Kew’s UK overseas territory (UKOT) programme was established in 2001 to help defend and secure the future of biodiversity in the Uks overseas colonies. There are 16 colonies overall, each with their own interesting and distinguishing plant life, everything from the cold arid conditions on the Falkland islands, to the warm tropical regions of Bermuda.
Partially funded by DEFRA (50%), UKOT territory programme targets endemic plants and animals from British colonies , to try and preserve the biodiversity ion these islands. There are some plants, such as the Rondeletia buxifoliathat is only found on the island of Montserrat, and was discovered by researchers from UKOT. The local people on the Island where unaware of the rarity and importance of this species, and thanks to help from the government, they have been able to preserve seeds, and protect this plant from ever becoming extinct.
Working with these territories, they have been able to implement plans from the global strategy for plant conservation, with the hopes of storing seedlings from all plants in the colonies, as well as identifying and cataloging all the species too. They are joining an Oxford online system called BRAHMS online. This system will allow all species they have collected, both past and present, to be created in a digital version. This is no small task, with over 17,000 specimens on record, and 10,000 taxa included in that. This online herborium has separate web pages for each colony, allowing for quick and easy navigation.
All the sampling and collecting the UKOT participate in is geo-refferenced, so that everyone knows where exactly the samples came from. This technology can also be modified to allow researchers to see where possible suitable habitats are for some species, allowing them to refine their search approach.
Mad biology talks 