Creating a system to assess and quantify environmental damage to support disaster resilience in the British Virgin Islands

Background to Project

The UK's Overseas Territories are highly dependent on the natural environment for their economic and social wellbeing. They are also reliant on limited infrastructure. In the Caribbean in particular, this infrastructure, and human life, are vulnerable to both natural and anthropogenic hazards. The natural environment is itself susceptible to damage from human activities - resulting in loss of value to the economy and reducing its ability to protect assets and human well-being.

Building upon work to date, carried out under JNCC's Natural Capital in the Overseas Territories programme, this Conflict, Stability & Security Fund (CSSF) funded project aims to support the Virgin Islands Government to understand and make the links between their plans, policies, procedures and models and post-event financial impact assessments to create a system/process to assess environmental loss and damage and identify opportunities to use nature-based solutions to enhance disaster resilience and minimise the impacts of future events.

The British Virgin Islands (BVI) is a UK Overseas Territory (OT) approximately 60 miles from Puerto Rico. The archipelago of four large islands and over 50 smaller isles and cays, cover approximately 151km2, and are located in the north-eastern part of the Caribbean Sea. All the islands are volcanic, apart from Anegada which is formed of coral limestone.

Like many of the UK Caribbean OTs, BVI is highly dependent on its natural environment for its economic and social well-being. Tourism is an important sector, with visitors drawn by the beaches, coral reefs and rich biodiversity. The unprecedented hurricane season of 2017 highlighted the vulnerability of the islands to natural hazards, the impacts and implications to the economy and the important role of the natural environment in protecting built infrastructure and human well-being.

The 2016 Conflict, Stability & Security Fund (CSSF) funded programme of work, 'Enhancing economic security through environmental resilience' in the UK Overseas Territories (OTs) (Caribbean Territories of Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Montserrat and Turks and Caicos Islands and the South Atlantic Territories of Falkland Islands, St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha) aimed to improve long-term economic planning to support growth and development. Embedding the role of the natural environment in economic and spatial planning through existing or new policies or legislation is one element, with the objective to protect and enhance the value of the OTs vital natural environment.

For more information see: https://jncc.gov.uk/our-work/natural-capital-in-the-caribbean-uk-overseas-territories/.

Additional information: You are invited by JNCC Support Co (JNCC) to submit a tender for the supply of works or services required under the above project. If interested, you should download and carefully read the documents contained within the zip file or by following the link.