Skip to main content

British Overseas Territories: Darwin Plus

Question for Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

UIN 27085, tabled on 29 January 2025

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the objectives set out in the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs' speech entitled The Kew Lecture: Foreign Secretary's speech on the climate crisis, published on 17 September 2024, if he will make an assessment of the contribution of the Darwin Plus Programme to the UK Overseas Territories.

Answered on

4 February 2025

In 2020, Defra commissioned an independent review of the Darwin Plus programme. This found Darwin Plus projects to have a strong, positive impact on the capacity of the Territories to deliver long-term strategic outcomes for the natural environment, which enhances protection of biodiversity ecosystems. During his Kew Lecture on 17 September 2024, the Foreign Secretary declared reversing the decline in global biodiversity as a Government priority. It is estimated that the UK Overseas Territories are home to over 90% of known endemic British species.

Information on individual projects funded under Darwin Plus is available on the programme website (https://darwinplus.org.uk/). The programme’s performance is reviewed annually and published on the UK Government’s online Development Tracker.

Named day
Named day questions only occur in the House of Commons. The MP tabling the question specifies the date on which they should receive an answer. MPs may not table more than five named day questions on a single day.