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ISLAND RESOURCES FOUNDATION Caribbean Headquarters RED HOOK BOX 33. ST. THOMAS U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS 00802 (809) 775-6225 Washington, D.C. Office 1718 P STREET. N.W.. SUITE T4 WASHINGTON. D.C. 20036 (202) 265-9712 1985 YEAR END PROGRAM SUMMARY To IRF's Members, Friends, and Colleagues — We are pleased to report that 1985 has been a very good year for the Foun dation. The attached list of nine major project reports completed during the last twelve months suggests not only that we have been busy and produc tive but also reflects a growing recognition among national and interna tional agencies, island governments, and private sector institutions that the Foundation is itself a resource to be tapped for sound counsel, effec tive intervention strategies, and implementation of environmental research and resource management programs focussed on developing island areas. Furthermore, after more than a decade of arguing the case for islands, IRF is no longer alone in the monumental task of improving resource conserva tion, management and development strategies for oceanic and coastal island systems. As of this date, four major international agencies or institu tions — UNESCO, IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and U.S. MAB (Man and the Biosphere Program) are developing new initiatives addressing the "special case" of insular re sources, growth, change, and environmental protection. IRF is linked to all four emerging programs, one of which will involve an inter-disci plinary, international workshop on island ecosystems, another a world con ference on islands in 1987 and a third the planning for a United Nations sponsored "Decade of Islands" from 1990 to 1999. This is encouraging. FUNDING - Gifts, grants and contract funding for our latest fiscal year ex ceeded $400,000 — another threshold but still some distance from our 1986 target of $500,000 which we estimate as the point at which project overhead will cover the basic costs of operating the Foundation with its core staff, unique island library, research vessel and facilities. For our continuing technical assistance efforts provided as a public service to island gov ernments and private sector institutions and for associated, independent, in-house research efforts, we rely on and need unrestricted donor and mem bership support. In the meanwhile, we continue along our chosen path of orderly, incremental institutional growth and systematic development of en vironmentally sound guidelines for island resource management. COMPLETED PROJECTS - 1985 • Fisheries Resources (Eastern Caribbean): In March, an IRF survey a regional fisheries assessment effort under contract for Development (Caribbean office in team commenced t h e U . S . A g e n c y f o r I n t e r n a t i o n a l Bridgetown, Barbados). The objective of the study was to review and evalu ate previous donor-funded fisheries development schemes, assess various program development options for U.S. AID in this sector and provide a pre liminary plan for future AID funding strategies in seven island areas — St. Kitts-Nevis, Antigua-Barbuda, Montserrat, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent. The final, 200-page report, submitted to AID in Septem ber, was prepared by Dr. Melvin Goodwin, assisted by Dr. Paul Sandifer, Dr. Michael Orbach, Dr. Jerome McElroy and other IRF staff and associates. • Cultural Resources: Marine Archaeology (St. Thomas Harbor): One hundred acres of seabed, 30 feet beneath the surface, was the target of IRF's second major marine archaeological survey project in the Virgin Is lands, at Long Bay in the St. Thomas harbor (preparatory to extensive har bor dredging to be carried out by the West Indian Company). While the Long Bay project, like a similar effort in 1984 for the Virgin Islands Port Au t h o r i t y a t C r o w n B a y, S t . T h o m a s , d i d n o t r e v e a l a n y e x c i t i n g h i s t o r i c shipwreck sites for excavation, we feel that both endeavors have estab lished important precedents — namely, that the potential presence of cul tural and historical resources must be taken into consideration in the pro j e c t p l a n n i n g p h a s e o f a n y m a j o r c o a s t a l d e v e l o p m e n t a c t i v i t y i n i s l a n d areas. For the Long Bay project, as was the case with the earlier Crown Bay ef f o r t , w e w e r e a b l e t o u s e o u r r e s e a r c h v e s s e l O d y s s e y. A t C r o w n B a y, however, we pursued a magnetometer search approach, while in the more re cent project at Long Bay, the funding source supported and the permitting agency approved use of an electronic sub-bottom profiling strategy using a "Uni-Boom" and hydro-phone array leased from EG&G of Boston, our engineer i n g s u b - c o n t r a c t o r. • Cultural and Historical Resource Utilization Project: From 1982 to early 1985 IRF carried out a small-scale technical assistance and institu t i o n b u i l d i n g p r o g r a m f o c u s s i n g o n i s l a n d h i s t o r i c a l s o c i e t i e s , n a t i o n a l trusts, conservation organizations and others interested in finding improved w a y s t o u t i l i z e a r c h a e o l o g i c a l , h i s t o r i c a l , a n d c u l t u r a l r e s o u r c e s i n t h e p r o c e s s o f n a t i o n a l d e v e l o p m e n t . C o r e f u n d i n g w a s p r o v i d e d b y t h e Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the project director was Judith Towle. This e ff o r t c o n c l u d e d w i t h t h e r e c e n t p u b l i c a t i o n a n d d i s t r i b u t i o n o f a n i l l u s t r a t e d w o r k s h o p r e p o r t e n t i t l e d " T h e U s e s o f H i s t o r i c a l R e s o u r c e s i n Eastern Caribbean Island Development." • Environmental Impact Assessment: Theory, Design and Practice: (1) At a PAHO-sponsored June 1985 workshop in Kingston, Jamaica, IRF program associate, Terrence Thompson, prepared and presented a review paper on various methodologies appropriate to islands for identifying projected environmental impacts and evaluating development alternatives. (2) At a seminar/workshop sponsored by the University of the West Indies, the Caribbean Conservation Association, and Dalhousie University, held in Barbados in June, Edward Towle presented an environmental post- audit of St. Lucia's Rodney Bay Development Project, 1965-1985. This case study is being published