The Virgin Islands will do its part to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, Natural Resources and Labour Minister Mitch Turnbull pledged last week during a speech he delivered at the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
The conference, which started June 28 and continued through Friday, focused largely on solutions designed to achieve the UN’s 2030 goals for “life below water,” according to Government Information Services.
In his speech, Mr. Turnbull listed ways in which the VI is pursuing SDG 14, which charges countries and territories to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.”
“The territory has articulated its aspirations for the sustainable
use of the 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone guided by the UN [Development Programme]-led technical assistance for the development of the Blue Economy Road Map in 2019,” Mr. Turnbull said. “The roadmap is well-grounded in the Sustainable Development Goals’ 2030 Agenda.”
He also thanked the UNDP and the Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean for supporting the territory’s pursuit of such goals, especially after the 2017 hurricanes.
“The government of the Virgin Islands has several priorities, which are to support the sustainable development of the maritime tourism sub-sector; develop the existing fisheries sector; improve the existing knowledge base around the marine environment and the capacity to undertake future research, and explore new and emerging opportunities that could be developed in the British Virgin Islands,” he said.