An earlier Environmental Profile, for the island of Jost Van Dyke, was prepared by the Foundation in 2009, in partnership with the Jost

Van Dykes Preservation Society.

The release further stated the Foundation brings considerable experience to the current project, having previously prepared Environmental Profiles for eight Eastern Caribbean countries.

According to IRF vice president, Judith Towle, environmental profiles have long served as an effective way of helping to ensure that environmental issues are included in development planning. "Environmental Profiles are not just another research study",stated Mrs. Towle, "many of which are species-specific, site-specific, or sector-specific and do not comprehensively address environmental issues and conflicts. Environmental Profiles provide not only inclusive environmental information, analysis and recommendations, but do this within a single, islandspecific document that makes this information available for easy access and use by policy makers, resource managers, researchers, developers, students and the community at large".

A project blog will soon be announced by the Foundation, on which Profile documents will be posted and opportunities provided for comments and input by the BVI community.

Mrs. Towle stated that funding for the Virgin Gorda and Anegada Profiles is three dimensional, with support received from the donor sector, the government sector, and the private sector.

Donor support was provided through an award to the Foundation from the United Kingdom’s (UK) Overseas Territories Environment Programme (OTEP). The goal of the OTEP programme is to enhance the quality of life for inhabitants of the Overseas Territories through the sustainable use, or protection, of environmental resources. IRF’s OTEP-funded project will be administered locally by the Office of the VI Governor.

VI Government support was secured through a generous grant from the Office of the Premier. In meetings with IRF earlier this year, the Premier, The Honourable Ralph T. O’Neal, acknowledged the importance of having Environmental Profiles available in the Virgin Islands to help guide better-informed public policy decisions.

Private sector support has been facilitated through the Hokin family of Bitter End Resort in Virgin Gorda. The Hokins have made a substantial donation to the Profile Programme and are also busy identifying additional funding from others in the private sector, particularly in Virgin Gorda. Ms. Towle noted that the family patriarch, Myron Hokin, who purchased Bitter End in the 1970s, was a generous contributor to Island Resources Foundation more than 30 years ago, during IRF’s earliest years. The Foundation is delighted to be working once more with two new generations of Hokins, including Richard, Justin and Lauren Hokin.

A multi-disciplinary team has been assembled for Profile efforts in Virgin Gorda and Anegada, including, in addition to project director, Judith Towle: IRF’s Jean-Pierre Bacle as deputy project director; IRF’s biodiversity coordinator, Kevel Lindsay, as chief scientist; IRF president, Bruce Potter, as information manager; community coordinator, Rosemary Delaney Smith; marine biologist, Clive Petrovic; environmental planner, Lloyd Gardner; historian, Dr. Michael Kent; GIS and disaster management specialist, Cynthia Rolli, and waste management specialist, Charlotte McDevitt.

Dr. Michael E. O’Neal, Senior Research Fellow at Island Resources Foundation, serves as an advisor to the project and worked closely with Mrs. Towle in securing early support for the Profile Programme.

IRF is a not-for-profit company that has maintained an office in Tortola since 1999, in cooperation with the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College. Its extensive, regionally recognised environmental library was donated to the College where in 2010 it was dedicated as the Dr. Edward L. Towle Island Systems Environmental Collection in memory of IRF’s founder.