by Dalhousie University in a handbook on Caribbean environmental impact assessment needs and practices. (3) Under contract to the UN-sponsored, Trinidad-based, Economic Com mission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), IRF undertook a de tailed case study of the government owned and operated tourism development complex at Frigate Bay, St. Kitts, as one segment of ECLAC's "Tourism and the Environment" project funded by UNEP. The Foundation's president was team leader, assisted by research associate Dr. William Rainey and by Mr. Ricky Skerritt and Mr. Victor Williams from St. Kitts. The case study was completed and submitted to ECLAC in November. (4) Early in 1985, IRF completed a model environmental assessment for a cluster-style, coastal tourism resort project at the Bodkin Development Corporation's Davis Bay/Fountain Valley property on St. Croix (for submis sion to the Virgin Islands Coastal Zone Management Commission). Following public hearings on the proposed development, the CZM permit was granted. (5) During the last quarter of 1985 (under contract to the Government of St. Kitts-Nevis), the Foundation assembled a 12-person team (two staff, five research associates, and five consultants) on St. Kitts to undertake an environmental assessment of the 4,000 acre undeveloped Southeast Penin sula, slated for a ten kilometer penetration road and major, long-term tourism development. The IRF team prepared suggested mitigation strategies for landscape features, wildlife, and coastal/marine ecosystems to reduce p r o j e c t e d a d v e r s e i m p a c t s f r o m r o a d c o n s t r u c t i o n a n d s u b s e q u e n t tourism/recreation development. Funding was provided by U.S. AID/Regional Development Office/Caribbean. • Education, Evaluation, and Communications: During the past year, IRF finished another video tape production — a 30-minute presentation on the "biosphere reserve" concept as a resource management tool for develop ing island countries. The video tape, suitable for television showing throughout the Eastern Caribbean, focuses specifically on a workshop held at Caneel Bay, St. John, when the Virgin Islands National Park was formally dedicated as a UNESCO international biosphere reserve, the only one in the Eastern Caribbean. (A 1/2" VHS loan copy is available on request.) The Foundation also completed an important evaluation effort on behalf of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the World Wildlife Fund-US. For almost a decade, both RBF and WWF-US have provided significant core and project sup port funding for a regional program of the Caribbean Conservation Associa tion called the "Eastern Caribbean Natural Area Management Program" or ECNAMP. The time had come when both funding agencies felt an external evaluation of ECNAMP was required, in order to assist in future program funding decisions. IRF was asked to design and conduct a formal evaluation review and present the results to the donor agencies and to ECNAMP's parent institutions at the Caribbean Conservation Association's annual meeting in Dominica in September. Judith Towle was the project's principal investiga tor, assisted by Edward Towle and IRF program associate James Cotter. RESEARCH MANAGEMENT - The Foundation is now in its third year as fiscal agent and contract manager for research programs carried out under the aegis of the Virgin Islands Resource Management Cooperative, with activi ties to date focused on the V. I. National Park on St. John which has been designated by UNESCO as an international biosphere reserve. Total funding approved to date from the U.S. National Park Service in support of this program exceeds $400,000, with project-specific monies awarded on a compet itive basis among Virgin Islands and Puerto Rican institutions which com prise the Resource Management Cooperative. The Foundation also continues to serve as the secretariat/fiscal agent for the U.S. Man and the Biosphere Program Directorate on Islands (under the aegis of the U.S. State Department). As noted above, IRF is joining forces with U.S. MAB, IUCN, and others in the development of a major global as sessment of insular systems, identifying needed research strategies leading to a world conference on island resource management in 1987. CONSULTANCIES AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CONTRACTS - 1985 - Barbados Ministry of Tourism and the Environment (planning, training) - U.S. Office of Technology Assessment (American Samoa) - Pan American Health Organization (solid waste workshop, Antigua) - Organization of American States (urban waterfront renewal workshop, Ant igua) - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (coastal barriers project) - U.S. National Park Service, International Affairs Office (South Pacific parks conference, Western Samoa) - U.S. Man and the Biosphere Program (island workshop background paper) IRF SUMMER INTERNSHIPS - 1985 During June, July and August, IRF hosted three graduate student interns who assisted with the US/NPS biosphere reserve, US/AID fisheries assessment, and US/F&WS coastal barriers projects. The students were Ms. Betsy McGean and Mr. Kenneth Andrasko from Yale University and Mr. Daven Joseph from the University of Rhode Island. ISLAND PRESERVATION AND STEWARDSHIP The Island Resources Foundation now owns and manages three island proper ties: the Radcliffe Barrier Island Research Facility at Davis Park on Fire Island, the 500 acre Wroten Island Nature Reserve in the Chesapeake Bay, and the recently acquired 25 acre Fish Bay Nature Reserve on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. LOOKING AHEAD TO 1986: In the midst of this varied contract and grant sup ported work, we continue to pursue our primary purpose of serving as an in dependent center for the study of islands, pursuing experimental strategies in island resource management and providing technical assistance as appro priate. But in order to continue with these functions and also expand our island monitoring activities, our island stewardship program, and to have the time and support services to analyze and report on our findings, we do need your help. If you have not already done so, please send us your 1986 membership check (pre-addressed envelope enclosed for members). We look forward to keeping in touch with you and, on behalf of the Founda tion, its Board and staff, extend to you our best wishes for the new year. Edward and Judith Towle December 27, 1985