The threat from global climate change is becoming an increasingly important issue for the UK to consider if it is to meet its responsibilities to biodiversity conservation through international conventions and agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Critically, lack of data hinder the development of conservation strategies in the Overseas Territories (Oldfield and Sheppard 1997). The present review is part of a series of new initiatives to assess the implications of climate change for nature conservation in the UK and the Overseas Territories (JNCC 2003).