| British Virgin Islands |
The British Virgin Islands (BVI) is a British overseas territory, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The British Virgin Islands consist of the main islands of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada and Jost Van Dyke, along with over fifty other smaller islands and cays. Around fifteen of the islands are inhabited. The largest island, Tortola, is approximately 20 km (12 miles) long and 5 km (3 miles) wide. The islands have a total population of about 22,000. Road Town, the capital, is situated on Tortola.
The British Virgin Islands comprise sloping hills of green and the impressive Mount Sage National Park, but are really renowned for the nautical thrills on offer. Year-round winds provide exceptional conditions for sailing, and the British Virgin Islands happily celebrate this asset by staging frequent regattas and fairs.
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| In addition, extensive coral reefs and famous shipwrecks are enough to entice anyone into the waters for a dive. For travellers who prefer to watch the sea rather than get into it, there is the breathtaking chance of spotting dolphins and whales criss-crossing the surface. |
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| Flag description |
Blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Virgin Islander coat of arms centered in the outer half of the flag.
The arms consist of a shield, featuring a lady dressed in white holding a golden lamp, with 11 other golden oil lamps surrounding her on a green field. Below a scroll bearing the Latin word VIGILATE (Be Watchful).
It is a representation of Saint Ursula, a Christian saint who is said to have taken a pilgrimage across Europe with 11,000 virgin handmaidens.
When Christopher Columbus sighted the Islands in 1493, the Islands were said to have reminded him of the story of Saint Ursula, and that is how the islands got their name. The Arms were chosen as a representation of this story.
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| Geography |
| The British Virgin Islands consists of 50 islands and cays that are grouped around the Sir Francis Drake Channel, which is renowned as one of the finest and safest sailing waters in the world. The British Virgin Islands are situated some 60 miles east of Puerto Rico and form part of a chain (archipelago) of Caribbean Islands created 25 million years ago. The exception being Anegada, which is a coral and limestone atoll only 28 feet above sea level. |
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| Climate |
The British Virgin Islands enjoy a tropical climate, moderated by trade winds. Temperatures vary little throughout the year. In the capital, Road Town, typical daily maxima are around 32 °C (89.6 °F) in the summer and 29 °C (84.2 °F) in the winter.
Typical daily minima are around 24 °C (75.2 °F) in the summer and 21 °C (69.8 °F) in the winter. Rainfall averages about 1,150 mm (45.3 in) per year, higher in the hills and lower on the coast. Rainfall can be quite variable, but the wettest months on average are September to November and the driest months on average are February and March. Hurricanes occasionally hit the islands, with the hurricane season running from June to November. |
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| History |
The Virgin Islands were first settled by the Arawak from South America around 100 BC (though there is some evidence of Amerindian presence on the islands as far back as 1500 BC). The Arawaks inhabited the islands until the 15th century when they were displaced by the more aggressive Caribs, a tribe from the Lesser Antilles islands, after whom the Caribbean Sea is named.
The first European sighting of the Virgin Islands was by Christopher Columbus in 1493 on his second voyage to the Americas. Columbus gave them the fanciful name Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Vírgenes (Saint Ursula and her 11,000 Virgins), shortened to Las Vírgenes (The Virgins), after the legend of Saint Ursula.
The Spanish Empire claimed the islands by discovery in the early 16th century, but never settled them, and subsequent years saw the English, Dutch, French, Spanish and Danish all jostling for control of the region, which became a notorious haunt for pirates.
There is no record of any native Amerindian population in the British Virgin Islands during this period, although the native population on nearby St. Croix was decimated.
The Dutch established a permanent settlement on the island of Tortola by 1648. In 1672, the English captured Tortola from the Dutch, and the English annexation of Anegada and Virgin Gorda followed in 1680. Meanwhile, over the period 1672–1733, the Danish gained control of the nearby islands of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix. |
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The British islands were considered principally a strategic possession, but were planted when economic conditions were particularly favourable. The British introduced sugar cane which was to become the main crop and source of foreign trade, and slaves were brought from Africa to work on the sugar cane plantations. The islands prospered economically until the middle of the 1800s, when a combination of the abolition of slavery in the Territory, a series of disastrous hurricanes, and the growth in the sugar beet crop in Europe and the United States significantly reduced sugar cane production and led to a period of economic decline.
In 1917, the United States purchased St. John, St. Thomas and St. Croix from Denmark for US$25 million, renaming them the United States Virgin Islands.
The British Virgin Islands were administered variously as part of the British Leeward Islands or with St. Kitts and Nevis, with an Administrator representing the British Government on the Islands. Separate colony status was gained for the Islands in 1960 and the Islands became autonomous in 1967. Since the 1960s, the islands have diversified away from their traditionally agriculture-based economy towards tourism and financial services, becoming one of the wealthiest areas in the Caribbean. |
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| Politics |
Politics of the British Virgin Islands takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic dependency, whereby the Premier is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. The British Virgin Islands are an internally self-governing overseas territory of the United Kingdom. The United Nations Committee on Decolonization includes the islands on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. The Constitution of the Islands was introduced in 1971 and amended in 1979, 1982, 1991, 1994, 2000 and 2007. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Legislative Council. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Military defence is the responsibility of the United Kingdom.
