Call for evidence outcome

Call for evidence document

Updated 8 April 2020

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

1. Why is this call for evidence needed?

The British Overseas Territories (‘OTs’) are globally significant in their ecological richness, containing over 90% of the UK’s marine and terrestrial biodiversity. Constitutional responsibility for decision making in many policy areas relevant to biodiversity and conservation lie with the OTs, which are highly dependent on the assets provided by their natural environment, terrestrial and marine ecosystems, for their economic wellbeing.^{[footnote 1]}

The UK works in partnership with the OTs to deliver both OT- specific objectives and contribute to wider regional and international environmental commitments of the UK and OTs. We want to make sure that this support is as effective as it can be, considering how environmental objectives that contribute to wider regional and global commitments can be met.

The Foreign Affairs Committee’s recent report, ‘Global Britain and the British Overseas Territories: Resetting the Relationship’, highlighted questions regarding environment spend in the British OTs beyond Brexit, especially as the current Spending Review ends and programme commitments are due to expire.

As announced in the Chancellor’s Spring Statement package on 13 March 2019, this call for evidence invites ideas on how the government can safeguard the OTs’ biodiversity. It will further look to how outcomes are delivered through existing spend on biodiversity and conservation, and consider whether spend is effectively delivering against environmental objectives.

2. Background: current support for British OTs

The overarching objective of the government’s strategy for conserving biodiversity in the Overseas Territories is ‘to enable the UK and Overseas Territory Governments to meet their international obligations for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the Overseas Territories’ ^{[footnote 2]}.

The UK supports OTs in implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These include taking ‘urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts’; to ‘conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources’ and protecting, restoring and promoting sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems’, including halting biodiversity loss. The UK has also signed up to a range of environmental multilateral environmental agreements, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and supports the development of an ambitious new global framework of targets for adoption by the CBD Conference of the Parties in 2020.

‘A Green Future: Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment’ states the government’s commitment to take “action to recover threatened, iconic or economically important species of animals, plants and fungi, and where possible to prevent human-induced extinction or loss of known threatened species in England and the Overseas Territories.”

2.1 Darwin Plus

Projects addressing environment or climate change issues are supported through Darwin Plus, also known as The Overseas Territories Environment and Climate Fund. This competitive grant scheme aims to achieve long-term outcomes for the natural environment in the OTs. As well as environmental projects, Darwin Plus provides funding for fellowships for OT nationals to increase their knowledge and ability to meet long-term strategic outcomes for the natural environment. Darwin Plus is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). Since 2012, Darwin Plus has funded 100 projects worth £17.5 million. Key priorities in the most recent funding round are:

• supporting bespoke marine projects to assist marine protection and management around the OTs
• dealing with invasive non-native species
• waste management strategies, particularly those with a focus on plastics
• responding to, and mitigating against, the impacts of natural disasters on the OTs
• implementing National Biodiversity Action Plans
• conservation, restoration and wise use of wetlands

Further information about Darwin Plus is available at: www.gov.uk/guidance/darwin-plus-applying-for-projects-in-uk-overseas-territories

2.2 Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF)

In 2016, funding was secured from the CSSF for a number of FCO environmental projects in the OTs. Projects are:

• The Blue Belt Programme, which aims to protect over 4 million square kilometres of marine environment
• Gough Island Restoration Programme, saving critically endangered seabirds from extinction and maintaining the island’s status as one of the world’s most important seabird nesting sites
• tackling the threat of non-native invasive species across the OTs
• natural capital in the Caribbean and South Atlantic Overseas Territories, providing an assessment of natural capital and building capacity to monitor environmental change and integrating environmental evidence into economic policy making and infrastructure planning.^{[footnote 3]}
• coral reef improvement initiative, to help support the understanding and improvement of the status of coral reefs

2.3 Voluntary scheme for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Territories of European Overseas (BEST)

BEST is an EU funding stream for environment projects in the EU Overseas Territories, which operates on a competitive bidding basis. It aims to promote conservation and sustainable use of ecosystem services, including ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and mitigation.^{[footnote 4]} UK OTs benefit from BEST funding by approximately £1 million per annum.

3. Call for evidence: objectives

This call for evidence aims to support the UK’s continued partnership with the OTs in meeting environmental commitments in the future. It seeks evidence that will inform policy, identifying how government funds can achieve greater impact in protecting the rich biodiversity of the OTs, and how funding can deliver better value for money.

We want to hear about experiences of biodiversity and conservation funding in the OTs to date. We are interested in hearing from parties with direct experience of working with these funds, from the OTs themselves, NGOs and other organisations with experience of working in conjunction with, and running environmental projects in the OTs.

