Country Comments

The UN Environmental Program describes the tiny Caribbean nation of St. Lucia as shaped like a teardrop with crescent moon beaches of white sand, jagged volcanic mountains jutting up from the azure waters, eclectic biodiversity that manifests in a riot of colour, no more so than in the Saint Lucia Amazon, a spectacular parrot found only on the island.

Unfortunately, as is the case in so many places, human activity is endangering this beauty and the benefits it brings to humanity. The threats are many, including extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change, forest habitat loss from land-use change and over-exploitation of marine resources.(1)

This human activity is unleashed by a population that is nine times greater than what the island nation can manage sustainably based on its available renewable natural resources. In a positive light the nation's total fertility rate has declined from 6 children per woman in the 1970s to less than 1.5 children today. It is expected that the human population will begin to gradually decline within the next decade which will bring much relief to the pressures put on its environment and start St. Lucia on a path to balancing its population levels with its available resources.

(1) https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/paradise-found-saint-lucia-preserving-beauty-through-data-and-policy-action