The Commons: The Blue Belt Programme
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With figures from Climate.GOV stating that increasing ocean heat content is contributing to sea level rise, ocean heat waves and coral bleaching, the time is now to act to protect oceanic species and their habitats. The Blue Belt Programme has set out to do exactly that. Founded in 2016, the UK launched the Blue Belt Programme to support UK Overseas Territories to enhance the protection and management of their surrounding marine environments.
The programme protects 4 million km² of ocean under British governance around the UK Overseas Territories. Territories under this protection include: Ascension Island (2019), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (2012), Pitcairn Islands (2016), Saint Helena (2016), and Tristan da Cunha (2020).
(*dates entered Blue Belt Programme/ conservation)
In protecting these areas, each overseas territory has pledged to conserve its marine areas and is labeled as an MPA (marine protected area). In light of the creation of the Blue Belt Programme, the initiative is set to be a starting point for further conservation efforts, with the UK government calling upon the global community to build on the initial effort by committing to protect 30% of all the world’s oceans by 2030.
What does the Blue Belt Programme set out to do?
The main efforts of the initiative are to drive meaningful change and to shape global ocean governance. The Blue Belt Programme provides a range of support to UK Overseas Territories within the programme under 5 core themes:
Strengthening governance and managing frameworks
By doing this, the Programme enables governments to protect, manage and conserve their marine environment through governance, legislation and enforcement. In addition to this, it allows the protection and conservation of natural resources through management frameworks
Understanding and protecting biodiversity, and building resilience to climate change.
The Blue Belt Programme assesses the current and potential impacts of climate change on the marine environment and uses evidence to support decision-making and adaptive management to protect and enhance the marine environment
Managing human impact
The Blue Belt Programme helps UK Overseas Territories understand the impacts and have protective measures in place to reduce the risk posed by marine plastic litter and other pollutants to the marine environment.
Capacity building and ocean literacy
The initiative provides UK Overseas Territories with essential skills and funding to achieve sustained marine environment protection. This aspect also works to enhance understanding of ocean ecosystems across the territories through education and community. This aims to inspire young people to become aware of marine conservation and encourages further education and exposure to environmental causes.
Supporting compliance and enforcement:
The Blue Belt Programme supports UK Overseas Territories in managing and regulating their marine environments. They provide territories with the necessary training and introduce innovative technology such as satellite imagery to detect and deter illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities.
Montserrat is welcomed into the Blue Belt Family
Montserrat is a small volcanic island in the eastern Caribbean, known for its distinctive “Emerald Isle” landscapes and surrounding waters rich in coral reefs and marine biodiversity. Despite its small size, Montserrat’s maritime zone encompasses ocean environments of significant conservation value. In 2026, Montserrat became the fourth Caribbean Territory to join the Blue Belt Programme. This monumental milestone for not only Montserrat itself, but for the initiative, marked World Ocean Day as the Blue Belt Programme marked 10 years of conservation and protection.
Named the “Emerald Isle of the Caribbean”, Montserrat’s marine ecosystem is striking and increasingly diverse, with its waters being home to hawksbill turtles, which are listed as critically endangered by the IUCN. The tropical waters of Montserrat are ideal foraging grounds for infant turtles, providing valuable habitats and nesting areas for the endangered species. The Caribbean UK Overseas Territory has been devastated by violent volcanic eruptions between 1995 and 1997, which destroyed the capital, Plymouth.
Due to Montserrat’s volcanic activity, marine environments have been suspected to be at risk due to the levels of pH in bodies of water, such as acid rain that occurs during a volcanic eruption. In January of 1996, Dr Brosan measured the pH of a lake in Montserrat and found it at 2.0, with a score of anything below pH 5.0 meaning the ecosystem is at risk and aquatic life would be badly affected. As well as aquatic life being at risk due to the pH levels in water in and surrounding the island, the eruption of Soufriere Hills has caused vegetation to be negatively affected by ash, preventing sunlight from reaching vegetation and causing a lack of food sources for animals.
Since the volcanic eruptions, Montserrat has been focused on recovering and rebuilding not only the island but also conserving habitats for its endangered species. Joining the Blue Belt Programme is a momentous step into the right direction for conserving and protecting marine life around Montserrat. Speaking about the partnership with the Blue Belt Programme, Montserrat’s Premier and Minister of Finance, the Honourable Reuben T Meade, welcomed the partnership as an investment in not only nature, but people.
“Montserrat is proud to join the United Kingdom’s Blue Belt Programme at this pivotal moment in our nation’s environmental journey. As a small island developing state, we understand intimately the value of our marine environment. This initiative represents more than environmental stewardship; it is an investment in the resilience and prosperity of our people. The Government of Montserrat welcomes the technical expertise and collaborative support provided by the Blue Belt Programme, and we look forward to working alongside the United Kingdom and regional partners to ensure that Montserrat’s marine environment remains healthy, productive, and protected for generations to come”
This new partnership with The Blue Belt Programme has committed the Government of Montserrat to protecting at least 20% of its maritime zone. As well as this, the Government of Montserrat has also agreed to a number of protections to establish a comprehensive marine management framework to ensure the sustainable, productive, and equitable use of ocean resources for present and future generations.
Protections and Measures Established
Survey underwater habitats to inform future establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and marine spatial management frameworks, balancing sustainable use with long-term conservation
Implement new science-based fisheries management frameworks, supported by robust data on fish populations to safeguard stocks and enable sustainable livelihoods
Review and strengthen marine legislation to ensure alignment with international standards and support delivery of Montserrat’s environmental commitments
Build lasting local capacity and expertise for science-led decision making at the heart of marine management.
