Survey and Assessment of Environmental Taxes in the Caribbean

Although the Caribbean region relies heavily on its natural assets as sources of income, generally for tourism and in particular cases from agriculture and energy, environmental taxes in the region have been little studied. This paper therefore is intended to reflect the existing economic instruments in place for capturing the use (and abuse) of the regions environmental and natural resource assets to reflect the degree to which adopted actions have been effective. Data paucity has been highlighted as a major obstacle in permitting rigorous assessment; the report therefore draws on the available literature and experiences for guidelines. This final report presents an inventory of economic instruments with an emphasis on assessing the environmental taxes in seven Caribbean countries that are members of the Inter-American Development Bank: Belize, Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.