Photo Courtesy SGCR

BVI Course Passes Despite Objections | Feb 21, 2007

After years of fighting from locals and marine biologists, a high-end golf course is going to be built in an area where it should never have been built.

Link from ENN.com "The British Virgin Islands has approved construction of a high-end resort and golf course that would take up most of a largely uninhabited island, the territory's government announced. Developers of the Beef Island Golf & Country Club Resort, a roughly 650-acre project, received government approval mid-February after months of sustained debate in the British Caribbean territory of some 22,000 people."

Guana Cay Citizens Demand Rights, Vow to Fight On | February 21, 2007

Today's press release from the citizens of Guana Cay:

February 21, 2007

Guana Cay Residents continue to fight for right to be heard!

Claim that as citizens in their own home they have a right to be consulted!!

Bahamian citizens continue to fight for their rights as Bakers Bay and Government continue to mash them up!!!!

Save Guana Cay Opposes Applications by Bakers Bay to Hope Town District Council for 6 permit applications for projects each ranging from $600,000 to $1.6M for buildings at Great Guana Cay

Save Guana Cay Association continues to wage war on the Bakers Bay developers. They have discovered that the Developers have applied to build millions of dollars worth of buildings on Guana Cay.

Counsel to the Association, Fred Smith, has written today to the Hope Town District Council asking them to give the people of Guana Cay their right to be heard.

The text of the letter is set out below.

“We act on behalf of Save Guana Cay Reef Association Limited, as well as Mr. Anthony Roberts, Mr. Aubrey Clarke, Mr. Stephen Jenkins, Troy and Maria Albury, various other residents and landowners and citizens of Great Guana Cay

As you are aware, the Association and Mr. Aubrey Clarke are currently plaintiffs in litigation against the Bakers Bay/Passerine Group of Companies proposing to develop the northwestern portion of Great Guana Cay. The Prime Minister and various other government agencies are also defendants.

Our clients have challenged the legalities of the Heads of Agreement. More particularly, our clients have also vigorously complained that throughout this process they have not been provided with an opportunity for proper consultation and participation as stakeholders in the decision-making process of any central and/or local government person or agency having responsibility for consideration of applications.

Central to our clients’ complaints is the fact that our clients consider that it is the local government’s authority, specifically the district council, which has the duty and responsibility under the Local Government Act to consider the many different applications which will need to be made under the Local Government Act. Apparently, many applications have somehow been made directly to central government agencies in Nassau thus bypassing the local district council.

In addition, apparently in between the recent elections of new members to the district council, the administrator to the Council apparently issued certain permits.

Despite our many requests to central government, to the Attorney General and to the administrator, no one has seen fit to provide the citizens of Great Guana Cay with copies of either the applications or the permits issued.

The reason for this is that our clients were not given an opportunity to be heard on any such applications and the persons to whom we have written are anxious and fearful that if we are provided with copies of the applications and/or the permits, we would then seek to challenge them in court.

We are able to confirm that this is indeed the case. Once our clients do find out what permits have been issued, they will take appropriate action to seek to quash those decisions.

Locals have been denied rights as the developer and the Central Government Plotted to make foreigners rich at the expense of the community.

We should also refer you to the several letters written by the previous Chief Councillor, Mr. Walter Sweeting complaining that the district council has been bypassed in the consideration of applications and the issuance of permits. Again, this is a matter which we intend to continue to pursue as soon as we discover the relevant information.

We therefore take this opportunity to ask you to please provide us with copies of any applications and/or permits that have previously been made of which your council or the administrator is aware, either to the central government and its agencies and/or to the district council and/or such as may have been issued by the administrator to the Council.

We have previously requested this of Mr. Wayne Hall who was your Chief Councillor since Mr. Sweeting demitted office.

It is therefore with considerable appreciation that our clients have now been made aware by the posting of a Notice indicating that six permit applications have been posted on February 17, 2007on the post office board in Hope Town (and I might add not at Great Guana Cay), indicating that there are a number of projects ranging from $600,000 to $1.6M which applications are due to be heard this Thursday, February 22, 2007.

As a general point, our clients are opposed to the scale, scope and extent of the proposed development.

As you are aware, our clients’ complained of the extensive environmental, social, cultural damage as well as the destruction of their traditional way of life.

