The Environment Charters signed in September 2001 between the UK Government and the Governments
of UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are important documents, which encapsulate the shared responsibility of the UK Government and the Government of individual territories for the conservation of the environment in the UKOTs and international commitments to this. 

For Multilateral Environmental Agreements such as the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), it is the Government of UK, which lodges – and is accountable for – international commitments, but the legislature and executive of each territory, which are responsible for the local implementing legislation and its enforcement. The Environment Charters were created, to reflect these responsibilities, but the point applies equally to the relationships between UK and those territories which do not have Environment Charters.

One of the core elements of the Charters is a set of Commitments by each territory government. These Commitments were not new with the Charters, but brought together existing commitments under other international measures. The other core was a set of corresponding Commitments by UK Government. This section provides some background on their inception and progress in implementing them.