Achievements from the Blue Belt Programme
Through the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantis Tunas (ICCAT), The Blue Belt Programme has secured landmark protections for some of the ocean’s most vulnerable species. A notable achievement that has been achieved is the historic protections for sharks and rays, with the Blue Belt Programme-led negotiations securing a full retention ban on basking sharks and great white sharks. This was agreed in 2025 and entered into force in 2026, allowing more protections for the species. This achievement builds on the full retention ban on Mobuild rays, including manta rays, which will be in force in 2025. These measures represent some of the strongest protections ever secured for these species and reflect years of fighting and diplomatic efforts by the UK for stronger protections.
Another notable achievement is that the Blue Belt Programme exceeded its target of protecting 4 million sq km of ocean in the Overseas Territories, with the introduction of the Tristan de Cunha Marine Protection Zone. With the introduction of the 2020 Tristan de Cunha Marine Protection Zone, more than 4.3 million sq km of the world’s most unique and precious marine environment would be protected. The zone safely protects the future of the sevengill sharks, yellow-nosed albatrosses and the rockhopper penguins in the remote archipelago, and is home to the most isolated, and largest fully protected marine reserve in the Atlantic Ocean at 687,000 square kilometers (265,252 square miles). This is not only a momentous achievement for the Blue Belt Programme in showing that the UK is committed to conserving and protecting its oceans, but also closes over 90 percent of its waters to harmful activities like bottom-trawling fishing, sand extraction and deep-sea mining.
“We are in danger of killing our seas. We are warming them up, making them more acidic and every day we fill them with turtle-choking, dolphin-poisoning plastic that is turning our ocean into a vast floating rubbish dump. That’s why I am delighted that the United Kingdom has now protected more than 4.3 million square kilometres of the world’s ocean, following Tristan da Cunha’s announcement.I am now calling on other nations to join us in our ambition to protect 30 per cent of the world’s ocean by 2030. We need collective global action if we are to bequeath a world that is every bit as wonderful and magnificent as the one we inherited.”
Boris Johnson, former Prime Minister, announced this achievement and called on other nations to join the ambition to protect 30 percent of the world's ocean by 2030.
As well as pledging his support for other countries to join the ambition to protect the world’s ocean, Johnson also announced an additional £7 million to extend the programme in 2019 to ensure our world-leading protection of Marine Protected Areas could continue and expand, supporting the protection of key species such as turtles, whales, fish and wider marine life.
Since Boris Johnson, former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has also been instrumental in securing the continuation of funding and the expansion of the Blue Belt Programme. Under Sunak’s government, the UK continued to partner with local island governments to manage and enforce Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Under his oversight, Sunak ensured that the total protected area successfully encompassed over 4 million square kilometers of ocean.
“We led international efforts to protect our oceans and seas, building on the success of the Blue Belt programme, which protects an area of ocean the size of India. We will consult UK overseas territories on opportunities to expand it further.”
2024 Conservative Manifesto
Sunak ensured that the program was fully financed and that funding went directly towards critically needed infrastructure such as scientific research conducted by the Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and high-tech satellite monitoring to prevent illegal fishing. Within his 2024 manifesto, his party acknowledged the success of the program and proposed to formalize the expansion of the area of conservation. As well as this, he planned to maintain the UK’s strict moratorium on deep-sea mining to shield fragile marine ecosystems from industrial disruption.
Under Keir Starmer’s Labour government, the Blue Belt Programme has not only secured Montserrat as another UK Overseas Territory that has joined the programme, but also led the program to new waters. Starmer helped facilitate the first-ever Caribbean scientific expedition within the program's 10 year history. With the launch of the Beyond The Reef Caribbean Expedition, the crew processed nearly 2000 litres of water from depths of up to 5515 metres.
Over 10 days at sea, the crew achieved an impressive amount:
Mapped over 2000 km2 of seafloor
Analysed fish populations across the Malliwana, Anguilla and Crocus Banks
Identified 2141 specimens in offshore waters from over 1000m depth
Took over 10,000 photos of seafloor and open water habitats
Within the 2000 litres of water, samples were taken to monitor local and external pollution threats, including plastics and nutrients to help to understand how Anguilla’s marine environment could be impacted in the future.
Montserrat’s inclusion within the Blue Belt Programme brings new achievements to the programme and shows optimism within the UK’s ambition to protect 30 percent of the world’s oceans by 2030. As well as the UK, the rest of the world has seemingly taken a right step in the direction of conserving the world's oceans, with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework committing to protect 30% of the planet’s oceans, lands, and freshwaters by 2030. This initiative has been joined by over 190 countries, showing that many countries around the world are committed to this cause. The Blue Belt Programme and several other initiatives committed to the cause of reversing damage and helping our oceans have helped enormously with protecting habitats and endangered species. However, in order to protect the rest of the world’s oceans, national governments, local authorities and the rest of the UK Overseas Territories must be on board to create lasting protection for the species most critically in need.
Worrying data from NASA found that, as a result of climate change, ocean acidification and heating are altering marine ecosystems. As a result of the increased levels of carbon dioxide and heat being absorbed into the ocean, our oceans are becoming more acidic. Climate change is making it harder for marine life to protect themselves, with the acidic levels making it harder for corals to grow shells and protect themselves. As well as this, increased marine heat waves are making the ocean too warm for many corals to survive. With this data, it is important for ocean conservation and research to be done now to examine the long-term risks of this, and to find out how to combat the adverse effects of climate change. Although the program is doing important conservation for our oceans, if the direct causes of climate change are not addressed head-on, and if the UK, along with other nations, are not committed to transitioning to renewable sources, the program's protection efforts can only go so far. It is vital for other nations to come together and make a pact to combat climate change and save our oceans.