Local government is all about local rights and taking into account the views and allowing those who are most closely affected by the proposed developments, to be consulted and to have their views properly considered. The district council is statutorily supposed to be representative of the citizens, residents and landowners of the district.

We are aware however that your council has some qualification and appointment challenges. We understand that many of you were actually appointed by the central government and not elected to office. Our clients reserve their rights to challenge this process as being illegal and intend to do so in due course.

Our clients would like to have an opportunity to make representations with regard to those proposed applications.

In that regard, our clients would like to have copies of the documents submitted by the applicants, so that they, and their advisors, can consider the same and be properly advised with regard to matters they might wish to raise which may be of concern regarding the applications.

Our clients have only just been made aware that these applications are before the council and not having had the benefit of any details with respect thereto, and given the fact that the applications will be considered so soon, our clients will not be in a position to be properly informed so as to be able to make sensible, rational and constructive comments.

We also understand that your council has been provided with copies of the BEST Commission reports and the current Environmental Impact studies. These have been repeatedly promised to our clients but, again, despite the fact that our clients are the ones most affected, they have not received copies thereof.

May we also ask that, in the spirit of transparency, accountability and in the interest of natural justice, and having regard to our clients’ rights to be heard, that we be provided with copies so that we can take they into account when making representations. Our clients are prepared to pay the cost of any copies, and are prepared to collect them at your convenience.

In the meantime, we ask that you adjourn the consideration of these applications until such time as our clients have been provided with the information sought.

Accordingly, may we please have confirmation that you will provide the information sought and adjourn the hearing of the applications.

We must put you on notice that if our clients are not treated fairly and if the applications are considered and/or approved without our clients being given the proper opportunity to make representations for your consideration, our clients will bring proceedings to enforce their rights in due course.

Our clients do not wish to litigate against their neighbours but must emphasise that the central government and the developers appear to be using our clients’ neighbours and pitting them against each other.

Yours faithfully

CALLENDERS & CO.
Frederick R. M. Smith

Blunders and Bloopers Reveal Corruption | February 20, 2007

Today was historic in hinting at the layers of corruption in the current Bahamian government. Although the events of today are external to the story of Great Guana Cay's struggle against an unethical American golf course developer, they reveal a picture of the government that allowed this megadevelopment to be created in the first place. And, these events are helping to crumble the current regime. This is of incredible importance; because once this administration has been ousted, Discovery Land Company will likely be forced out as well.

The Guana Cay coral reef, in peril as Discovery Land Company mows across the island. PHOTO by James Cervino.

The current Bahamian administration banks its success on a single issue: the building of anchor 'megadevelopments' on the Out-Islands. Out Islands comprise most of the Bahamas; but they are mostly wilderness areas with slow and sustainable development. Economists and ecologists agree that this anchor development approach is wrong: that by destroying the Bahamas' wilderness environments through the building of large casinos, tourism curiousities, mega-marinas and golf courses and excluding locals from involvement in their own backyards, this megadevelopment anchor approach is threatening the very future of the country.

The Bahamas has a worldwide reputation for not always being above corruption. The Bloggy Boyz, a Bahamian political blog group, broke the story of a news piece from a North Carolina developer today. The developer, Infinity Partners, posted a long blog piece today about their involvement in an anchor project in the Bahamas. The blog piece included items that were NEVER meant to go public. But before the developer was able to take the link down, we managed to capture the full text of the entry.

Most notable, the developer admits that the Bahamian Government wanted to announce the news of the megadevelopment 30 days before the election this May. This is the type of corruption that Notes from the Road has been pointing out since we became involved in this story in 2005.

(The link is infinitypartners.typepad.com/infinitypartners)

Here are some quotes from the piece and my comments:

"Margaritaville: Beka has discussed and Buffet is interested in developing a Margaritaville Hotel and Casino and an entire town of Margaritaville."

Jimmy Buffett will never get involved in this project. If he even touches the Bahamian Megadevelopment fiasco, he will turn back on his years of environmental efforts and isolate thousands of his fans. I recommend that my readers contact Jimmy Buffett and all of his fan sites and urge him to stay away from getting involved in these environmentally destructive megadevelopments.

