Background to the VIEC
and the Beef Island Case
WHAT IS THE VIRGIN ISLANDS ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL?.......................................... 3
Board of Directors............................................................................................................ 3
FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS.......................................................................................... 4
ABOUT THE CASE.......................................................................................................... 4
Environmental Concerns.................................................................................................... 5
Social Concerns............................................................................................................... 6
About Hans Creek Fisheries Protected Area.......................................................................... 8
WHAT IS THE VIRGIN ISLANDS ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL?
The pace of physical development in the BVI has rapidly increased, and along with it concerns about the resulting environmental pressure. In response to the need for an independent environmental voice, several organizations and persons in society came together to form the Virgin Islands Environmental Council (VIEC) as an umbrella-representative group. The inaugural members of VIEC are principally from the Fisherpersons and Concerned Individuals for the Protection of Beef Island and the BVI Heritage Conservation Group. Other group members are Association of Reef Keepers, BVI Farmers Co-op, and BVI Dive Association. There are around 30 individual members. VIEC has members from across the community: professionals, fishermen, farmers, divers, and charter yacht captains as well as members with expertise in marine biology, environmental management, history & culture, and architecture/engineering.
The Virgin Islands Environmental Council was incorporated in July 2007 pursuant to the resolution of a general meeting called by the Fisherpersons and Concerned Citizens for the Protection of Beef Island in February 2007 at which it was agreed that a collective-vehicle should be formed in order to pool resources and take action to address the development issues facing the Territory. VIEC was established under the BVI Business Companies Act 2000 as a company limited by guarantee of its members with no share capital. It is a non-profit environmental organization whose objects include promoting environmental democracy, public participation, conservation and the enforcement of environmental legislation.
Culture: Dr. Quincy Lettsome, an educator, historian and native poet in the community for over 50 years with an abiding interest in documenting and perpetuating the culture of the BVI. Dr. Lettsome was a founding member of the Fisherpersons and Concerned People for the Protection of Beef Island and his abiding interest in preserving the cultural integrity of Beef Island and Hans Creek has led him to become one of the first directors. He has been the one acting for the VIEC in the prosecution of the legal action.
Architecture: Mr. Richard Courtney Decastro, a local architect with over 20 years experience.
Marine Biology: Mr. Orville Phillips, a local lecturer in marine biology at the HL Stoutt Community College,
Legal: The Virgin Islands Human Rights and Environmental Research, Education and Legal Foundation, a new non-profit entity to promote environmental democracy, sustainable development, and provide pro-bono legal services for public-interest issues that is being spear-headed by Ms. Mumta Ito, a UK solicitor with over 10 years experience, and Ms. Noni Georges, daughter of Deputy Governor Elton Georges, a local environmental advocate presently qualifying as an attorney.
Fishermen: Mrs. Sheila Schulterbrandt, a local fisherwoman and farmer, the first President of the BVI Fisherman’s Association, founding member and President of the Fisherperson’s and Concerned Citizens for the Protection of Beef Island. Mrs. Schulterbrandt has been a passionate spokesperson for the interests of the fishing community.
Farmers: to be appointed.
Divers: to be appointed.
Charter Yachts: to be appointed.
An account in the name of ‘Virgin Islands Environmental Council’ has been opened at __[bank] [address]______________. The financial officers are Dr. Quincy Lettsome and Mr. Richard Courtney Decastro.
Account number:
The Council has applied to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Officer Overseas Territory Environment Fund for funding to support building the VIEC institutional capacity.
The catalyst for mobilizing to form the VIEC was the Beef Island Development Project for which legal proceedings were initiated by way of judicial review. Judicial review is a procedure where the court will look at a government official’s decision and say whether the decision was legal.
The Fisheries Regulations says that:
“No person shall carry out any development activity, which may or is likely to adversely impact on a marine protected area”
The Planning Act says that a development has to obey all written laws in the territory.
The basic argument in the case is that the Beef Island Development does not comply with the Fisheries Regulations or the Planning Act. The decision to approve the project was therefore illegal and should be reversed.
