Directory

The death of Jane Tipson at one o’clock in the morning of the 17th September is one of the greatest human tragedies to hit the East Caribbean in recent years. Jane was ambushed and murdered as she drove through her property in the early hours of the morning on her way home after a long day of work dedicated to the needs of others; both humans and animals. Shot at point blank range she died almost immediately.

The premature and brutal death of such a well known, gifted and loved environmentalist, on a small tropical island, has circled the world and stunned those who worked with her on a myriad of issues. Jane’s death has robbed the region of a voice that spoke out with determination, yet kindness and understanding, in defence of the just causes she devoted her entire energy and income too.

Jane adopted St. Lucia as her home more than 20 years ago. Deeply concerned as to the fate of wild and domestic creatures she founded the St. Lucia Animal Protection Society (SLAPS) alleviating the intense misery of hundreds of wild and domestic animals, and encouraging others to do so, in a way few people have ever done, ensuring the passage of an Animal Rights Act in St. Lucia only weeks before her death. She worked with the communities and voluntary veterany help in order to improve life at home for everyone concerned.

She was also co-founder of the regional organisation the Eastern Caribbean Coalition for Environmental Awareness (ECCEA) and was responsible for the ECCEA-EU initiative in St. Lucia and its documentary segment. The programme targeted the needs of communities, the environment and ecosystems through the careful development of ways and means that could offset the threats to all of these. One of the most difficult tasks to face Jane was to develop acceptable strategies. Her lucidity was immense and she was capable of developing plans that made sense for islands where conservation policies were not always popular.

Jane was not born to be a lobbyist, but she quickly adapted herself to the role in face of crisis, aware that politics governed both people and nature. Highly literate and humorous, she published articles, devoted time to public awareness, speaking on television and radio. She was active within the UN Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and worked untiringly for the conservation of the great whales and the creation of the Antarctica Sanctuary at the International Whaling Commission in 1994. She ultimately negotiated with government the implementation of whale watching laws, creating the St. Lucia Whale and Dolphin Watching Association and the developing of a flourishing whale watching industry. Jane led anti captivity campaigns, contesting the importation of wild dolphins for parks in the Caribbean, where the performers often died prematurely.

In St. Lucia and around the world, men, women and children who knew Jane, wrestle with the idea that this wonderful conscientious, dedicated and in every way beautiful human being has been taken away from them and the creatures in whose interest she worked indefatigably.

Jane Tipson was born in Cornwall in 1950. She leaves behind her two parents living there, her sister Barbara in St Lucia and countless abandoned humans and animals.