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ukot Bermuda Turks and Caicos Islands Cayman Islands British Virgin Islands Anguilla Montserrat Pitcairn island British Antartic Territory South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Falkland Islands Tristan da Cunha St Helena Ascension Island Gibraltar British Indian Ocean Territory Sovereign Base Areas on Cyprus UK Overseas Territories Bermuda Turks and Caicos Islands Cayman Islands British Virgin Islands Anguilla Montserrat Pitcairn Island British Antartic Territory South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Falkland Islands Tristan da Cunha St Helena and Dependencies Ascension Island Gibraltar British Indian Ocean Territory Sovereign Base Areas on Cyprus
Biodiversity of the UK Overseas Territories

The sixteen UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are former British colonies that have retained their British citizenship and remain part of the United Kingdom. Most of them are islands or groups of islands distributed across the world's oceans. Occupying many different climatic zones from tropical through temperate to Antarctic, they support considerably more unique plants and habitats than the whole of the UK mainland. Many of the UKOTs' natural habitats are under intense pressure, largely as a result of unsustainable land-use and uncontrolled development causing fragmentation, modification or degradation. Increasing threats come from climate shifts, leading to rising sea levels and severe weather events, and from invasive plants, animals and microbes.

To help address these conservation issues, Kew's UKOTs team is bringing together the conservation expertise and botanical resources of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and other worldwide Herbaria, as well as those of governmental and non-governmental organizations within the UKOTs.

The UKOTs Online Herbarium

The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) recognizes the pressing need to understand and document plant diversity around the world to provide a firm foundation for its effective conservation. Target 1 of the GSPC is 'An online flora of all known plants', with Target 2 being 'An assessment of the conservation status of all known plant species, as far as possible, to guide conservation action'.

To assist in the compilation of the plant species lists and conservation assessments needed to meet GSPC Targets 1 and 2, the UKOTs Online Herbarium is assembling existing information on the plants of the UKOTs into a central database. This includes digitisation of historic UKOTs plant specimens from Kew's Herbarium and all incoming field collections and observations from the UKOTs.

The UKOTs Online Herbarium provides internet-based access to a virtual herbarium which, in the first instance, comprises digitized geo-referenced herbarium specimens from Kew's collection together with associated data, field images and key botanical literature. All species names are based on internationally accepted taxonomy, and changes in taxonomy and conservation status are incorporated regularly to ensure that the database remains current.

The UKOTs Online Herbarium is delivering on the three strategic priorities of Kew's Science Strategy.

© Copyright Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The initial project to establish the UKOTs Online Herbarium "Achieving GSPC Target 1: the UKOTS on-line Herbarium" was funded by the former Overseas Territories Environment Programme (OTEP), a jointly run programme by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DfID).


Please use the links below to see further details on conservation activities in the UK Overseas Territories.

Anguilla

Ascension Island

Bermuda

British Antarctic Territory

British Indian Ocean Territory

British Virgin Islands

Cayman Islands

Falkland Islands

Gibraltar

Montserrat

Pitcairn Islands

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Sovereign Base Areas on Cyprus

St. Helena

Tristan da Cunha

Turks and Caicos Islands


Other projects by the UK Overseas Territories Science Team

Species Red Listing in the Caribbean


Site published by
UK Overseas Territories Team, UK and Islands Programme, Conservation Science Department, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Please cite as
UKOTs Team (Current Year). UKOTs Online Herbarium. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Hamilton, M.A. and Barrios, S. (eds.). Published on the internet at http://brahmsonline.kew.org/UKOT (Date Accessed).
For further information
Please contact Kew's UKOTs Team