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by pltm
(PLTM) - Minister for Natural Resources, Labour and Immigration, Hon. Vincent Wheatley, has revealed plans to utilize mangroves and seagrass as a new revenue generator for the British Virgin Islands.
He said mangroves in particular are becoming popular as the world moves towards a greener planet.
His remarks were made during a recent press conference where he reported on, among other things, his trip to the Climate Change Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow, Scotland.
“Hurricanes Irma and Maria were stark reminders to all of us that climate change is a reality. The Overseas Territories (OT’s) are among the most vulnerable places on earth and can be severely affected by climate change,” Hon. Wheatley stated.
He added, “Historically the European Union (EU) has been a strategic partner in assisting the OTs in various aspects of development, in dealing with climate change adaptation, mitigation and resilience. The advent of Brexit has presented an unprecedented challenge for OTs as our EU funding and access to markets has been jeopardized and run the risk of disappearing. The immediate loss of funding is estimated to be in the range of several hundred million over the next few years.”
In the BVI context, EU funding went towards climate adaptation, resilience and mitigation.
When asked if the delegation was able to secure any promise of funding in light of the loss of EU funding, the Minister replied, “The answer is yes. One of the things I did was I presented on the mangroves.”
He put forward that in terms of mitigation against climate change, mangroves “are very efficient from removing carbon from the atmosphere.”
“So mangroves has become kind of the new gold right now, so I presented on the mangrove nursery we are having and the scale I was told at that point in time, that if you are going to benefit from the blue carbon where you can actually make money from the mangroves you need to be scaled up. A funder indicated that they will pay for that expansion of your mangrove nursery so you can participate in the low carbon economy which is a whole emerging economy out there," Hon. Wheatley stated.
Minister Wheatley also mentioned meeting persons who explained the mangrove funding also happened to have connections to private funders, “who would fund these things.
"Mangroves and seagrass. These are two things we have a lot in the BVI that they are very much interested in helping us turn those natural assets into a new economy that could generate income to the BVI.”
In the meantime, he also reported meeting with other funders however they were interested in “bankable projects.”
“So we have a lot of work to do to create these projects that simply need funding. I had several funding meetings and I have to do some follow-ups with them we are at the place where we can fund projects that we can produce.”
He also informed that he had meetings with the Minister for the Pacific and the Environment in the UK, the Rt. Hon. Lord Goldsmith, on the matter.
Hon. Wheatley said since upon his return, the Minister’s secretary an email asking him about the BVI's funding gap.
"They said let us know what kind of money you are looking for; they haven’t said that “we will give it to you”. I don’t expect them to give us all the money because we could go on our own and get private funders to match what the UK is trying to do,” he said.
The Minister for Natural Resources said he was able to meet with the University of South Hampton described as very large in the marine spaces.
"They specialize in marine to see how we could work together in synergy to help us move from where we are to these emerging economies,” the Minister stated.
