Anguilla (U.K. territory)
beach monitoring programme was started in Anguilla in 1991, officers from the
Department of Fisheries and Coastal Resources and the Department of Lands and
Surveys were trained in monitoring and a manual specific to Anguilla was
prepared. Annual follow-up visits were
made between 1992 and 1995 to provide additional training. An assessment of the impact of Hurricane Luis was made in
September 1995 and a paper ‘Hurricane Impact on Beaches in the
Eastern Caribbean Islands 1989-1995’ was produced in December 1996. The
effect of Hurricane Luis on Anguilla’s beaches is described. A slide presentation illustrating the
effects of Tropical Storm Iris and Hurricanes Luis and Marilyn on the islands of
the eastern Caribbean in 1995, including slides on Anguilla, was put together in
A cultural and socio-economic assessment of beach changes in the Eastern Caribbean (including Anguilla) was completed and a corresponding report was issued in 1996; a paper on the assessment was published in CSI papers 1. Two country representatives (from Anguillan government agencies) and one hotel representative attended a regional workshop (co-sponsored by CSI, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission’s Sub-Commission for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions, IOCARIBE, and the Caribbean Development Bank) on management of beach resources in small Eastern Caribbean islands (Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, 21-25 October, 1996). The workshop report and proceedings were published in 1997 as CSI Info 1 ‘Integrated Framework for the Management of Beach Resources within the Smaller Caribbean Islands: workshop results’ and Coastal Regions and Small Islands Papers 1 ‘Managing Beach Resources in the Smaller Caribbean Islands: workshop papers’.
Work done in Anguilla following Hurricane Luis, supported by the British Development Division in the Caribbean and using the COSALC database provided the foundation for a practical guide for coastal development setbacks in the Eastern Caribbean Islands. It was published in 1997 as CSI Info 4, ‘Planning for Coastline Change’.
As part of the ‘Managing Beach Resources and Planning for Coastline Change, Caribbean Islands’ project (old name ‘Coast and Beach Stability in the Eastern Caribbean COSALC’) a consultant visited Anguilla in April 1998 to support the beach monitoring programme and provide on-the-job training to the local personnel. A representative from Anguilla attended the project’s Sub-regional workshop on Video Production for Broadcast and Exchange held in Grenada in November 1998 to aid the production of a series of video clips to ‘bring to the living room’ an environmental message based on local material. Anguilla was provided with a set of video equipment. A second workshop was held in Grenada in May 1999 in co-operation with UNESCO’s Communication, Information and Informatics Sector. A representative from Anguilla attended. A video clip on Anguilla was demonstrated and evaluated. In 2001 the production and broadcast of COSALC items was reviewed. A week-long training workshop on video production was held in Anguilla at the end of 2001. The eight participants included representatives from the Department of Physical Planning, Teachers’ Resource Centre, Office of Disaster Preparedness, Radio Anguilla and private enterprise. A video clip on Anguilla’s salt ponds was produced. A video clip on Anguilla’s dunes was also produced during 2001.
Various publications were produced and
submitted to the Anguillan authorities in 1998: ‘Coast and Beach
Stability in the Caribbean Islands - COSALC project activities
1996-97’ (published as CSI info 6); ‘Planning for Coastline Change -
COSALC project Review, 1998’; a poster ‘The Sea at your doorstep’ ;
three public information articles in the Sea Grant in the Caribbean
Newsletter, (January - December 1998) and ‘Coping
with Beach Erosion’ (published as Coastal Management Sourcebook
1). A follow-up ‘Coping with Shoreline Erosion in
the Caribbean’ was published in Nature & Resources vol.35 no. 4 in
Anguilla participated in a joint Caribbean Development Bank/UNESCO project on ‘Institutional Strengthening in Beach Management in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and Turks and Caicos Islands’ (October 1999-March 2001). The focus of this project was on strengthening of the on-going COSALC beach monitoring programme. A COSALC consultant visited Anguilla in January and September 2000. Beach monitoring manuals specific to Anguilla were prepared and distributed, new beach monitoring software was installed and personnel were trained to compile beach-change databases. A workshop on ‘Beach Management in Anguilla’ was held in September 2000; twenty-five people from Anguilla attended. It was reported in the Daily Herald and the Anguillian. A final report on the institutional strengthening project ‘Monitoring Beach Changes as an Integral Component of coastal Management’ was published as CSI info 15 in 2003. It contains a section specific to Anguilla.
A summary of the COSALC project, its
goals, achievements and future direction, was made in September 2000. A local
team continued the beach monitoring in 2001 and 2002. A database of beach measurements is maintained at
the Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources.
A UNESCO consultant visited Shoal Bay East in February 2002 to inspect a dune
stabilising project. Sand fences were installed in 1997 as part of an
Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States/ US AID project and have since been
monitored by the COSALC project.
A UNESCO consultant visited Shoal Bay East in February 2002 to inspect a dune stabilising project. Sand fences were installed in 1997 as part of an Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States/ US AID project and have since been monitored by the COSALC project.
Since April 1999 a web-based discussion on ‘Planning for Coastal Erosion’ in the eastern Caribbean has been taking place on the ‘Wise Coastal Practices for Sustainable Human Development Forum’. Two more papers on Anguilla ‘Planning Measures Need the Support of All’ and ‘Mass Market Versus Up-scale Tourism’ were posted during 2000.
A resource book for schools of the Caribbean region ‘Glimpses of the Blue Caribbean’ was published jointly with the Associated Schools Project, as CSI papers 5, in 2000 and provided to Anguilla.
One person from Anguilla attended a workshop on ‘Furthering Coastal
Stewardship in Small Islands’ held in Dominica in July 2001. The results were
published as CSI papers 11 ‘Wise Practices for Conflict Prevention and
Resolution in Small Islands’. The participant from Anguilla presented a paper
on conflict resolution in Anguilla.
The first of a series of public information booklets on beach erosion in the Caribbean ‘Wise Practices for Coping with Beach Erosion - Anguilla’ was published in 2002. The series is produced jointly by UNESCO-CSI, the University of Puerto Rico’s Sea Grant College Program and the Caribbean Development Bank. The launch ceremony was hosted by the Anguillan Department of Physical Planning in February 2002 and was reported in the local media.
The Small Islands Voice project
started in January 2002. Its goals are to overcome the isolation of small
islands by providing their citizens, including young people, with opportunities
to voice their opinions on environmental and development issues in a variety of
ways: radio, television, print and Internet-based debate. In this way the
general public will be able to contribute to the 10-year review of the
‘Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of
Small Islands Developing States’ adopted in Barbados in 1994; and play a more effective role
in decision-making in their islands. Anguilla is one of the island territories involved in the
project through the Small
Islands Voice Internet-based global forum; correspondents from Anguilla
contributed to discussions on beach access ‘Providing
Public Access to the Beach’ and development
‘Further Views on
the Palau Road’.
A paper ‘Coastal Land Tenure: A Small-Islands’ Perspective’ was published in March 2003. The situation in Anguilla was compared with that in other small island states and territories.