Government’s response to this report, Ministers should evaluate the feasibility of an environmental research portal for Overseas Territories. d) Ministers should consider opportunities to use increasing global aerial surveillance capabilities from high altitude or space to monitor the Blue Belt Programme. (Paragraph 75) International development and biodiversity
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
We will continue to support the British Overseas Territories to enhance protection for their marine environments, as stated in the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy. We are looking at options to secure funding for the Blue Belt programme for the next three years, now that SR21 has been announced. Blue Belt programme funding will include support for Overseas Territories newly joining the programme, in the Caribbean and elsewhere, as well as those Territories which are already part of the Blue Belt. We have started work to identify priorities and plan proposed activities for the next financial year and future years with the Overseas Territories and UK delivery partners. The 25 Year Environment Plan makes clear that public funding will continue to play an important role in protecting and enhancing our natural environment in the Overseas Territories. The announcement to make £10 million per annum available in the Darwin Plus Programme underlines the government’s commitment to protect the Overseas Territories’ unique environments, including through funding projects to tackle the threat posed by invasive non-native species. We are working closely with representatives from the Overseas Territories governments to develop the case for restructuring the Darwin Plus Programme to include larger landscape scale environmental projects and smaller capacity building grants for Overseas Territories governments, alongside the established programme of funding. We will continue to engage with the Overseas Territories to ensure that our future plans properly reflect their priorities. The Government has also continued to support transformative projects such as the RSPB’s Gough Island Restoration Programme which has now entered its final phase. We are pleased to report that the eradication of non- native mice has been delivered to the best standards possible and the release programme for Gough bunting is well underway. The Gough moorhens have already been returned to their natural environment and there will be an ongoing monitoring process up until the end of 2023 to validate whether the operation has been successful. We will initiate a feasibility study for an environmental research portal for Overseas Territories (OTs). We will consult with Overseas Territories representatives at our next OT roundtable in January 2022.