What has been needed is a process to provide a current-state description and analysis of the BVI’s natural resource base, one which also fills gaps in available environmental data, proposes options for change, and improves local capacity for incorporating environmental information into the development planning process.

Environmental Profiles are recognised as an effective means to ensure that environmental issues are included in development planning and public policy decision-making.

They have been prepared elsewhere in the Caribbean but no profile has been produced for the BVI until the Jost Van Dyke Environmental Profile in 2009 which was part of another OTEP-funded project with the Jost Van Dykes Preservation Society.

The BVI Environmental Profile Programme will provide an expanded information base to guide the choices of public and private sector stakeholders and decision- makers.

The programme will take a retrospective look at environmental change, assess priority environmental issues, and place these within a forward-looking context that supports sustainable growth.

As a result, BVIslanders and their government will better understand the need to balance how they want to grow with what they want to protect.