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British Virgin Islands:
Diverity Abounds in Nature's Little Secrets
An archipelago of 60 islands and cays, BVI is located 60 miles east of Puerto Rico and has a population of 19,842 people. Established in 1961, the British Virgin Islands National Parks Trust is a non-profit, statutory body, which manages national parks and designated marine and terrestrial protected areas. The Trust also administers several environmental programmes including marine conservation and biodiversity conservation programmes.
BVI has environmental legislation for the protection of the territory’s natural resources, the most recent of which is the Fisheries Act of 1997 which regulates fisheries activities throughout the islands. The Territory is a signatory to several international environmental agreements such as the Convention of Biological Diversity, the Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) and the “Ramsar” Convention on Wetlands among others.
Full enforcement of legislation is hindered by the lack of adequate facilities and manpower. Development of marinas along the coastal areas has been an on-going issue in the territory. Mangroves and sea grass beds are destroyed and reefs are smothered to make way for the tourism-related infrastructure as development continues to compete with the environment on which it is based.
The Trust has managed several internationally funded biodiversity programmes. A recent one is a Darwin Initiative funded programme. which includes training in the management of terrestrial biodiversity.
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