United Kingdom Overseas Territories
The United Kingdom’s 14 Overseas Territories
are a diverse grouping. They range from the tiny Pacific
island of Pitcairn with 47 inhabitants and a fragile
subsistence economy based on fishing, horticulture, and the sale of
handicrafts, to Bermuda just north of the Caribbean, which has a
population of more than 62,000 and is one of the world's major
financial centres. They also include the Sovereign Base Areas
on Cyprus, which are military bases.
The UKOTs have an amazing wealth of
biodiversity. Of globally threatened species identified in
the 2009 IUCN Red List, 74
critically endangered species occur in the UK Overseas Territories
(compared to 14 in mainland UK) along with 50 endangered
species (17 in mainland UK) and 167 vulnerable species (41 in
the mainland UK). Many of these species are
endemic
and so are found nowhere else in the world
The Overseas Territories also hold regionally
or globally important concentrations or assemblages of
species. For example, Ascension Island supports the second
largest green turtle rookery in the Atlantic; Gough Island (Tristan
da Cunha) has been described as, arguably, the most important
seabird island in the world; and the reefs of the Chagos
Archipelago (British Indian Ocean Territory) are some of the
most pristine and best protected in the Indian Ocean (and account
for some 1.3% of the world resource).