Moirs Environmental Dialogues

Marine biologist, Lianna Jarecki, PhD, takes me into a threatened British Virgin Island salt pond. Lianna explains the complex biology from blue-green algal mats to mangroves with clapper rails, to black-necked stilts and flamingos atop the salt pond food pyramid. In the second half, Noni Georges of the Virgin Islands Environmental Council (VIEC) tells a local version of the David and Goliath story. The largest developers in the world spent millions planning to develop with gov permission to disregard all environmental regs (destroy) the most pristine portions of the Tortola, Beef Island. Islanders outraged with the potential loss of mangrove shores, salt ponds and most of all, the Fisheries Protected Area took action that began with a senior paper by a young law student Noni Georges. The court case became a first for the Caribbean where Islanders stood up to developers. Noni explains how VIEC won the case and how this is only the beginning with the developers appealing.