What are the British Overseas Territories?

The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), formerly known as British dependent territories or Crown colonies are the 14 unique territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom.

The territories are entirely self-governing, with the United Kingdom solely responsible for defence and foreign relations. Not to be confused with the British Crown Dependencies which are entirely self-governing also, however the British Crown maintains possession of those territories and are not directly linked to the United Kingdom.

Why do they still exist?

The BOTs are also entirely self-identifying, but what they all have in common is the strong links and cultural ties to the United Kingdom.

This can be explained by Gibraltars' 2002 sovereignty referendum, where the voters were deciding whether to remain British or share sovereignty with Spain. The results showed that 98.97% of voters opposed this and voted remain.

Contributions to climate change

The BOTs are all unique in their own way, but one common trait that they all possess is protecting maritime life and fighting against climate change and overfishing. This is where the UK's "Blue Belt Programme" comes in.

The Blue Belt Programme is an international marine conservation programme setup by The UK Government working closely with the governments of BOTs to assist them in creating and maintaining healthy and productive marine ecosystems.

This is exceptionally important as the UK with her 14 Overseas Territories have the 5th largest marine estate in the world (4 million square kilometres) and aims to protect over 30% of the worlds waters.