MPs have called on the government to do more to protect the environment and halt the loss of biodiversity in Britain's overseas territories.
In a report published on Monday, the Commons environmental audit committee said that the government was on course to miss its 2010 target for conservation.
It accused ministers of neglecting their "clear and moral duty" and warned that threatened species in overseas territories were at risk of extinction as a result.
The MPs criticised a "dire lack of funds and information" about conservation in the remote islands, which are home to 240 rare species, including 74 critically endangered species.
And they said that urgent action was needed to protect wildlife in Britain from housebuilding policies in the countryside.
"The government has a clear moral and legal duty to help protect the biodiversity of the UK overseas territories and crown dependencies, where it is the 11th hour for many species," the report said.
"We are extremely concerned that recommendations that we have made in the past that would have helped to protect the environment of the overseas territories have been ignored."
It claimed that "leadership, and a relatively small sum of money" would help safeguard future biodiversity.
And calling on the government to "accept its responsibilities and to provide more support for the UK overseas territories in this area", it stressed the need to slow "the catastrophic, global biodiversity loss currently occurring".
Deterioration
Chairman Tim Yeo said the government had helped reduce the rate of biodiversity loss but warned that "losses continue in the face of a variety of pressures including development, transport and agriculture".
"It is no longer enough to rely on protected areas to preserve nature, as increasingly these have become islands in the landscape," he said.
He added: "England is a much poorer place than it was 50 years ago with the widespread decline of many of our most important, and loved, habitats and species.
"We have lost some 97 per cent of our flower-rich meadows and there are now half the number of farmland birds that there were 50 years ago.
"The continued deterioration of the natural environment has clear economic implications as it directly underpins many things that we take for granted such as pollination, flood protection and clean air."
Wildlife minister Huw Irranca-Davies said the 2010 target to halt biodiversity loss had been "important in helping focus attention on stopping the decline in our wildlife".
"Since 2000, the decline in many species has been substantially slowed or halted, and in some cases reversed," he said.
"But much still needs to be done, and we are pressing for a strong international target beyond 2010."