The objectives of this call for evidence are:

1. To understand and improve outcomes on the ground, delivered through existing spend on biodiversity and conservation
2. To inform Spending Review decisions on the most appropriate and value for money funding arrangements and funding levels to deliver HMG global/regional objectives for biodiversity and conservation

4. Scope of this call for evidence

This call for evidence will be targeted at funding to support marine and terrestrial biodiversity and conservation projects in OTs. Although this is largely relevant to the EU BEST programme, the Darwin Plus programme and funding supported through the CSSF, we would like to hear about your experiences with other funding streams. We also seek your input on all activities supporting biodiversity and conservation, including research (where directly applicable), international partnerships, and projects on the ground.

Although evidence gained from this call for evidence will focus on the forthcoming Spending Review period, we further welcome evidence showing how results can be achieved over the longer term.

We recognise that action on biodiversity contributes to delivering a range of sustainable development objectives, including economic growth, food security, water security, livelihoods, climate change adaptation and mitigation and disaster risk reduction. While this Call for Evidence is targeted primarily at biodiversity outcomes, we welcome evidence to demonstrate how funding delivers a range of objectives and how other targeted environmental and climate change programmes deliver against biodiversity objectives.

This call for evidence will not cover large-scale infrastructure projects such as building waste management/recycling infrastructure. We will not be using this call for evidence to consider wider funding to the OTs.

5. Questions

Please provide evidence to support your response, and where possible refer to i) the territory/ region ii) specific funding streams/ schemes.

1. What are the biodiversity challenges you are addressing in your region? What is your role in tackling these challenges?

2. What are your sources of funding? What is the impact of current funds on biodiversity and conservation on the ground in the OTs? Please provide information on specific funding streams/ schemes and the outcomes they have achieved.

3. What are the main barriers to tackling the challenges you face? If lack of funding is a barrier, please describe the objectives you would deliver with additional funding and how these relate to UK and OT government biodiversity priorities.

4. What do you think of the current allocation of funds between the OTs and the UK, and between strategic priorities? Can you think of ways to improve the effectiveness/efficiency of this allocation and its impact on the ground?

5. Do you have views on how any funds you have accessed are run and administered? How could they be better organised?

6. How have you collaborated with other organisations, both public and private, to ensure spending delivers outcomes? Is there more that could be done to improve collaboration?

7. How are your funded projects monitored and evaluated to ensure they deliver value for money?

8. Does any particular fund deliver better value for money, in comparison to others? How/ why?

9. Do you have any ideas of innovative methods to improve biodiversity and conservation in your region? Do you have any experience of use of innovative methods?

10. Are there other environmental or climate change programmes in country that also contribute to biodiversity outcomes, including those funded from the budget?

11. Have you identified any forms of government funding that could encourage financial investment from other sources (eg. leveraging for match funding, private investment and academic research funding)?

12. How have biodiversity and biodiversity funding supported wider benefits in your region, such as sustainable economic development?

6. How to respond

The call for evidence is open for 10 weeks from 10 May 2019 and closes on 19 July 2019.

The deadline for responses has been extended until Friday 26 July 2019.

Please submit your responses in any of the following ways:

By email: OTcallforevidence@defra.gov.uk

By post:

CfE Biodiversity in the OTs,
Defra, Strategy Unit,
4th Floor Seacole,
2 Marsham Street, London.
SW1P 4DF

7. Confidentiality and data protection

This call for evidence document and consultation process have been planned to adhere to the Consultation Principles issued by the Cabinet Office.

Representative groups are asked to give a summary of the people and organisations they represent and where relevant who else they have consulted in reaching their conclusions when they respond.

Information provided in response to this call for evidence, including personal data, may be published or disclosed in accordance with the access to information regimes these are primarily the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs), the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA). We have obligations, mainly under the EIRs, FOIA and DPA, to disclose information to particular recipients or to the public in certain circumstances.

If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that, as a public authority, the Department is bound by the Freedom of Information Act and may therefore be obliged to disclose all or some of the information you provide. In view of this it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the Department.

This call for evidence is being conducted in line with the Cabinet Office “Consultation Principles” and be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/consultation-principles-guidance.

If you have any comments or complaints about the consultation process, please address them to:

Consultation Coordinator
Area 1C, 1st Floor
Nobel House
17 Smith Square,
London, SW1P 3JR.

Or email: consultation.coordinator@defra.gov.uk

1. www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-overseas-territories-biodiversity-strategy-update ↩

2. www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-overseas-territories-biodiversity-strategy ↩

3. This project has now ended but a new project is building on this work in the British Virgin Islands. ↩

4. www.best2portal.org/ ↩