Sierra Club International Vice President
voices concern about Baker's Bay Project
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Note: The following is a letter from Sierra Club's international vice president Michele Perrault.
Like John Muir, Perrault was President of the Board of the Sierra Club on two separate occasions. She is one of the most respected voices in the world of conservation. She has done a tremendous job of learning and researching the Guana Cay issues herself.
Nearly nine months after writing this letter, the Bakers Bay Club has still not responded publicly to the Sierra Club's concerns.
Note on 03.02.07: the Baker's Bay Club has yet to respond to this letter.
To Erik Gauger
Editor
Notes from the Road
A major international report titled, "The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment" was released this year in partnership with the UN agencies, international scientists and development agencies. It warned about the ongoing degradation of ecosystems around the world. It called for responses in communities worldwide to influence better stewardship of our ecological resources in order to protect essential services that provide people with a quality of life.
The report pointed out incremental damage at the local levels fed by inadequate processes that can "ensure sustainability and productivity of ecosystems services for human health, food, production and other benefits."I thought of this report while studying the present record of citizens’ efforts to bring attention to the potential impacts of the Baker's Bay Development on Guana Cay.
It serves as an example of the difficulty the public has protecting ecological assets in their own communities when they have to fight for access, deal with inadequate transparency in decision making, struggle against inadequate integrated planning and act as the real watchdogs of the public interest where government has failed in that role in its eagerness to fulfill the needs of larger corporate interests.While reviewing the complex record related to the above project, I am left with questions that might be enlightening of instruction to others watching this one play out in the Bahamas:
1) Why have development decisions in the Bahamas
like the Guana Cay project been made “in a vacuum with no real understanding of the carrying capacity of either the infrastructure or of the environment"?
2) Why was the Baker's Bay Development
given acres of Crown Land without adequate public input?
3) Why was the LOCAL government level bypassed
during the process of giving approval to the project?
4) Why has the Bahamian government not responded
to the excellent recommendations of a world renowned marine bioecologist's recommendation regarding the Environmental Impact Assessment? Dr. Michael Risk raised concerns on the lack of critical data needed before going ahead, related to impacts on coral and other resources that may occur from this golf course, marina, and housing development, regardless of laws and regulations in place, but no effort was made to address his cautions
5) Why have the proponents of the project
made references to the involvement of institutions that have since denied that reference?These are a handful of the questions that arise upon reading the record to date.
The ecosystems of the Bahamas will continue to be threatened by the incremental threats of irresponsible development that erode its precious resources for not only those making a livelihood in the area but those providing support for the community as visitors to the area.
The Sierra Club, an organization of over 800,000 members, cares about places like Guana Cay, where people live and recreate. We encourage citizen action that seeks to protect healthy communities and which challenges the decisions of a government which neglects the larger public interest, while aiding corporate interests at the public's expense.
Michele Perrault
International Vice President
The Sierra Club
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Great Guana Cay is a thin, six mile island in the Northern Bahamas.
The island's inhabitants, who settled here 200 years ago, are employed in fishing and cottage industry tourism.
The island's coral reef is of international importance as one of the most intact surviving elkhorn/staghorn coral communities in the world.
The inhabitants began fighting tooth and nail to save their island's coral reef and mangroves from destruction after hearing of plans for a golf megadevelopment on their tiny barrier reef island.
Hundreds of the world's most revered coral reef scientists and marine ecologists, as well as almost every single Bahamian environmental organization, have banded together to try to stop the Baker's Bay Golf & Ocean Club (Discovery Land Company) from realizing completion.
The proposed 585 unit, 180 slip marina, tennis courts, hotel, destination spa and championship golf course were pushed through the Bahamian central government with no local consent and without proper permits in a land grab (including of local public land designated for use by Bahamians) of unbelievable proportion. In one of the most amazing and unique environmental stories in history, the islanders have brought the developer, and the Bahamian government, to task. The small island is now waging a bitter legal battle with the government and the developers.
Rise Up Sweet Island compiles the viewpoints of the Bahamian and international marine conservation community and presents documents, evidence and history for all interested parties.
Notes from the Road is a travelogue which covers environmental and cultural issues around North America, the Caribbean and Europe. |
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| Thousands of coral scientists, conservationists and environmentalists have publicly voiced support for the locals of Great Guana Cay, including scientists at the Sierra Club, University of Miami, Greenpeace, Center for Biological Diversity, Global Coral Reef Alliance and more. |
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| No independent scientists or conservation groups support the position of Baker's Bay Club. |
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