Beef Island contains the largest pristine acreage of mangroves outside of Anegada. Mangroves are essential critical habitat to sustain a viable fisheries. Anegada lies far to the north, therefore Beef Island is the most important mangrove system in this entire part of the BVI. All the other mangrove ecosystems on Tortola have been totally destroyed or negatively affected by development: Fat Hog’s Bay, Paraquita Bay, Fish Bay, Road Town and Wickham’s Cay, Slaney, Sea Cow’s Bay, Pockwood Pond, Nanny Cay and Soper’s Hole. Therefore, of the ten major mangrove systems on Tortola/Beef Island only the one on Beef Island remains pristine. That is not a balanced or sustainable plan of development.
Before their destruction or degradation, these ten mangrove systems served as nurseries, providing a home for hatchlings and juvenile fish, lobster and conch. Before development, fishing activities were carried out in all these areas. But now there is only one. Fisheries cannot be maintained as a viable industry in the BVI if the entire base and foundation of the fisheries is destroyed.
The fishermen are not opposed to development. We are against inappropriate development of this scale that threatens the basis of our fisheries. We are not in favour of this project.
Excerpt from Fisherman’s Association Letter by Shiela Schulterbrandt to the Planning Authority 13.Nov.2006
According to Appendix P of the Environmental Impact Assessment, the project could generate an estimated 1,300 jobs during construction and 700 jobs/year when fully operational. The developer has agreed to give preference to BVI labour where it doesn’t cause the project any ‘economic disadvantage’ however, seventy percent of the labour is already expected to be sourced from overseas because certification in marine, vocational and construction trades are lacking in the BVI: electricians, plumbers, HVAV, carpentry, yacht captains, engineers, hostesses, fiberglass and spray paint specialists and other highly technical and managerial skills. If fully implemented and successful, the Development when operational is projected to have major financial impact, generating an estimated $16 million/year in government revenue from taxes on $130 million/year revenue to the developer from property sales and room revenue, plus an additional $26 million/year in secondary impacts, wages, etc. Much of this is expected to migrate, particularly property sales revenue, which would result from transactions taking place overseas. Actually, considering the estimated 70% overseas labour the figures work out to $130M for the developer, $16M for the government, $18.2M for imported labour and $7.2M for current residents and BVIslanders. Consider the financial bottomline.
This additional labour population will require housing, schools, healthcare services, and make other demands on infrastructure in East End / Long Look. BVI public schools are already turning away 55% of applicants. The estimated residential population of the completed development is 2,700 people that will require 415,000 gallons of water/day and generate 4.5 tons solid waste/day. The project will support businesses in EE/LL during construction but when in operation the commercial zone in the marina will be their competition.
Approving this development will require a commitment to improving every aspect of our country’s infrastructure to take the additional load. More immigration and customs officers and an airport lounge for the hotel guests are not the most urgent. To support the labour population we will need more houses, more garbage bins, more water, more electricity, more teachers, more spaces in schools, more police, more nurses, and more health care facilities in East End. Our country is already beset with so much crime and social baggage that now even resident non-belongers are calling for better immigration and population control. We are under serious social stress but for this development we will have to take on more. Consider the social bottomline.
Excerpt from ‘No Beef = No Fish’ Commentary in the BVI Beacon by Noni Georges 30.November 2006
About Hans Creek Fisheries Protected Area
Since 1994, the unique terrestrial and marine ecosystems of Beef Island in the British Virgin Islands have been under threat from proposed large-scale development. Fourteen years later, that threat is about to manifest. In 2006, a developer finally submitted an application to construct a five-star hotel, marina and golf course that would occupy two-thirds of Beef Island, a plan that involves situating the golf-course immediately adjacent to and within a fisheries protected area that has been identified as the only significant and most important nursery habitat in the entire eastern sector of the Virgin Islands.
Beef Island is the sixth largest of the British Virgin Islands, a United Kingdom Overseas Territory located in the eastern Caribbean approximately 60 miles east of Puerto Rico. Beef Island is situated directly east of the largest island, Tortola, and is connected to it by a short two-lane bridge. The island is sparsely populated with two small residential settlements, and some low-density commercial development in the northern and western parts of the 918 acre (1.4 sq. mi./3.7 sq. km.) island. The Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport occupies some 86.5 acres also in the north/western part, and the remainder of the land primarily south and east is presently undeveloped and privately owned.