"Golf Development: Beka Development has agreed in principal to have Mike Riley, previously lead designer for Nickolas, design a links course. Additionally, Beka has had significant negotiations with Greg Norman Golf to design a course to PGA specifications for future tour championships."

Golf developments are being approved like mad in the Caribbean right now.

"The existing Bahamian Government has elections on May 5, 2007 they would like to complete all the approvals and make a formal announcement at least 30 days in advance."

"Prohibition from others to access any canals or harbors within five miles of our site."

Keeping Bahamians far away from the rich patrons of these megadevelopments is a classic approach of the Christie Administration. He has become a lackey to foreign developers.

"Environment Approvals: Bahamas Golden Beach Ltd. has engaged the East Bay Group to complete the environmental impact analysis. East Bay Group has expressed no concerns regarding the project master plan and the effect to the environment and is preparing a report for the Government. East Bay Group is well received and respected by the Bahamian Government as they have been involved in a significant number of like environmental approvals."

Here is the address for East Bay Group. I encourage anyone interested in Bahamian community and environment issues to contact East Bay Group and inform them of coral and mangrove issues in the Bahamas:

East Bay Group, LLC
631 US Highway One
Suite 400
North Palm Beach
Florida
33408

Tel: (561) 296-4525
Fax: (561) 296-4547

"Casino License: The Government has committed a contingent master casino license for the remainder of the island. The contingency remaining is Bekas ability to complete its definitive agreement with Foxwoods Development Company, Foxwoods willingness to manage for Harcourt Development the existing shut down Royal Oasis Casino and Bekas willingness to purchase Government crown land at the Golden Beach site for a minimum of $5,000,000 ($2,800 per acre). Foxwoods is not obligated to invest into the Royal Oasis Casino."

That the current Administration is allowing this many casinos into the Out Islands is damning. The Out Islands are conservative, religious communities whose rural values are quite different than those of Nassau and Paradise Island.

"The Government has allowed Bahamas Golden Beach Ltd. to be the master developer of the entire east end of the island. This includes an area exceeding 100 sq miles."

This development is another example of a massive, massive sell off of land that was initially set aside as public land for Bahamians. This administration must be stopped before the island nation of the Bahamas is destroyed, its culture lost and its coral reefs in grave condition.

Also, today Immigration Minister Shane Gibson resigned after the Anna Nicole Smith scandal. International media from around the world are reporting on Gibson and reciting stories of corruption in the Bahamas. While the Anna Nicole Smith story is tragic, the fact that a senior member of the current administration fast-tracked her paperwork for personal reasons is just a glimpse into the way this administration operates. It takes an international event to bring one of these crooks down - but the vast majority of corruption by this administration is not being reported by the press.

Global Coral Issues Report on Bakers Bay | February 15, 2007

Internationally recognized coral scientist Tom Goreau has issued a statement regarding the Baker's Bay development on behalf of the Global Coral Reef Alliance. Below is the complete text of the statement:

Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
President, Global Coral Reef Alliance

The massive destruction of mangrove forests in northwestern Guana Cay, Abacos, by the Bakers Bay Development Scheme (“Passerine at Abaco Resort Community Development”) to create a huge marina and golf course in mangroves and low lying forest areas, and to nearly quadruple the number of houses on the island, should be stopped immediately before it destroys what is left of the coral reefs and fisheries of the region.

Mangroves, essential to Guana Cay's fisheries, have been torn apart only feet from the vital estuary that feeds the relationship between the island's reef, seagrass beds and saltwater flats.

The Bahamas needs sound economic development that protects it’s environmental resources, but this is a classic case of the sort of developments that have been allowed to cause untold damage in the past and which should no longer be permitted, now that the cumulative damage is clearly visible, and will be made far worse by climate change in the near future. Much stronger environmental laws and oversight are urgently needed because the Bahamas has permitted developments whose environmental costs have neither been recognized nor compensated for, and the accelerating pressures of global climate change make continuation of such policies a fool’s paradise of profiting today and ignoring all the consequences that will strike tomorrow.

Large areas of critical mangrove habitat on the site have already been bulldozed and burned in order to create space for a golf course, marina, and more than 400 houses plus hotel accommodations, in an area that was flooded by the last hurricane. These developments already have, or soon will, destroy critical nursery areas for many species of reef fish, conch, and lobster.

