Background Paper No. 2


islands of this archipelago common affinities of origin, sys-

tematic relationship, evolution, and adaptation. This rela-

tionship parallels, with differing origins, the evolution of

the present human population of the West Indies.


 Our biota has, as a result of the human influence, been

 subject to those same changes that have effected plant and

 animal communities on each of the other West Indian islands.

 While some of the reasons for these changes are peculiarly

 West Indian, most are typical of the same changes that have

 occurred throughout the world tropics, and in particular on

 tropical islands.


 The questions relating to the nature and degree of these

 changes, and the effect that they have on the present and fu-

 ture inhabitants of these islands, not only with their biota

 but also with themselves, is the motivating factor behind

 much of the endemically-originated ecological research in

 the West Indies.


 The anomalous status of the Virgin Islands with regard

 to ecological research arises from the fact that, with no-

 table exceptions outlined below, little such research has

 been endemically-generated. In this aspect, the Virgin Is-

 lands differ startlingly from their sister island* in the

 West Indies. They represent, in fact, a situation compara-

 ble to that of other West Indian islands a generation ot

 more ago. The Virgin Islands are distinctly behind their

 other West Indian neighbors in ecological awareness.


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