Beef Island and its surrounding marine environs are rich in biodiversity. They include the Territory’s only remaining primary dry coastal woodland, a number of salt ponds, complex wetland systems in pristine condition, coral reefs in good condition, healthy seagrass beds, sandy beaches, and rocky shorelines. These areas have been described as being of high biological productivity, providing critical fish nursery, conch, and seabird nesting habitat. They are home to twenty-six species of birds and juveniles of commercially important fish species, including six IUCN redlist species, one of which, the green turtle, is also listed by the Bonn Convention.
These environmental attributes have been recognized for over twenty years. Early surveys identified two critical areas for conservation/protection: ‘The Bluff’ containing the primary dry coastal woodland and the ‘Hans Creek Lagoon System’: a complex wetland system in a shallow area of quiet water bordered by a dense stand of red, black, and white mangroves, a coral rubble shoreline and a fringing reef with 100% live coral cover on the forereef. These areas were proposed for demarcation as national parks by the Systems Plan, which was updated and endorsed by the Government in 1999.
Since the 1950s, development has occurred in every single south-facing Bay on the island of Tortola, destroying or degrading the nursery functions of its 250 acres of mangroves. According to one scientist,
“indeed, apart from Beef Island, there is virtually no mangrove that constitutes a significant fish nursery in the entire region including Guana, the Camanoes, Scrub, the Dogs and Seal Dogs, western Virgin Gorda – even further. Beef Island probably provides more than 90 percent of the nursery function supplying the reefs and waters of this region.
In 1996, the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management undertook a research programme to improve the scientific basis for siting marine protected areas by comparing settlement and recruitment rates for important fish species in the BVI and Jamaica. The sampling programme which included three locations on the south-east coast of Beef Island found that 50 – 80% of the commercially important species in the study were caught in traps set in Hans Creek. The authors noted:
The importance of Hans Creek may be due to water circulation concentrating settlement stage fish in this area, or it may perhaps be due to the proximity of all three juvenile nursery habitats (mangroves, seagrasses and backreefs) in one interconnected habitat. Whatever the ecological reason, it seems likely that Hans Creek is an important nursery ground for juveniles of commercially important species, and the planned development of Beef Island which currently threatens the area should be a cause for concern to the fishing industry.
In 2003, Hans Creek significance was recognized by its designation as a fisheries protected area under the Fisheries Regulations 2003.
In 2004, the Government passed a new Planning Act .
In December 2005, Hong Kong businessman Raymond Hung, majority shareholder, Chairman and Managing Director of Quorum Island (BVI) Ltd. entered into a development agreement with the Chief Minister (Dr. Hon. Orlando D. Smith) on behalf of the BVI under which the developer, Quorum Island, committed to build and develop the Beef Island Golf & Country Club, an “upscale and low density residential resort” comprising of:
- 18-hole championship golf course
- 200 unit (five-star) luxury hotel including 100 luxury condominiums
- additional 80 luxury hotel/condominium/fractional units
- luxury spa
- conference facility
- “branded” villas and residences / residential villages
- 200 slip inner-marina and Mega-Yacht facility
- 200 slip outer marina
- commercial shopping zone
Construction of a five-star luxury hotel ranks very highly on the agenda of the NDP Government that came to power in June 2003. Instead of following the recommendation of their then Minister of Natural Resources & Labour to recover the Beef Island land from Quorum for non-compliance with a 1994 non-belonger landholding licence under which Quorum agreed but failed to execute a similar development, the Government chose to enter into the Development Agreement and approve a Master Plan.
According to this agreement, Quorum Island intends to invest US $80 million within six-years to carry this plan into effect on 663 acres of land located at Beef Island. In exchange for the Developer’s prompt application for planning and other permissions, and a commitment to carrying through on the golf course, marina and hotel according to a timeline (subject to financing and management from a joint venture partner for the hotel), the Government agreed to waive breach of the 1994 licence, to “endeavor to grant” approvals for the relevant licences, approvals, and tax exemptions, and to observe timelines for processing the Developer’s applications for planning permission, immigration permits, labour permits, and alien land-holding licences.