Of critical importance are the coral reefs, lying just offshore from the areas being destroyed for this development, which rank among some of the best left in the Bahamas, and which are critical for the livelihood of Guana Cay residents. These reefs are extremely vulnerable to any nutrients that will inevitably wash onto them from the adjacent fertilizers of the golf course and the inadequately treated sewage of the more than 400 houses and other residential units that will be constructed on this currently uninhabited site.

Coral reefs are the most nutrient-sensitive ecosystem on earth. They are adapted

Corals can survive only a light footprint.

to clear, clean waters, and are overgrown and killed by weedy algae at lower nutrient levels than any other habitat. We now know that it takes only 0.014 parts per million of nitrogen and only 0.003 parts per million of phosphorus to turn healthy coral reefs into masses of algae devoid of all marine life except a couple of algae eating fish. My ecological assessment of the site indicates that the entire area is already close to this threshold even before the massive new fertilizer and sewage releases from this project begin.

My assessment of this site is based on personal observations of the algae and over 50 years of experience of studying the role of algae on coral reefs, and the impacts of nutrients on them. I watched the coral reefs of Jamaica and many other places around the world destroyed by algae overgrowth caused by nutrient buildup in coastal waters from fertilizers and inadequately treated sewage, studied the impacts of nutrients on algae growth. I wrote the review on the impacts of land-based sources of nutrients on coral reefs and fisheries, and how to control them, for the United Nations Expert Meeting on Waste Management in Small Island Developing Countries. In addition I also wrote the National Coral Reef Assessment and Management and Restoration Strategy for the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas’ closest neighbour and the most similar country ecologically. Turks and Caicos is the only country in the world that forces all developers to recycle all their waste waters on their own property.

tarpon swim along the Great Guana Cay barrier reef. Photo by Erik gauger

I dived at several coral reef sites near the Bakers Bay development on February 9 2007. It should be noted that this is the coldest and driest time of the year and therefore the corals are the least affected by bleaching, diseases, and algae overgrowth, in contrast to the earlier independent assessments made at warmer times of the year by Dr. Michael Risk and Dr. James Cervino. Nevertheless, my observations completely back their conclusions, and refute the claims of the environmental impact assessment made by the development’s hired consultants, which irresponsibly downplay or ignore the impacts to the reefs and fisheries that the development would inevitably cause.

Although widely regarded as some of the best reefs remaining in the Bahamas, these reefs have clearly suffered from the cumulative impacts of accelerating stress from increasing nutrients over the last decade. Older photographs of these reefs taken by Erik Gauger show little or no algae, but at present there is about 2-3 times more bottom coverage by algae than live corals, even though these observations were made at the season of minimum algae abundance. The buildup of algae and bacterial slime will rapidly smother most of what is left once new nutrients are added. At present there are still large numbers of sand producing algae that build the beach, but as nutrients increase these will be overgrown and killed by weedy algae that produce no sand, so that they new supply of sand will vanish while the corals that protect the beach from waves die from algae and disease, as sea level rises, and while hurricanes greatly increase in strength.

Especially worrisome is the high abundance of weedy algae species indicating high nutrient levels, especially Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae, but which here are predominantly slimy and reddish in color) overgrowing dead and dying corals, sea fans, and gorgonians. This problem will get far worse when the water warms and more nutrients are added. That this algae abundance is due to excessive buildup of nutrients from existing developments in the Abacos and not due to over-fishing is clear because the fishes are dominated by algae-eating surgeonfish and parrotfish, but they are unable to control the algae buildup from smothering and killing corals. Local fishermen who have known these reefs for decades say that the algae buildup has happened over the last 5-10 years. In addition the water on the leeward side of the island, where the Marina entrances will be located, is already chronically green, indicating high nutrients.

Guana locals protest the Baker's Bay Club.

It is clear that a long term plan to identify and map all the nutrient sources to the coastal zone, and the use of modern methods to recycle all of the nutrients on land and prevent coastal pollution need to be used in the Bahamas. Most of the corals are already gone, and it is only a matter of time for the rest if the current path of development continues in which all the waste nutrients go into the ground and then into the sea. Instead new methods need to be used to recycle the nutrients on land and feed them to plants and forests that are clearly starved of nutrients. Several new and highly efficient methods to do just this will be presented on May 7 2007 at the Partnership of New Technologies for Small Island States at the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, which I am organizing and invite the Bahamas delegation to participate in.

