A new UK government scheme has been launched to reduce and monitor plastic pollution in the South Atlantic islands of St Helena, part of the British Overseas Territories (BOT).
As part of the this, the government has announced a package of funding and support for a plastic reduction project on St Helena.
The amount of funding was not disclosed.
The project will aim to reduce the amount of plastic used by those living on the island and will establish a recycling programme for waste plastic.
To that end, a marine debris monitoring programme will be established along St Helena's coastline to better understand this issue.
Additionally, educational programmes will be launched to educate local school children and communities to engage them in the project.
On a similar note, UK's Darwin Plus scheme has opened a new round of applications to fund conservation and environmental projects in UK Overseas Territories.
The Darwin Plus initiative funds projects that help countries rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources to meet their environmental objectives.
The initiative will focus on achieving the 25-year environment plan in UK Overseas Territories.
Announced in January this year, the 25-year environment plan is a strategy to protect environment, through eradicating “all avoidable plastic waste”.
“Protecting and enhancing biodiversity in the UK's Overseas Territories will help to make crucial activities such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry and tourism more sustainable,” said environment secretary, Michael Gove.