A high level panel discussed how BEST contributes to development and conservation in the EU Overseas.

Hosting 70% of the EU’s species, 20% of the world’s coral reefs and made up of 34 political entities, the EU Overseas regions constitute the world’s largest marine area- 5% of the global ocean. The EU ORs (Outermost Regions) and OCTs (Overseas Countries and Territories) form five global diversity hotspots increasingly affected by climate change, invasive species and habitat loss. With the high motivation to mitigate these issues they have also been at the forefront of adaptation and mitigation activities and have made huge progress towards sustainable development. For example, the creation of a vast marine protected area (MPA) off New Caledonia , South Georgia which now has the largest MPA to be sustainably managed and the South Orkney southern shelf recently designated as the first High Seas MPA, to name a few. These commitments provide valuable lessons and stimulate political mobilization in regions of global importance. Inger Anderson, Director General of the IUCN recognised this - “At IUCN, we recognise the key roles EU Overseas play in our sustainable future [and] IUCN is honoured to play such a pivotal role in promoting EU overseas as global actors of resilience and sustainable development”.

BEST was adopted by the European Parliament in 2010 as a pilot initiative implemented by the European Commission. Six years later, the Initiative gained local, regional and international recognition. Kate Brown ,coordinator of the Global Island Partnership,  has recognised BEST’s potential as the first GLISPA interregional challenge since it is already an “instrumental initiative for supporting island leadership and achievements”.  Carole Martinez , Senior Coordinator of the IUCN regional Seas and EU Overseas Programme, detailed the two fold dimension of BEST as a participative science based framework and funding mechanism  supporting  projects and actions.  Humberto Delgado Rosa, Director of Natural Capital Unit, Directorate General for the Environment, European Commission said that BEST has an important strategic dimension for the EU as it allows them to have a “better understanding of islands and their potential“.

      Photo: Stewart McPherson

Some of BEST’s achievements so far include funding 34 projects on the ground, which have tackled projects on invasive species, ecosystem restoration, monitoring and management. So far over 50 organisations have benefited from the BEST initiative. In addition, it has produced some first ever regional profiles of ecosystem services: an essential source of information for current and future projects to base themselves on. Regarding, the approach BEST takes, the team works with local partners. Dr. the Honourable Kedrick D. Pickering, Deputy Premier and Minister of Natural Resources and Labour, British Virgin Islands, approved of this mentioning that working with the local people was important to prevent many of the negative effects often implied in externally funded projects.

The EU overseas and other island states are key players in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development targets and BEST contributes to the delivery of tangible actions through tailored support for island entities. Dr Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD Executive Secretary pointed out that the achievements of BEST projects, “offer a tremendous potential for sustainable development and achieving the Aichi targets”. At the Congress, motion 070 was passed that will help achieve this potential by encouraging the EU financing and taking EU overseas biodiversity into account when and where relevant. As EU Overseas have become increasingly acknowledged as making up an essential component of EU biodiversity whilst lacking enough funding mechanisms the motion was fully approved.

The panel ended the IUCN congress event with a call for greater cooperation and partnerships to fund the BEST initiative. Given its potential role in sustainable development and conservation on islands beyond the European continent, there is a definite future for this initiative in sustainable development and conservation.

For questions contact Carole Martinez Carole.martinez@iucn.org