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Bimini Bay Development Given Green Light - International conservationists calling for halt!
International conservationists are calling for a halt of the Bimini Bay development following the damaging impact of development highlighted in the environmental evaluation report made public this week.
18 December 2008
BY MEGAN REYNOLDS
INTERNATIONAL conservationists are calling for a halt of the Bimini Bay development following the damaging impact of development highlighted in the environmental evaluation report made public this week.
Joining in opinion with the Bahamas National Trust, Bahamas Reef Environment Edcational Foundation (BREEF), Mangrove Action Project (MAP), and internationally renowned marine scientist and shark biologist Samuel Gruder, who runs the Bimini field station as professor at the University of Miami's Rosential School for Marine and Atmospheric Science.
Dr Gruder maintains vital wetlands were bulldozed hundreds of metres into the water during the Bimini development, when he was a council member of the Bahamas National Trust.
Director of international mangrove preservation group Mangrove Action Project, Alfredo Quarto, is calling for a halt of the development before further damage is done.
He said the four 'gaps' identified in Black and Veatch's independent environmental evaluation including lack of public access to documents, an alteration of the master plan, lack of an Environmental Management Plan and environmental degradation beyond what was anticipated, are enough to stop the project.
However, Black and Veatch have advised government to go ahead, withstanding conditions.
Mr Quarto said: "We wonder how Black and Veatch can so nimbly make the leap of faith from one very slippery investigative stepping stone to another in stretching to reach their conclusion without falling in to the muck that surrounds this whole development process since its contentious inception.
"The so-called 'gaps' should have raised red flags, but instead Black and Veatch are raising their green flag."
MAP is advising the government to ensure Bimini Island coastal ecosystems are protected, including the mangroves, sea grass beds and corals, as well as the viability of the proposed marine sanctuary, which may be adversely affected if the phase two goes ahead.BREEF executive director Casuarina McKinney-Lambert said she has been very disturbed by what she has seen on visits to the site, and said proceeding to phase two will bring severe negative impacts on the wetlands identified as marine protected areas, and undermine the islands ecological function.
Mrs McKinney-Lambert said: "The development should not be given approval for an additional phase of development while there has been such an egregious failure to meet the requirements of the first phase."
Black and Veatch suggest developers RAV Bahamas Ltd apply for Blue Flag marina certification, but the Foundation for Environmental Education has already rejected a previous application because of serious environmental impacts of the development, Mrs McKinney-Lambert said.
BREEF joins the Bahamas National Trust in strong opposition to the golf course which Black and Veatch maintain should be on solid terrestrial land, but the Trust say the site is directly linked to wetlands and the marine protected area.
Mrs McKinney-Lambert said: "There is very little elevated land in the area proposed for phase two of the development and the 'land' where the golf course would be placed would include a considerable amount of wetland.
"The environmental impacts on this and adjacent areas are likely to be severe, far reaching, and irreparable."
To see the report log on to www.best.bs.
