Dear friends, colleagues and partners,

From the Pacific to the Polar regions, we managed to navigate through a 2020 challenging year and to keep on support actions on the ground.

Despite the difficulties, 18 new BEST projects started in the Outermost Regions (ORs), and two new calls for proposals were launched for the Outermost Regions (ORs) and the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) stakeholders.

The new year is promising with amazing BEST project proposals representing a total requested amount of  €2.5 million, for new activities to start over the summer 2021.

This underlines both the resilience of EU Overseas actors and IUCN’s commitment to address an unprecedented situation and to keep addressing needs exacerbated by COVID-19 pandemic.

Our accomplishments went beyond the abovementioned projects. Together, we have indeed supported the capacities of local actors on the ground and contributed to the visibility of the ORs and OCTs at the forefront of nature conservation and climate change. The various webinars we have organised and attended, the acknowledgement of BEST projects as PANORAMA solution providers and the cumulated BEST project impacts are good illustrations. 

We would like to thank you once again for your support to the EU Overseas biodiversity conservation and we look forward to making 2021 a new BEST fruitful year with all of you!