Environmental Economics with the UK Overseas Territories in the
Caribbean (EEWOC)
One of the biggest constraints in the UK Overseas Territories
is the lack of quality information and analysis relating to the
environmental impacts, values, costs and
benefits of alternative
development activities and strategies. The
Environmental
Economics with UK Overseas Territories in the Caribbean
Project (EEWOC) was a JNCC initiative, in partnership with a number
of UK Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, which aimed to help
stakeholders to address these problems. This project took place in
2007/2008.
The objective of the project was to enable stakeholders in
Overseas Territories to generate, understand and apply robust
information on the value of ecosystem services in the context of
decision-making. In achieving this objective, the outcome was
a better understanding of the causes and costs of biodiversity
loss, and identification of more effective, integrated and
sustainable approaches to development in the UK Overseas
Territories.
EEWOC developed and provided tools, training and
technical support to allow Caribbean Overseas Territories to use
environmental valuation to inform and improve
decision-making. EEWOC had three key elements:
- Developing and disseminating an environmental economics toolkit
on Valuing the Environment in Small Islands.
- Organising a capacity building workshop on
environmental valuation in small islands for key stakeholders
in UK Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, held in Grand Cayman
in October 2007.
- Providing technical assistance to a number of UK Overseas
Territories that are conducting their own environmental valuation
studies in 2007-2010. A project in Montserrat was
recently completed and another in underway in Bermuda. This
short video illustrates what prompted the work in Montserrat and
how the people there felt about it. See below
EEWOC was funded jointly by JNCC and the Overseas Territories
Environment Programme (OTEP). OTEP is a UK Government fund
jointly managed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and
the Department for International Development (DFID).
The following video clip shows the economic valuation process
in action in Montserrat
What problems can environmental economics tools help to
address?
Policies in UK
Overseas Territories and other small islands can cause
deterioration of ecosystems and loss of associated biodiversity,
which reduce the quantity and quality of vital ecosystem services,
such as food production, water supply, coastal protection, natural
hazard protection and aesthetic values for tourism and
recreation. Islands face a number of critical biodiversity
issues, particularly relating to the impacts of invasive alien
species, depletion of coastal fisheries, limited water resources,
and adapting to the impacts of climate change.
Island ecosystems continue to be degraded in part due to the
lack of recognition by decision-makers of the value of the
environment, and, conversely, of the costs of environmental
degradation. In order to improve the sustainability of policy
in small islands there needs to be better understanding of the
costs, values and risks of environmental damage. Economic tools can
support improved decision making by helping to assess the impacts,
values and trade-offs of alternative development
options.