Land Use Change

Nearly all natural habitats in the Virgin Islands have been reduced, degraded or fragmented. The prevailing belief is that if land is cleared or wetlands filled, the wildlife will move elsewhere. On small islands such as those in the VI, the opportunities to relocate to other appropriate sites after habitat disturbance are limited, and the pathways to do so may be blocked by roads or other barriers. For each new land use change proposal, the opportunities for birds, lizards, bats, and other native species to move to another location decrease because previous land use has already reduced available alternative locations to a minimum. 

Habitat loss in the VI dates back to the era of sugarcane plantations in the Virgin Islands (approx. 1733-1917). Historical records indicate that the Pre-Columbian Virgin Islands were 90% forested. By 1917, when the U.S. purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark, only 10% of the forested areas remained on St. Croix (Chakroff 2010). Although large-scale sugarcane plantations no longer exist on the islands, only some of the forest is recovering. With a high density of human population on the islands and expansive resorts and commercial centers, development has prevented the recovery of much of this previously forested land. Encroaching residential communities have replaced or fragmented remaining or recovering forests. Forests in the process of succession are often viewed as sub-optimal and therefore less valuable habitat, although if given the opportunity, the forests will eventually recover. As of 2007, only 3% of the VI’s forests were considered fully mature forest (Brandeis and Oswalt 2007). The majority of the remaining forest is secondary, transitional forest. The loss of forest cover has affected wildlife from nearly every taxonomic group, including marine organisms. Changes in composition, complexity and extent of forest will have devastating effects on the wildlife that rely on healthy forests, such as bats, frogs, birds and reptiles. Changes in forest structure that allows for more light penetration alters the microhabitats and microclimates of the forest floor, thereby rendering smaller reptiles such as Sphaerodactylus and habitat specialists such as amphisbaenids and blind snakes vulnerable to desiccation. Without the large trees that bats prefer for roost sites, many populations have taken to opportunistically roosting in artificial refugia such as abandoned buildings and historical ruins. The loss of forest has also resulted in increased erosion especially along the steep slopes that are found throughout St. Thomas, St. John, and northwest St. Croix. Increased erosion results in deposition of sediment on to coral reefs and seagrass beds.

Wetlands have also faced dramatic reductions, which unlike the loss of forest, has happened primarily over the last century. Hotels, condominiums, and marinas have been constructed on coastal wetlands, and marine recreational activities have damaged fragile mangrove swamps, coral reefs, and seagrass beds. A significant loss of habitat through activities such as wetland destruction and alteration for development has greatly reduced wetland bird populations in the Virgin Islands (Raffaele 1989). The large flocks of waterbirds described as common by naturalists in the early 1900s (Seaman 1973) are now rarely seen and a number of species have been extirpated from the islands altogether. The Krause Lagoon on St. Croix was once the largest mangrove wetland in the Virgin Islands (over 240 ha); in the 1960s it was filled in for the construction of a large oil refinery. Other large wetlands that have been lost include Lindbergh Bay lagoon (once known as Mosquito Lagoon) on St. Thomas (IRF 1977) and the Southgate Pond on St. Croix has been reduced to a fraction of its former size by the construction of the Green Cay Marina (Coast and Harbor Institute 2004).

Landcover classification using the U.S. National Vegetation Classification Standard, which is a scheme for classifying vegetation across the United States is regularly mapped using data collected by satellite, on the ground, and by analysis using models. The Virgin Islands is under intense development threat, detailed in the Comprehensive Land and Water Use Plan: https://www.planusvi.com/ where under Goal 4, it is stated that we need to, " ...create a more consistent and complementary permitting approach for land development and marine area use from ridge to reef that takes into account the ecological connectivity across each island, minimizes environmental impacts, and improves environmental conditions whenever possible."

The Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR) is leading the effort to develop a Comprehensive Land and Water Use Plan (CLWUP), aiming to create a shared vision for the future of the USVI's land and water resources. This plan is designed to guide future decisions about land use, protect natural resources, and ensure a more resilient and prosperous territory, according to the DPNR.  Impervious, developed surfaces are shown below as a baseline for 2025. 

A map of impervious surfaces that reflects man-made structures that prohibit rainwater filtration into the ground like buildings, parking lots, and roads (CCAP 2020). The full USVI Blueprint report, which includes some of these maps and more, can be found on the SECAS website. The 2024 Comprehensive Land and Water Use Plan also back-references to the 2015 State Wildlife Action Plan, with a a, "COMP PLAN SPOTLIGHT: USING THE WILDLIFE ACTION PLAN TO INFORM DECISION MAKING. The USVI Wildlife Action Plan is regularly updated as part of the nationwide State Wildlife Action Plan Grant Program. At the time this CLWUP <Comprehensive Land and Water Use Plan> was drafted, the most recent version of the USVI Wildlife Action Plan was completed in 2018. This two volume document addresses the mandatory components of a Wildlife Action Plan and positions the USVI for considerable grant opportunities related to achieving the wildlife protection goals in the document. With regard to land and water use planning, the document provides excellent summaries of important habitat areas with the most current mapping available. (As discussed elsewhere in the CLWUP, collecting current spatial data can be very challenging, making the work for this plan highly valuable in that regard.) Summaries of habitats in the 2018 Wildlife Action Plan include: Terrestrial Communities, Wetlands, Forests, Shrublands and Grasslands, Beaches and Rocky Shorelines, Guts, Freshwater Ponds, Salt Ponds, and Salt Flats, Marine Environments, Mangroves, Seagrass Beds, Coral Reefs.  Moving into implementation of this CLWUP, mapping for future land and water uses should include careful consideration of these different habitats and the value of protecting them with conservation or low impact development techniques." We have updated these habitat designations in the 2025 SWAP in order to make better decisions about land use and guide decision-making on development during our technical reviews.