Biodiversity, environmental resilience, and economic security are deeply intertwined. Globally, biodiversity is being lost at an alarming rate due to the pressures that human activity and climate change place on the environment. The resulting imbalance in nature threatens the resilience of ecosystems and their capacity to provide the services which underpin our livelihoods.
JNCC’s Building environmental resilience and security in a changing climate through biodiversity conservation programme supported the UK Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, Western and South Atlantic regions to build the resilience of key ecosystems through a nature-based solutions approach. This two-year programme which ran from 2021 to 2023 was funded with UK aid from the UK government through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF).
Programme Overview
The UK Overseas Territories are dispersed across four of the world’s oceans and support a rich diversity of species and habitats, many of which are found nowhere else on Earth. When thriving and diverse, these natural assets provide a wealth of benefits to the UK Overseas Territories which are relied upon for the socio-economic security and well-being of resident communities.
The programme aimed to build capacity for monitoring environmental change, integrate environmental evidence into economic policy making, and build disaster resilience. Work was undertaken with well-established partners in the UK Overseas Territories governments and with local stakeholders.
Projects
Two projects were completed within the programme and took a multipronged approach to respond to urgent priorities identified by the UK Overseas Territories, including support for the effective management of coral reef ecosystems and key habitats underpinning disaster resilience.
Implementing Coral Reef Action Plans for the UK Overseas Territories Coral Reef Initiative project
This project implemented Coral Reef Action Plans in the Caribbean and Western Atlantic Overseas Territories using a collaborative approach to progress adaptive management for coral reef ecosystems.
Climate change adaptation and hurricane disaster resilience project
This project provided partners in the Caribbean, Western and South Atlantic Overseas Territories with the practical tools, knowledge, and skills needed to embed the value of the natural environment into policy making in the context of coastal flooding.
Related Work
Projects within the Building environmental resilience and security in a changing climate through biodiversity conservation programme work in collaboration with each other and build upon recent, and planned, initiatives in the Overseas Territories to ensure that outcomes are connected and not duplicated.
The programme is underpinned by the CSSF-funded programme, Natural Capital in the Caribbean and South Atlantic Overseas Territories: Valuation, Vulnerability and Monitoring Change, which JNCC ran between 2016 and 2019. This programme aimed to embed the role of the natural environment into economic and spatial planning with the objective of supporting development while protecting and enhancing the value of the natural environment of the Overseas Territories.
Partners and Funders
This work was funded with UK aid from the UK government through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF).
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