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Invasive alien species are one of the primary threats to native biodiversity on islands worldwide, and their expansion continues due to global trade and travel. Preventing the arrival and establishment of highly successful invasive species through rigorous biosecurity is known to be more economic than the removal of these species once they have established. However, many islands around the world lack biosecurity regulations or practical measures and establishing biosecurity will require social and financial investments. Guiding these investments towards islands where native biodiversity is at highest risk from potential invasions is of strategic importance to maximise conservation benefit with limited resources. Here we implement an established prioritisation approach, previously used to identify which islands will have the greatest conservation gains from the eradication of invasive species, to identify which islands would benefit the most from establishing or improving biosecurity. We demonstrate this approach for 318 islands in the Caribbean UK Overseas Territories and Bermuda where we considered all threatened native terrestrial vertebrates that are vulnerable to the most harmful invasive vertebrates (black and brown rats, cats, small Indian mongoose, green iguana). The approach calculates the increase in conservation threat score resulting from anticipated negative effects of potential invaders on native biodiversity, and highlighted Sombrero (Anguilla) and Cayman Brac (Cayman Islands) as important islands where threatened reptile species would likely be eliminated if rats, feral cats or mongoose invaded. Feasibility and cost implications should now be investigated more closely on the highlighted islands. The prioritisation presented here can be expanded to more islands and more invasive/native taxa (herbivores, plants and invertebrates), but requires a classification of the severity of potential impacts between invasive and native species for which currently little information exists. Besides highlighting opportunities for biosecurity, this approach also highlights where knowledge gaps about population sizes of and threats to reptiles with restricted ranges exist.

The Orkney Islands, o? the north-east coast of Scotland, support highly significant?cant cultural and natural heritage. The combined land area of the 70 islands is 990 km2 (380 sq mi), 1% of the UK, but they host over 20% of the UK’s breeding hen harriers (Circus cyaneus) (declining over much of its mainland range), 8% of breeding curlews (Numenius arquata) (one of only two UK populations not in decline) and an internationally important assemblage of breeding seabirds. The Orkney Islands are naturally free of mammalian predators, and all bird species, including raptors, are ground-nesting in the largely treeless landscape. Rats (Rattus spp.), hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) and feral cats (Felis catus) are present across the archipelago. Stoats (Mustela erminea) are native to mainland UK but not Orkney, yet were detected on Orkney Mainland in 2010. Orkney Mainland has an area of 523 km2 (202 sq mi). Early attempts at removing them were not successful. By 2013 stoats were present across the Orkney Mainland and connected isles. In 2016, SNH and RSPB formed a partnership to eradicate stoats to protect the native wildlife and designated sites of the Orkney islands, and to secure the wider socio-economic and cultural bene?ts of thriving native wildlife. Di?culties faced in developing the project include predicting the e? ort required to remove stoats at a rate faster than they can reproduce, securing community support and access to private land and, in particular, funding large scale biodiversity restoration projects. A feasibility study determined that stoat eradication would be possible using DOC200 kill traps, and search dogs in later stages of the eradication. There are no legally available poisons that could be used on stoats in the UK. A Biosecurity Plan has been produced for the archipelago, with a current focus on preventing the spread of stoats to the uninvaded isles. The partnership is working to secure funds and community support for what will be the world’s largest stoat eradication attempted to date. We present the ?ndings of the feasibility study and our proposed methodology.

A successful ground-based eradication of black rats (Rattus rattus) was undertaken on the remote, uninhabited Shiant Isles of north-west Scotland over winter (14 October–28 March) 2015–16. The rat eradication was carried out as part of the Shiants Seabird Recovery Project, which aims to secure long-term breeding habitat for protected seabirds and to attract European storm petrels and Manx shearwaters to nest on the Shiants. Throughout the eradication operation, teams were stationed on two of the three main Shiant islands (Eilean an Tighe, Eilean Mhuire), with access to the third (Garbh Eilean) via a boulder causeway from Eilean an Tighe. Bait (Contrac® blocks containing the anticoagulant bromadiolone 0.005% w/w), was deployed in a grid of 1,183 bait stations covering all areas of the islands and sea stacks. Bait stations were set 50 m apart, with intervals reduced to 25 m in coastal areas of predicted high rat density. Difficult areas were accessed by boat and cliff s of ~120 m in height were accessed by abseiling down ropes made safe using either bolted anchors or ground stakes. The team of staff and volunteers worked through difficult conditions, deploying bait and monitoring intensively for any surviving rats using a combination of tools. The islands were declared rat free in March 2018. This ambitious and challenging project has greatly enhanced UK capacity in rodent eradications for the purposes of conservation.

Papua New Guinea is a high biodiversity country in both the terrestrial and marine environments. Many new species of many different genera of plants and animals are still being 'uncovered' through ongoing and concentrated efforts by various researchers and institutions, incrementally filling in the gaps of our knowledge. Areas that were blank on the Conservation Needs Assessment map of 1994 have been filled in over the last 20 years, although many areas are yet to be surveyed.

Many developing countries are unable to fulfil their obligations as signatories of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) as they tackle increasingly complex scientific and technical issues. Inadequate human, financial, and technical capacity are some of the constraints that severely impact their ability to implement MEAs. In order to address this pressing issue, the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have joined forces with the European Commission (EC) and the ACP Secretariat (African, Caribbean, Pacific Group of States Secretariat) and regional organizations, namely, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the Caribbean Community Secretariat (CARICOM) and the African Union Commission (AUC) to enhance the capacity of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to improve the implementation of specific MEAs.

Many developing countries are unable to fulfil their obligations as signatories of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) as they tackle increasingly complex scientific and technical issues. Inadequate human, financial, and technical capacity are some of the constraints that severely impact their ability to implement MEAs. In order to address this pressing issue, the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have joined forces with the European Commission (EC) and the ACP Secretariat (African, Caribbean, Pacific Group of States Secretariat) and regional organizations, namely, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the Caribbean Community Secretariat (CARICOM) and the African Union Commission (AUC) to enhance the capacity of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to improve the implementation of specific MEAs.

Indigenous peoples and local communities often depend on natural resources and biodiversity to meet their subsistence needs and sustain their livelihoods. They have demonstrated their ability to be highly effective natural resource managers under the right conditions, but are also vulnerable to environmental degradation and climate change.

In 2010, the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) agreed to an ambitious set of 20 targets, called the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, as part of their commitment to the CBD Strategic Plan. One of the Targets (target 17) called for each country to revise its National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plan (NBSAP) in accordance with the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. From 2010 to November 2016, virtually all countries have revised, or are currently completing the revision of, their NBSAP.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is committed to supporting Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in their efforts to achieving the Strategic Plan of Biodiversity (2011-2020) and the Aichi biodiversity targets.

The National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) are seen as key entry points for enhancing synergies and cooperation among the key biodiversity related conventions, namely the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), the Convention on Migratory Species of wild fauna (CMS), the World Heritage Convention (WHC), the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and the International Plan Protection Convention (IPPC). With close of one hundred countries currently finalizing their NBSAPs that serve as key national policy documents concerning biodiversity, this paper attempts to provide specific guidance to countries on ways and means to integrate synergistic actions across key biodiversity conventions. This paper builds on UNEP actions promoting synergies and cooperation among the biodiversity Conventions, including the 'Options Paper' that has been published in 2016 and various Decisions of governing bodies of the conventions calling for synergies.