Natasha Harrigan has seen a lot in her three years with the National Parks Trust.
“When I first came [to the Trust], I could not identify plants at all,” she said. “And now I’m like, ‘Oh this is this; this is that.’”
Her expanded abilities, nurtured by a longstanding partnership between the NPT and Kew’s botanical research team, even helped her identify a rare species long sought by Kew scientists.
A species of potato flower — known as Solanum conocarpum — was thought to be endemic to the island of St. John, though there were some old printed references to the plant being seen on Virgin Gorda, according to Dr. Martin Hamilton, Kew’s lead overseas territories researcher.
“What we’re not clear about is whether they were native or planted,” he said.
In an effort to ascertain whether the flowers seen on VG were part of the St. John group or their own unique genetic line, Dr. Hamilton and other conservationists spent time over the last couple of years scanning different parts of the territory for the plant, but they could not locate it in the field.
However, thanks to her training with the NPT and Kew, Ms. Harrigan managed to identify the plant in an ironic place: off to the side of a pathway at Road Town’s J.R. O’Neal Botanic Gardens.
“Since I started in the field three years ago, we’ve never been able to find it,” Ms. Harrigan said, laughing. “And then one day I was walking down to the bathroom, and I’m like, ‘wait.’ After the field knowledge I’ve been able to gain, I was able to stop and say, ‘This was the [potato flower].’”
With that find, the team of researchers can examine the plant to try to determine whether it comes from the St. John grouping or another, yet-to-be-identified, genetic stock, contributing to their understanding of the region’s biodiversity, Dr. Hamilton explained.
Ms. Harrigan, a terrestrial warden who supervises the NPT’s nursery and scientific collections, is looking forward to continuing more research in the future.
“With more training, I think I’ll be able to target a lot more of the species to conserve them and definitely be able to increase our collections,” she said, adding, “Especially for the native plant nursery.”
TIPA areas
Efforts to groom resident professionals like Ms. Harrigan represent one of several partnerships between Kew and the NPT.
Another project, which began last June, saw a team of international conservationists surveying Anegada last month to assess the island’s suitability for designation as an international “Tropical Important Plant Area.”
The entire sister island is being considered through internationally approved criteria due to its high number of globally threatened species, according to Dr. Hamilton. It also contains regionally unique forests and half of the territory’s mangroves, he added.
“Anegada is unique in the BVI from the point of view of its forest habitats and the country endemics that grow there,” Dr. Hamilton said. “Its preservation for the long-term is one of the real critical things for the country to come to grips with.”
The two-year project will designate multiple areas throughout the territory as TIPAs. The areas will get international recognition, and information from each will be supplied to the Planning Authority to encourage responsible development, according to Dr. Hamilton.
From there, it is up to local stakeholders to ensure each area is preserved, he explained.
The Kew and NPT team plans to complete the next TIPA workshop in October and evaluate areas throughout the rest of the territory.
By March 2018, Dr. Hamilton and his peers plan to finish the reports, designating different areas as TIPAs and ranking them by importance.
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