Island Resources Foundation is a private, non-profit research and education organization with offices in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, Tortola, British Virgin Islands, and Washington DC. Founded by Dr. Ed Towle in 1972, the Foundation is dedicated to solving the environmental problems of development in small tropical islands.



Current priorities include:



- Development of management models for long-term sustainable development in coastal areas of small tropical islands.

- Biodiversity conservation, especially in the Eastern Caribbean, including several projects involving government agencies and NGOs in joint planning activities;

- Information services in support of environmental planning and management, including GIS, desktop mapping and access to Internet resources.



Island Resources Foundation is a 27-year-old 501(c)3 (tax-exempt, educational and research) foundation which specializes in providing development and environmental planning assistance to governments and private nonprofit environmental organizations of small tropical islands. The Foundation's headquarters is in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands; there are branch offices in Washington, DC, and in St. John's, Antigua, where the Foundation's Eastern Caribbean Biodiversity Initiative is coordinated.