A new constitution was made in 2007 (the Virgin Islands Constitution Order 2007) and came into force after the Legislative Council was dissolved for the 2007 general election. |
| Executive Branch |
| The Governor is appointed by the Monarch. The Premier (formerly Chief Minister) is appointed by the Governor from among the members of the Legislative Council, and is by parliamentary convention the leader of the party holding the largest number of seats. The cabinet, the Executive Council, is appointed by the Governor from among the elected members of the Legislative Council. |
The 4 at large seats are a comparatively recent innovation in British Virgin Islands politics. They were introduced under some pressure from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the mid-1990s. The rationale behind their introduction was that there was a risk that constituency seats can become too closely tied to a particular local figure, and that if a certain number of local figures join the same political party, then the voters have no real choice in selection of their government. Under the proposals any person in the Territory could stand as an at large candidate, and each voter would have four at large votes in addition to their constituency vote. The four at large candidates who received the highest total number of votes would be elected to the Legislative Council.
The proposals were strongly opposed by Lavity Stoutt, the Chief Minister of the day; he arranged for the entire Territory to be polled to ascertain how the voters felt about new rules being "foisted" upon them by the FCO in London, and then later flew to London with an entire delegation (including the Attorney General) to try and dissuade them. Despite this opposition the at large seats were introduced.
Although Lavity Stoutt died prior to the first election with at large seats in 1999, his fears proved to be well founded; his Virgin Islands Party was returned to power under the leadership of Ralph T. O'Neal in 1999, though with a much reduced majority. In the next election in 2003, the Virgin Islands was swept from power by the National Democratic Party led by Orlando Smith. In each election except 2007 Orlando Smith has been elected as the at-large candidate receiving the highest number of votes of any candidate (in 2007 he was elected with the fourth largest number of votes). |
| Judicial Branch |
| The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, consists of the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal (one judge of the Supreme Court is a resident of the islands and presides over the High Court). Furthermore there is a Magistrate's Court; Juvenile Court; and a Court of Summary Jurisdiction. |
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| Economy |
As an offshore financial centre, the British Virgin Islands enjoys one of the more prosperous economies of the Caribbean region, with a per capita average income of around $38,500 (2004 est.)
The "twin pillars" of the economy are tourism and financial services. Politically, tourism is the more important of the two, as it employs a greater number of people within the Territory, and a larger proportion of the businesses in the tourist industry are locally owned, as are a number of the highly tourism-dependent sole traders (for example, taxi drivers and street vendors). Economically however, financial services associated with the territory's status as an offshore financial centre are by far the more important. 51.8% of the Government's revenue comes directly from licence fees for offshore companies, and considerable further sums are raised directly or indirectly from payroll taxes relating to salaries paid within the trust industry sector (which tend to be higher on average than those paid in the tourism sector).
Tourism accounts for 45% of national income. The islands are a popular destination for U.S. citizens. In 2006 a total of 825,603 people visited the islands (of whom 443,987 were cruise ship passengers). Tourists frequent the numerous white sand beaches, visit The Baths on Virgin Gorda, snorkel the coral reefs near Anegada, or experience the well-known bars of Jost Van Dyke. The BVI are known as one of the world's greatest sailing destinations, and charter sailboats are a very popular way to visit less accessible islands. Every year since 1972 the BVI has hosted the Spring Regatta, which is a seven-day collection of sailing races throughout the islands. A substantial number of the tourists who visit the BVI are cruise ship passengers, although they produce far lower revenue per head than charter boat tourists and hotel based tourists. They are nonetheless important to the substantial (and politically important) taxi driving community.
Substantial revenues are also generated by the registration of offshore companies. As of June 2008, 823,502 companies were so registered (of which 445,865 were 'active').
In 2000 KPMG reported in its survey of offshore jurisdictions for the United Kingdom government that over 41% of the world's offshore companies were formed in the British Virgin Islands. Since 2001, financial services in the British Virgin Islands have been regulated by the independent Financial Services Commission. While at one time the BVI was well regarded as a good domicile for captive insurance services, this changed beginning in recent years with the change of insurance regulators in 2007 and the government's increasing pressure to hire only locals ("belongers") in the insurance industry. Official reports from the Financial Services Commission reflect as of June 30, 2010 only 207 captives in the BVI. Informed sources report that the actual number is closer to 100, with the 50% decline over the last four years attributable to the lack of ability within the FSC in administering insurance companies. Beginning in 2008 there was a mass exodus of captives for better staffed jurisdictions like Anguilla.
Agriculture and industry account for only a small proportion of the islands' GDP. Agricultural produce includes fruit, vegetables, sugar cane, livestock and poultry, and industries include rum distillation, construction and boat building.
The official currency of the British Virgin Islands has been the US dollar since 1959, a currency also used by the United States Virgin Islands.
The British Virgin Islands are a major target for drug traffickers, who use the area as a gateway to the United States. According to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, "Problems associated with drug trafficking are potentially the most serious threat to stability in the BVI". |
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| Demographics |
The population of the Islands is around 21,730 in 2003. The majority of the population (83%) are Afro-Caribbean, descended from the slaves brought to the islands by the British. Other large ethnic groups include those of British and other European origin.
The 2004 Census reports:
83.4% African
7% European/Caucasian
9.6% Others (Includes Indian, Carib, Amerindian and mixed)
The islands are overwhelmingly Christian (96%) with the largest individual Christian denominations being Methodist (33%), Anglican (17%), and Catholic (10%). Muslims constitute approximately 1.2% of the population according to a 2009 Pew Research Center report.
The islands are heavily dependent upon migrant labour. In 2004, migrant workers accounted for 50% of the total population. 32% of workers employed in the British Virgin Islands work for the Government. |
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