Bakers Bay

Actually, though, if you think about it, a nursery has nothing to do with conserving an environmental hot zone.

Here is how it works. Bakers Bay is bulldozing one of the last surviving Bahamas barrier-island forests in existence. Preceeding the bulldozing, units are dispatched to the muddy edge of the construction zone, where they pry the orchids and bromeliads off the about-to-fall tree.

The orchids and bromeliads then get displayed as the centerpiece for Bakers Bay preservation at the nursery. Everything in the nursery looks botanical, and it certainly feels professional.

I talked with one of the botanists hired by Bakers Bay about the species' being collected. This American botanist later quit the project, citing the fact that he was not a biostitute. He explained that the orchids were actually common in the Northern Bahamas. There were no endangered species. If I went into the Bakers Bay property and literally killed each orchid and bromeliad hanging in the trees, I would be committing only a minor environmental injustice.

What's unique about the forests and mangroves of the Bakers Bay area is the habitat itself; and the collection of plants whose habitats are growing increasingly smaller each year. The habitat because of the mixture of the species. Its location. The fact that it is a major stopover for endangered and threatened migrating warblers, sea birds and Abaco endemics. It's importance as a dense forest where few others survive. It's importance as crabbing land and as nursery to the coral reef. Most important, this land is important for its relationship to the coral reef itself.

If you plow it, you destroy the reef.

But we'll get to that later.

During the Christie Administration, Discovery Land Company didn't have to work too hard to make themselves look green. They had the full backing of the government. But as it became clear that the Ingraham administration would be moving in, Discovery Land Company knew what they had to do.

The Bahamas National Trust is a private, self-funded conservation group, which was given authority by the Bahamian government to manage its parks.

Suddenly, the Bahamas National Trust made an announcement.

They announced in the summer of 2007 that they had formed a partnership with the Bakers Bay Golf & Ocean Club. Bakers Bay was offering them a cash gift that would amount to 1.2 million dollars - a gift of such magnitude that the BNT would be able to use it to advance their conservation agenda like never before.

Just one stipulation, though.

According to June 26, 2007 Bahama Journal, "(Bakers Bay) said that after three years Discovery Land Company will negotiate with the Bahamas National Trust, and look at the Trust's accomplishments, performances, objectives and milestones with a view to support the Trust again with a second three-year grant..."

After the grant, The President of the BNT came out in full support of the Bakers Bay Club; "...We are confident that Bakers Bay is doing all the right things that it needs to do to protect the environment. The grant shows that Bakers Bay cares about the environment..."

Bakers Bay staff started appearing at more and more Friends of the Environment meetings.

Around the same time, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced that it was creating a new campus-wide institute dedicated to environmental research. At the center of the program was an environmental scholarship called the Michael S. Meldman Distinguished Professorship in Conservation, named after the Discovery Land Company president. He allegedly gave 2 million dollars to have the scholarship named after himself. Meldman has no history of environmental donations.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is home to a marine biology department whose research strongly points to megadevelopment issues as the primary cause for coral reef destruction.

Articles were showing up in the local newspapers; Bakers Bay staff were 'saving sea turtles from locals', who were allegedly digging up turtle eggs for lunch. Everywhere, people were talking about the nursery. I have collected the history of what Bakers Bay employees have said, publicly and privately, about the Guana Cay locals; and it matches the marketing campaigns - make the locals look like animals.

At the same time, Discovery Land Company was working the locals at Great Guana Cay. They created a fund, named after the tree under which the opposition to their development meets. The Fig Tree Foundation would offer the incentive of money to sick locals, to literally offer the hope of life, and to the school, and so on. The Fig Tree Foundation has turned out to be largely a marketing front - most of the efforts the foundation promised to fund were never paid for.

But, who follows up on such things anyways?

There are some genuine green developments in the Bahamas. A good example is Tiamo Resorts in the Southern Bahamas. When magazines write about the best examples of sustainable resorts in the world, Tiamo is often cited. Its footprint is tiny, it's environmental vision is outstanding. And it does so while retaining a level of luxury and quality at the very apex of world tourism.

But while places like Tiamo Resorts create positive publicity for the Bahamas, few people in the Bahamas know much about such resorts, even as they help to balance the constant flow of negative publicity generated by the country's silly advertising campaigns (such as Bahamavention!) and tourist reports of high crime and bad service at megadevelopments in urban Nassau and on Paradise Island.