Background Paper No.2


with current concepts and tending to break down insular

barriers to new knowledge.


 This lack of a heritage for ecological studies in the

United States Virgin Islands is clearly due to the absence

of such viable research organizations and educational and

social institutions until very recent years. The reasons

for this would appear to be the post-emancipation emphasis

by both the Danish and the United States governments upon

non-agricultural economics, commerce, and later tourism. It

is in fact the recent emphasis upon tourism that has to no

small extent provided the germ of interest in ecological

studies in these islands.


 Without such a heritage, it is not surprising that

most anplied as well as basic ecological research in the

Virgin Islands prior to the early, 1960's was conducted by

commuter scientists. In turn, this lack of heritage upon

the part of the local community has mace it somctimer' dif-

ficult to nress forth the need for endemically originated

ecological research. In this regard, the transcription of

ecological needs based upon temperate-zone continental con-

cepts, popular during the past decade, into an essentially

West Indian social community has been merely confusing.


 The Virgin Islands need a regional and a local eco-

logical identity, an identity that will ultimately provide

for heritage. The structural basis for the establishment of

that identity is now present.


- 6 -