ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

The environment has provided the basis for the economic development of the British Virgin Islands including our early dependence on agriculture/fishing, our transition to a service economy by construction of infrastructure and in building the world-class tourism destination that we are today. The history of our development has taught us that an effective and efficient environmental management strategy should be an integrated part of our overall development strategy. This idea is best captured in the words of Mr. Bertrand Lettsome, our Chief Conservation and Fisheries Officer when he says, "as the environment goes, so goes the British Virgin Islands."

One of the eleven strategic objectives of our National Integrated Development Strategy is to ensure environmental sustainability and one of the five development themes is "promoting and maintaining ecologically sustainable development." The importance of the environment to the development of the British Virgin Islands is obvious, and we must ensure that it is clearly reflected and integrated into our economic management strategy.

Deadman's Bay, Peter Island, BVI

Our present environmental policies and strategies have served us well bringing us the level sustainability we now enjoy. However, it is obvious that we must improve upon our present strategies to meet the challenges we now face. The challenges we face include increased use of our natural resources, more multi-uses with serious and varying consequences and the real potential for higher negative impacts over shorter periods of time.

Included in this section is a document prepared during the National Integrated Development strategy process to detail the emerging environmental issues and integrated strategies, the overall NIDS approach to development and an outline national environmental policy.