nt on Jost Van Dyke. Many households also collect rainwater into cisterns.

If you are on a boat you are on a fixed tank, so fresh water is countable. On land, cisterns are everywhere but private tanks can carry bacterial contamination if they are not maintained, and we found no official statement that the tap is potable, so ask where you are staying.

The Virgin Islands Food Security and Sustainability Act 2022 has been passed, and food security is written into the National Sustainable Development Plan, Vision 2036, launched in February 2023.

We are not printing a headline import percentage. The figures in circulation, over 90 per cent and about 98 per cent of produce, could not be confirmed at source, and one article said to carry the ministerial quote does not contain it. The intent and the legislation are verified. The number is not.

This is a sailing destination where provisioning is largely imported. Eat well, but do it with your eyes open.

Good Moon Farm on the north side of Tortola describes itself as a family owned regenerative organic farm, growing leafy crops and tropical fruit, planting by the lunar calendar, fertilising with natural manures and keeping the soil free of insecticides. It does farm boxes delivered anywhere in the territory, farm tours and farm to table dinners by appointment.

Beyond that we found no certified organic producer, and the territory imports the great majority of its food. The Virgin Islands Food Security and Sustainability Act 2022 has been passed and food security is written into the national development plan, so the intent is there. The production is not yet.

Separately the Conservation and Fisheries Department oversees 14 fisheries protected areas, and Agriculture manages six watershed protected areas and one forestry area. Anegada holds the Ramsar designated Western Salt Ponds, and Sage Mountain on Tortola, at 585 metres, is the highest point in the territory.

One number frames how much is actually known: of 3,315 native species recorded, only 360, or 11 per cent, have been evaluated against IUCN criteria, and 47 of those are Globally Threatened. Horseshoe Reef off Anegada is a designated marine conservation area where anchoring is prohibited, and using the mooring buoys rather than dropping an anchor is the single most useful thing a visitor does here.

Anegada is the whole story. It holds the last remaining population on earth of the Critically Endangered Anegada rock iguana. The National Parks Trust set up the Anegada Iguana Headstart Facility in 1997 when the wild population had fallen to under 200 individuals. Hatchlings are found in annual nesting surveys, reared away from feral cats, and released once big enough to survive. The Trust is producing environmental education materials for local schools and working with the Anegada community on removing the cats.

The Trust also says the iguanas should be handled as little as possible, and does not advertise the facility as an attraction. Respect that.

The Tortola sloop is the territory's defining plant material craft. These trading sloops were built here from as early as the 18th century, carrying passengers and cargo between the islands and making the BVI a major supplier of cattle and produce to the US Virgin Islands. They were built from local white cedar, the national tree, typically around 20 feet with movable rock ballast.

But only three traditionally built Tortola boats remain. Youth Instructor, built by East End boatbuilder Osmond Davies in 2003, sank in Hurricane Irma in 2017 and was raised, repaired and relaunched in 2020 by the Virgin Islands Sloop Foundation, which named 2025 the Year of the Sloop. That is a revival and preservation project, not a craft economy you can buy into, and it is the honest difference between here and Bequia.

We found no verified basketry, gourd or straw tradition still working in the BVI. If you know one, tell us.

A minister announced plans to ban plastic straws and Styrofoam imports on 4 September 2018, and Cabinet is reported to have agreed a policy on 8 November 2018 covering non compostable food containers and non biodegradable single use bags. We could find no named Act, Ordinance or Regulation with a commencement date, so this is policy announced rather than a ban in force.

Waste is a documented failure. The incinerator at Pockwood Pond on Tortola has been offline since a fire in February 2021, and landfill fires have been frequent since, worst for First District residents. On the better side, recycling centres have been operating on Tortola and Virgin Gorda since 2019 through the We Recycle programme with Green VI, which estimates 40 to 50 per cent of BVI waste is compostable.

The incinerator at Pockwood Pond on Tortola has been offline since a fire in February 2021, and landfill fires have been frequent since, worst for First District residents. Fixing it has been repeatedly named a government priority.

Against that, recycling centres have been fully operational on Tortola and Virgin Gorda since 2019 through the We Recycle programme run with Green VI, under a waste management strategy approved for phased implementation. Green VI estimates 40 to 50 per cent of BVI waste is compostable, and that composting could halve what goes to the incinerator or the dumpsites.

The Virgin Islands Sloop Foundation preserves and sails the last traditionally built Tortola boats, with public programming, and named boats and builders are on the record: Sea Moon and Moon Beam by Anegada boatbuilder Watson White, Youth Instructor by Osmond Davies.

On Anegada, the National Parks Trust's iguana work is tied into local schools and into working with the community on feral cat removal, which is a genuine community conservation link even though it is not set up as a visitor pays experience.

We looked for Amerindian archaeological sites and for a documented living Anegada fishing tradition and could not verify either, so we are not claiming them.