Environmental Lawsuit in the British Virgin Islands: VIEC v AG

In the VIEC v Attorney General Beef Island case, the Virgin Islands Environmental Council persuaded the High Court in 2009 to quash the Chief Minister’s approval of an $80 million resort on Beef Island, but the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court of Appeal reversed that decision on August 12, 2011, ruling that Hans Creek had never been formally declared a protected area under the correct provision of the Fisheries Act 1997.¹ The High Court called it the territory’s first environmental case.²

What Was Being Challenged

On January 31, 2007, the Chief Minister and Minister of Planning, Dr. Orlando Smith, granted planning approval to Quorum Island BVI Limited for a five-star hotel, marina, and golf course on 659.2 acres of Beef Island.³⁴ Parts of the marina and golf course were to sit on or beside the Hans Creek Fisheries Protected Area, an ecologically sensitive site.⁵

The Virgin Islands Environmental Council, incorporated in July 2007 by local fishermen, scientists, residents, and activists, filed for judicial review in the High Court as case BVIHCV2007/0185. It sought a prerogative writ of certiorari to quash the approval.²

The Grounds VIEC Argued

The VIEC deliberately did not ask the court to decide whether the project would cause environmental harm. It attacked the lawfulness of the decision itself.² The grounds were:

Breach of Regulations 51(1) and 64(1) of the Fisheries Regulations 2003, because the approval permitted development adversely affecting the Hans Creek Fisheries Protected Area listed under Regulation 51(5).
Inconsistency with the broader protections of the Fisheries Act 1997.
Procedural impropriety, including alleged bias, predetermination, and failure to give reasons.
Wednesbury unreasonableness.
Breach of Section 29 of the BVI Constitution and related international treaty obligations.³

Both the Attorney General and Quorum initially contested VIEC’s standing, but abandoned those arguments during the hearing.²

The 2009 High Court Ruling

Justice Indra Hariprashad-Charles heard the case in April 2009 and delivered judgment on September 21, 2009. The court held that the Minister’s approval was illegal because the development would adversely affect Hans Creek in violation of the Fisheries Regulations.⁵ The planning approval was quashed, and a final order followed on November 21, 2009.⁶

It was the first successful environmental judicial review brought by a civic organization in the BVI, and it appeared to establish the Fisheries Regulations as an enforceable check on development near protected marine areas.

Why the Court of Appeal Reversed

Quorum Island appealed. On August 12, 2011, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court of Appeal set the High Court’s decision aside on two grounds.¹

The first was procedural. The appellate court held that the Attorney General should not have been the defendant. In prerogative proceedings challenging a specific government decision, the proper defendant is the official who made it. That meant the Minister of Planning, and the court ordered the Minister substituted in.¹

The second was the heart of the case. The High Court had treated Hans Creek as validly protected under Regulation 51(5)(b) of the Fisheries Regulations 2003. The Court of Appeal distinguished two different powers in the parent Fisheries Act 1997. Section 79(1) gives a general power to make regulations. Section 13(1)(b) specifically empowers the Minister to declare a protected area by an Order published in the official Gazette. The appellate court held that designating Hans Creek through the Fisheries Regulations, rather than by a formal Ministerial Order under Section 13(1)(b), did not comply with the specific mechanism the legislature had provided. Because Hans Creek had not been validly declared a protected area under the correct provision, the Minister’s approval could not be struck down as illegal on that basis.⁷

The court ordered the Minister to pay Quorum Island’s costs for the substantive appeal and imposed no costs on the VIEC.¹

What Changed After the Ruling

The reversal exposed a gap: without a formal declaration under the Fisheries Act, the Fisheries Regulations alone could not protect Hans Creek. Later in 2011, the Minister of Natural Resources and Labour issued the Fisheries (Fishing Priority Areas and Protected Areas) Order, 2011, which for the first time formally designated Hans Creek, Beef Island, and 13 other sites as protected areas under Section 13(1)(a) and (b) of the Fisheries Act 1997.⁸ The very deficiency that had cost the VIEC its win at appeal was corrected within months.

The resort itself did not proceed. Quorum’s joint venture partner InterIsle Holdings failed to complete its $21 million investment after the 2008 credit freeze, and by 2012 the two shareholders were deadlocked. Applied Enterprises sued in December 2012 to reduce InterIsle’s stake, but in June 2013 the court stayed the proceedings in favor of arbitration.⁹ There is no evidence in the available record that the hotel, marina, or golf course were ever built.

Where This Leaves BVI Environmental Law

The Fisheries Act 1997 remains the primary marine protection statute, and the government itself acknowledges that existing environmental legislation is “dated” and contains “many gaps in the legal framework.”¹⁰ One assessment noted that “full enforcement of legislation is hindered by the lack of adequate facilities and manpower.”¹¹

The Physical Planning Act 2004, under which the Beef Island approval was granted, requires developers to submit Environmental Impact Statements for projects with potential adverse effects and lets the planning authority designate environmental protection areas within development plans.¹² The VIEC litigation showed that the interaction between planning law, fisheries law, and the formal process for declaring protected areas was poorly coordinated.

As of early 2026, the BVI government is developing an Environment and Climate Change Bill to create a modern framework for environmental management and climate adaptation. The proposal would set up an Environment Authority with power to issue Certificates of Environmental Clearance and a mandatory public Environmental Registry for all impact assessments and permits.¹³ The government has also signaled plans to amend the Physical Planning Act to let the Chief Planner impose civil penalties for unauthorized development.¹⁴ The Bill had not been enacted at the time of the most recent available information.

1
vLex. Quorum Island BVI Ltd v Virgin Islands Environmental Council
2
vLex. Virgin Islands Environmental Council v The Attorney General
3
vLex. Quorum Island BVI Ltd v Virgin Islands Environmental Council
4
vLex. Virgin Islands Environmental Council v The Attorney General and Quorum Island BVI Limited
5
Swarthmore College Global Nonviolent Action Database. British Virgin Islanders Campaign Against Beef Island Development Project
6
ELAW. Claim Between Virgin Islands Environmental Council and Attorney General and Quorum Island BVI
7
Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. Quorum Island BVI Ltd v Virgin Islands Environmental Council, Court of Appeal Judgment
8
Government of the Virgin Islands Gazette. Fisheries (Fishing Priority Areas and Protected Areas) Order, 2011
9
Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. Applied Enterprises Ltd v Interisle Holdings Ltd and Others
10
Government of the Virgin Islands. Environmental Legislation
11
UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum. British Virgin Islands
12
FAO. Physical Planning Act, 2004
13
Government of the Virgin Islands. Green Paper on Environmental Management, Climate Adaptation and Sustainable Development
14
Government of the Virgin Islands. 2026 Speech From the Throne