Background Paper No. 2


various Reports of the New York Academy of Sciences (1913-

et sec); Miss Enid Baa's monograph on dissertations and the-

sis on Caribbean topics (1969); and, the Reports of the Carib-

bean Research Institute.


 My objective, rather, is to demonstrate in a broad man-

ner the status of ecological research in the Virgin Islands

at the present time, with particular regard to those factors

of it's historical development, it's perspective within the

West Indies, and it's current administrative status, which

latter eminently governs it's immediately future development.


 Historical and Perspective Background


 The Virgin Islands are, today, an anomaly with regard

to ecological research in the West Indies. It is important to

understand the causative factors behind this situation in pro-

jecting the ecological research needs of these islands.


 Located geographia&Altyin the east-central part of an

archipelago of islands extending from Trinidad and South Am-

erica to Florida and the Yucatan Peninsula, the Virgin Islands

are biologically, as well as socially, ethnically, and geo-

graphically, West Indian and Neotropical. That their political

and economic structure is not a part of this regional scene

is rather an artifact of history than a result of natural reg-

ional associations.


 The biota of the Virgin Islands shares with those other


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