Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAs) in the British Virgin Islands (BVI)

Project summary

British Virgin Islands and the Puerto Rican Bank Floristic Province

The British Virgin Islands (BVI), one of the UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are situated 96 km east of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Islands Biodiversity Hotspot. The main islands are Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada and Jost Van Dyke, together with over fifty smaller islands and cays comprising a land area of only 153 km². The landscape varies from steep-sided hills of volcanic origin arising from the sea on the largest island, Tortola, to the flat coral limestone island of Anegada which reaches a maximum of 8 m above sea level. Many different habitat types are found in BVI, five of them being nationally threatened: coastal shrubland, upland evergreen forest, semi-deciduous gallery forest, mangroves and dry salt flats

Botanically, the BVI are part of the Puerto Rican Bank Floristic Province which also includes the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Based on the Smithsonian Institute's Catalogue of Seed Plants of The West Indies, there are 911 plant species recorded from BVI and 71% of those are native. We know of four plant species endemic to BVI: Vachellia anegadensis, Metastelma anegadense, Pitcairnia jareckii and Senna polyphylla var. neglecta.

Identifying Tropical Important Plant Areas in BVI

Despite BVI having several legally protected areas, knowledge on the location and distribution of threatened plants and habitats is still needed to provide a framework for the protection and management of the most important sites for wild plant diversity. Important Plant Areas (IPAs) are a network of key sites for the conservation of wild plants and threatened habitats, which can provide this framework for conservation. The global criteria and methodology for identifying IPAs were published in 2004 by Plantlife International. Since then 1,771 IPAs have been identified across 16 countries in Europe, including the UK, and several projects have been completed around the world.

In 2015, Kew and Plantlife launched a consultation on the Important Plants Areas (IPA) Criteria and a new phase of IPA identification in the Tropics (TIPAs) became one of Kew’s scientific strategic priorities. The project ‘Identifying and Conserving Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAs) in the British Virgin Islands’ was conceived to align the longstanding partnership between Kew’s UKOTs team and National Parks Trust of the Virgin Islands (NPTVI). With financial support from HSBC, this highly collaborative project was started in April 2016. This consolidated data on the status and locations of threatened plant species and nationally threatened habitats have been shared with partners in-territory to inform conservation efforts and management decisions. The standards and methodologies developed can be applied more broadly in other Caribbean countries in the future.

Regional and international collaboration for plant conservation

The BVI TIPAs project is an international collaboration led by Kew and NPTVI with UK and regional partners from the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez Campus Herbarium (MAPR), Caribbean Ecological Services Field Office of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Puerto Rico Departmento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (DRNA). These collaborations have not only contributed to the project’s outputs but also created opportunities for plant conservation efforts on a regional scale through networking and information sharing.

Objectives

Mobilise data from the Kew herbarium to compile a target list of priority native plant species for BVI and assess their current distribution and threat levels.
Undertake botanical surveys in key areas across BVI identified with local partners through gap analysis to inform the identification of Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAs).
Consolidate available species and habitat data to direct fieldwork in BVI, inform Red List assessments and enable national authorities to prioritise plant species and habitat protection.
Identify Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAs) in BVI making maps and associated species level data available for incorporation into the BVI National Geographic Information System (GIS).
Host a regional workshop to promote closer links across the Puerto Rican Bank, introducing the TIPAs methodology.

Project team

Outputs

BVI priority species list supported by digitised vouchers and observations of these species incorporated into Kew’s UKOTs Species and Specimens Database.
Species assessments of endemic and near-endemic BVI plants submitted to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Network of 18 TIPAs across the BVI archipelago identified and mapped.
BVI TIPAs guide developed on BVI's threatened plant species, threatened habitats, invasive plant species and TIPAs based on field surveys and literature.
BVI TIPAs interpretation panels produced and installed at several sites across the BVI and made available electronically.
Regional TIPAs workshop held on Tortola, BVI in April 2019 with participation of partners from the Caribbean UKOTs and Puerto Rico.
BVI TIPAs Final Technical Report
Interactive map of the British Virgin Islands

Resources

UKOTs Online Herbarium
A set of interpretation panels were produced that feature the BVI TIPAs and the important plants and habitats they contain. The set also contains a panel describing the work by Kew and NPTVI to conserve the native plants of the BVI in ex-situ collections. The panels can be downloaded here and are also on display at several sites across the BVI, including the JR O’Neal Botanic Gardens on Tortola.
The BVI TIPAs National team produced a guide entitled ‘Retaining Nature’s Little Secrets - A Guide to the Important Plants and Tropical Important Plant Areas of the British Virgin Islands’ that highlights the BVI’s 18 TIPAs and contains details of 53 of the BVI’s most important plants, including threatened species and the most serious invasive species. The guide can be downloaded for free here and a limited number of printed copies are available for sale via Kew Publishing.
The final technical report produced by the BVI TIPAs national team is a comprehensive document which contains the methodology used to identify the BVI TIPAs network, biodiversity summaries for each TIPA, main project outputs and links to field reports and publications. The report can be downloaded here and should be cited as: Dani Sanchez, M., Clubbe, C. and Hamilton, M. A. (eds.) (2019). Identifying and Conserving Tropical Important Plant Areas in the British Virgin Islands (2016-2019): Final Technical Report. Richmond, Surrey, UK: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.13716.45441