We leave to future generations a shared planet, full of life.

The natural world needs to be protected as it is fragile and faces many human induced threats.

Many of the UK’s Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies are small islands with wildlife found nowhere else on earth. Their human populations and economies are small. Their citizens are UK citizens, but their economies are not integrated with the UK’s domestic economy. Governance of the UKOTs is delegated from the UK. Under international treaties, the UK is responsible for conservation. However, very few funds are provided from the UK Government, leaving much of the conservation of the most globally important and vulnerable wildlife for which UK is responsible largely to the small populations and economies of the UKOTs.

Our UK-registered charity is the only conservation body to focus entirely on all the UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, and their special places.

We help people in the UKOTs and CDs conserve their diverse and unique species and ecosystems – valuable in their own right and in underpinning the territories’ economies. We do this by providing assistance, expertise, information and networking between organisations in the UK and in the UKOTs and CDs.

Projects are based on conserving wildlife and other aspects of heritage, while contributing to the well-being of the local community. Because of their status as UK territories, they are not eligible for most international grant sources – but nor are they eligible for most UK funding.

Through these British territories, the UK boasts an array of unique wildlife across our planet.

From current estimates:

  • About 3300 endemic species (those found nowhere else on earth) occur in the UKOTs compared to 90 on mainland Britain.
  • The UK, through the UKOTs, support more penguins than any other nation on earth, holding an estimated 36% of the world’s population of southern rock hopper penguins and 34% of gentoo penguins, as well as several other species.
  • A third of the world’s albatrosses breed in the UKOTs of the South Atlantic.
  • Stretching from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean and beyond, the UK is the twelfth largest coral reef nation on earth.

Some of the most successful conservation stories are a result of long-term programmes, requiring much more than a few years of funding. We aim to provide this long-term support to ensure that nothing is lost, while human communities thrive. 

We rely on subscriptions, donations and project grants. We maintain a small UK base, so that most of the limited resources can be applied to conservation efforts with local partner organisations in the UKOTs. We are proud that around 80% of donations received go directly towards our charitable activities.

If you would like to build a legacy, with us, to ensure that biodiversity and life on earth, and UK’s special places, are protected for future generations, please contact Catherine Wensink cwensink@ukotcf.org