Awards - Jacqueline and Larry Armony
The Euan P. McFarlane Environmental Leadership Award
RAYMOND WALKER: 2006 AWARD HONOREE
The late Raymond Walker of Grenada and the British Virgin Islands is the recipient of the 2006 Euan P. McFarlane Award for Outstanding Environmental Leadership in the Insular Caribbean.. The Award was made posthumously to Mr. Walker's widow and their children.
The nomination of Mr. Walker, a native of Grenada, was made by the British Virgin Islands National Parks Trust in recognition of his seven years of environmental leadership in the BVI, which followed 19 years with the Grenada Forestry Department where Raymond began his conservation career at the age of 17.
In its nomination, the BVI Parks Trust emphasized Mr. Walker's many contributions to con-serving the flora and fauna of the British Virgin Islands-through education, research, re-source management, and enormous commitment and enthusiasm. Writing on behalf of the Trust, Nancy Woodfield Pascoe, Planning and Development Coordinator, wrote, "If Raymond had lived, he had great potential for future environmental leadership within the Caribbean .. He is sorely missed by his friends and colleagues at the BVI National Parks Trust and will be remembered forever."
The Trust's nomination called particular attention to Mr. Walker's role in:
- Strengthening biodiversity conservation in the BVI, particularly through vegetation research activities on the islands of Virgin Gorda and Anegada. In this work he suc-cessfully coordinated teams of local BVI partner institutions with international ex-perts from the US Smithsonian Institution and the UK's Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Fauna and Flora International, and the Open University.
- Managing a rehabilitation program to protect the rapidly declining population of the Anegada Rock Iguana (Cyclura pinguis), a critically endangered and endemic species. In this work, Raymond was assisted by international scientists, such as those from the IUCN World Conservation Union-Iguana Specialist Group, but he also worked to foster greater local community involvement in project activities. During his tenure, a total of 71 iguanas were released back into the wild after successfully being reared at the Trust's Headstart Facility on Anegada.
- Overseeing a locally and internationally important historic site, the Copper Mine on Virgin Gorda. In collaboration with park staff based in Virgin Gorda, Raymond man-aged the site, including the critical stabilization work that was required over the years.
- Supervising the J.R. O'Neal Botanic Gardens in Road Town, where he sought to edu-cate local and off-island visitors about the unique diversity of habitats and species found within the BVI, including development of a herbarium, the first in the BVI Ter-ritory. In connection with his work at the Gardens, Raymond was the BVI represen-tative for the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew's Millennium Seed Bank Project, the goal of which is to collect seeds from endemic and endangered seeds from around the globe.
- Providing ongoing leadership for a variety of Trust activities designed to increase public awareness about conservation issues in the British Virgin Islands and the im-portance of scientific knowledge for guiding decision making about natural resources.
Formal announcement of the 2006 McFarlane Award to Raymond Walker was made by the president of Island Resources Foundation, Bruce Potter, at the Annual General Meeting of the Caribbean Conservation Association in Barbados on February 23, 2007.
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