UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum

"In 1986, the British Association of Nature Conservationists (BANC) commissioned a short desk study of conservation in what were then called the Dependent Territories funded by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-UK). The aims of this study were to pull together the scattered information on the natural history of the Territories and to find out where the responsibility lay for conservation within the UK Government. At that time there was a growing interest amongst NGOs and also within International Branch of the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC), the statutory body for nature conservation in Great Britain, in promoting conservation in the Dependencies (now Overseas Territories). NCC sponsored the compilation of data held by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Conservation Monitoring Centre (IUCN/CMC -now the World Conservation Monitoring Centre - WCMC) which was made available for the study. The Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) Kew made available plant conservation bibliographies. Part of the growing interest was stimulated by production of the International Waterfowl & Wetlands Researh Bureau (IWRB - now Wetlands International)/IUCN Wetland Directories which led to interest in the Ramsar Convention, and contact between the UK Department of the Environment (DoE) and the Dependencies concerning wetland sites. The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) had some input to the BANC/WWF UK study by nominating contacts in each Territory.

"The result of the short review was the publication of "Fragments of Paradise" in 1987. This included a series of recommendations for action in each Territory and 3 general recommendations. The first of these was that a co-ordinating body should be established for NGOs. This recommendation was taken up with the formation of the NGO Forum for Nature Conservation in the UK DTs (later the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum - UKOTCF). Initial members were BANC, International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP) British Section, WWF-UK and the Marine Conservation Society, which each paid subscriptions to establish the Forum. The intention was that matching funds would be found from Government sources but this did not happen. And so for the next few years the Forum existed on an annual budget of £2500, a lot of voluntary support and goodwill of the member organisations. WWF-UK's programme for the conservation of biodiversity in the Dependent Territories was developed as a response to "Fragments of Paradise". The priority areas for support by several member organisations continue to be guided by discussion within the Forum. "

Council

Accessed April 2012:

• Liz Charter
• John Cortes
• Alison Debney
• Bruce Dinwiddy
• Dace McCoy Ground
• Iain Orr
• Mike Pienkowski
• Bill Samuel (Treasurer)
• Joseph Smith Abbott
• Rob Thomas
• Chris Tydeman (Chairman, UKOTCF)
• Karen Varnham

Other Officers

• Ann Pienkowski
• Keith Bensusan
• Catherine Wensink