British Overseas Territories

The British South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha has created the world's fourth-largest marine reserve and has banned deep-sea mining and fishing with beam trawls over an area of 627,000 km². This created the largest protected area in the Atlantic Ocean and the fourth largest in the world.

The protected area is part of the so-called blue belt, a protection program for British overseas territories, which the British government is funding with 27 million pounds (approx. 30 million euros). So far, a total of 11.1 million square kilometers have been protected - that is one percent of the world's ocean area.

The inhabitants of the French overseas territory New Caledonia spoke out on Sunday for the second time after 2018 against a separation from France. In the referendum in the South Pacific archipelago east of Australia, 53.3 percent of voters voted to stay, according to official figures, while 46.7 percent were in favor of independence. In 2018, 56.4 percent were still opposed to secession.

Voter turnout was again very high, at around 85 percent. About 180,000 New Caledonians were allowed to participate.