There is a piece of the infrastructure, often neglected, that forms a significant part of the tourism product.  Without it, the visitor experience is diminished.

If the ponds are the kidneys of the city, a tool of filtration, then the national parks are its very lungs.  

The parks system of the United Kingdom is vast and it significantly improves the quality of life for residents and visitors alike.  

But although scaled, BVI, too, has a credible network of national parks.  They are, in the main, donated by philanthropists with the name, Laurance Rockefeller, surfacing time and again.

On the local scene, our most celebrated contributor to the national parks is the late Joseph Reynold O’Neal after whom the botanic garden (still under reconstruction) is named.

But nature out of control (hurricanes Irma, Maria and heavy rains) has dealt a significant blow to the parks and their state of repair is not so different from that of the public infrastructure.

In some cases, they require tremendous resources, outside of existing budgets, to fix.  But fix them, we must.

The late Bertrand Lettsome, our former Chief Conservation and Fisheries Officer and an environmentalist to his core, always said that “as the environment goes, so goes the BVI.”  A greater truth was never spoken.

So how do we restore, maintain and police our national parks?

For starters, the cost to visit these parks must be realistic.  They are given away in a manner that tourist sites across the world are not.  

It seems that only in BVI do we apologize for charging fair rates for the services we provide.

That approach to governance will never help us to attain the coveted goal of building a strong and independent nation regardless of the frequency of visits and speeches at the UN.

So, we need a reasonable fee structure for those who wish to enter and enjoy the parks.  

And we should launch an education campaign to highlight the existence, location and importance of all the parks.

Fundraising will be a part of the efforts for we must restore, rebuild and enhance this national treasure.

The world is judging the Territory based on its infrastructure and wonders how this place where hundreds of thousands of its companies are registered makes such a poor impression outside of its natural beauty.

The park with the highest visibility is the Baths.  It is iconic.  But it is overused, under-maintained and given away at a cost of $3.00 per head.  

That is unacceptable.  

How far downhill will we allow BVI to slide before ‘reason’ occupies a prominent seat around the table of state?

On our Fridays, we, like Bertrand, remind everyone that regardless of your comfort zone today, if we lose the natural environment, we lose the BVI.

So, either we fix or flee.

Let us fix it for that is the most basic expectation of our children.

Happy Friday!