The project would constitute the single largest development undertaken in the BVI to date. Its large scale has predictably drawn local and international criticism on social and environmental grounds. Citizens have cited the social costs of absorbing increased foreign labour force. Fisheries and environmental advocates point out the economic and environmental effects to fisheries and other aspects of the tourism industry:
Developing the Beef Island mangrove and salt pond area would have the following adverse impacts: diminish the quality and diversity of larger marine life – notably many species of fishes – now present on the region’s reefs, including Guana’s; directly diminish sport fishing resources which are a major attraction to Guana and the entire region; directly diminish food fish harvests on which local people depend for the livelihoods, and on which visitors rely for some of the islands’ best restaurant meals.
Criticism has also galvanized around the specific issue of locating the golf course next to and partially within the Hans Creek FPA, an action that would seem to be prevented by a provision of the fisheries regulations that prohibits any development activity that could negatively affect a fisheries protected area. Unfortunately, given the explicit policy of Government support there is legitimate concern that this legal obstacle and all the other environmental concerns will count for little, and the project will proceed with little or no effort by the Government to enforce the protection of Hans Creek FPA.
Link to 2nd Home page, as opposed to scrolling forever!
Island Resources Foundation, Beef Island Development Project: Environmental Scoping Report and Resource Characterization (IRF, Tortola 2005).
WH Dressler, A Parks and Protected Areas System Plan for the British Virgin Islands (BVI National Parks Trust and Town and Country Planning Department, Tortola 2001).
Bertrand Lettsome, ‘Sustainable Development versus Sustainable Growth: The Beef Island Example’, paper presented at The University of the West Indies School of Continuing Studies “Beyond Walls: Multi-disciplinary Perspectives” British Virgin Islands Conference, 26 – 27 May, 2005.
Daniel Facuy Clarke, Fisheries Biodiversity Inventory of Hans Creek Fishing Protected Area of Beef Island British Virgin Islands: The First Six-year Resurvey, Mater’s Thesis (UWI, Barbados 2005).
Bertrand Lettsome, ‘Sustainable Development versus Sustainable Growth: The Beef Island Example’, paper presented at The University of the West Indies School of Continuing Studies “Beyond Walls: Multi-disciplinary Perspectives” British Virgin Islands Conference, 26 – 27 May, 2005.
ECNAMP. 1980. Tortola, British Virgin Islands, Preliminary Data Atlas: A Survey of Conservation Priorities in the Lesser Antilles. A Cooperative Effort of the Caribbean Conservation Association, Eastern Caribbean Natural Area Management Programme, and the School of Natural Resources at the University of Michigan.
WH Dressler, A Parks and Protected Areas System Plan for the British Virgin Islands (BVI National Parks Trust and Town and Country Planning Department, Tortola 2001).
Bertrand Lettsome, (citing a letter by James Lazelle in) ‘Sustainable Development versus Sustainable Growth: The Beef Island Example’, paper presented at The University of the West Indies School of Continuing Studies “Beyond Walls: Multi-disciplinary Perspectives” British Virgin Islands Conference, 26 – 27 May, 2005.
JL Munro and Maggie Watson, Caribbean Marine Protected Areas Project: The Role of Marine Protected Areas in Fisheries Management and Biodiversity Conservation in Coral Reef Ecosystems, Technical Report – Phase 1 – 1996-1998 (ICLARM, BVI 1999).
--,‘Development Agreement’ between Government of the British Virgin Islands and Quorum Island (BVI) Ltd, 2 December 2005; GIS, ‘Gov’t signs agreement for Five Star Resort Development’, Press Release 515R/05 (BVI 8 December 2005).
--, ‘Government committed to five-star hotel development: Smith’ BVI Standpoint (BVI 24 February 2004) 5.
MNRL and TCP, ‘Trellis Bay Estate Development: Non-Belonger Land Holding License for Quorum Island (BVI) Ltd.’, Report to Executive Council 11 April 2003.
Island Resources Foundation, Beef Island Development Project: Environmental Scoping Report and Resource Characterization (IRF, Tortola 2005).
Bertrand Lettsome, (citing a letter by James Lazelle) ‘Sustainable Development versus Sustainable Growth: The Beef Island Example’, paper presented at The University of the West Indies School of Continuing Studies “Beyond Walls: Multi-disciplinary Perspectives” British Virgin Islands Conference, 26 – 27 May, 2005.
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