It is therefore clear that nutrients are already excessive and must be reduced through improved sewage management and nutrient recycling, not only in Guana Cay, but also in the Marsh Harbour region, if these reefs are to survive in the long run. It is equally clear that any conversion of the site from natural mangrove and forest to marinas, golf courses, and houses will inevitably add huge new nutrient sources from fertilizers and sewage that will swamp the existing nutrient sources, and very rapidly kill the remaining reefs and fisheries within a few years. Not only should the Baker’s Bay project be stopped, the developers should restore and mitigate the damage they have caused, and in my view they should be required to pay compensation to the people of Guana Cay for the destruction they are causing to local reefs and fisheries.

Photographs taken before Disney and Discovery Land Company reveal the story of a reef before unchecked development. Photo by Erik Gauger

In addition to damage from algae there has clearly been a large amount of mortality several decades ago of the magnificent elkhorn and staghorn coral forests that my grandfather photographed in the Bahamas in the 1940s. Large dead elkhorn corals dominate the shallow water, and the amount of living ones are small, young, and less than one percent of what they were. Not a single live staghorn coral was found, although their dead broken skeletons are common on the bottom. These two species are the most important in protecting the shoreline from erosion. There has clearly been a large amount of partial mortality of the large head and brain corals from coral bleaching caused by global warming, and much of this took place in 2005. However, one unusual feature of these reefs is the unusually high abundance of young corals of the uncommon species Manicina areolata or “rose coral”.

I have compiled long term satellite temperature records for the Bahamas, and the trends are clearly upwards, so severe bleaching events, like hurricanes, are bound to become more frequent and intense in the future. Given the fact that the Bahamas is the most vulnerable country in the Atlantic to global warming and global sea level rise, it is crucial that the Bahamas develop a strong leadership voice in international efforts to stop human-caused climate change. Given that it would be the first Atlantic country to be drowned, its silence at international climate change conferences has been astonishing, as if people would rather hide their head in the sand than face the facts confronting them and stand up for their own long term interests.

The Guana Cay reef is a unique and beautiful treasure; more than a tourist draw for Guana Cay, it is of international importance.

The Bahamas is now racing down the same unsustainable track which has destroyed the reefs of Florida, and where 50 mile long blooms of slime have smothered the reefs next to sewage outfalls, and where hiding the sewage underground by deep well injection of wastes has been claimed to be the “dilution solution to pollution”. It is not: the sewage has been held back for a few years underground but is now pouring out of the deeper rock layers into the sea, causing blooms of algae and bacterial slime that are now killing reefs from the offshore side. Tragically, the Florida developers and sewage injectors are now bringing their methods to the Bahamas, which is even more vulnerable. South Floridians have a whole continent they can move to when the rising seas drown South Florida, but Bahamians do not have this option and must protect what they have.

Opposition leader Hubert Ingraham listens to the residents of Great Guana Cay. Ingraham, Prime Minister of the Bahamas in the 1990's, calls for sustainable development throughout the Bahamas and questions the integrity of the relationship between Discovery Land Company and the current administration.

One could hardly imagine a worse site for such a development if we desire to preserve our coral reefs, mangroves, and fisheries. This project would only temporarily enrich a handful of speculators and their hired help at the price of severe long-term costs to the Bahamian environment and people, like the developments underway in Bimini and so many other places. It should be stopped immediately before it causes further harm. If allowed to continue this development will devastate the resources from which the people of Guana Cay live, for the benefit of foreign speculators who are unlikely to ever see the consequences of their irresponsible actions. It is typical of an outdated model of development that enriches large foreign investors with no real long-term concerns about the future of the Bahamas, and will provide mainly low paid jobs for Haitian immigrants. In sharp contrast, Guana Cay is a model for small-scale locally owned tourism, which creates a completely different ambience that more tourists prefer, causes far less environmental damage, and in the long run is more economically beneficial to the Bahamian economy.

A team organized by Global Coral Reef Alliance examines a 200 year old coral structure just feet off the shore from Baker's Bay Club. This reef structure, stressed and 'bleached' by rising sea temperatures in this 2006 photograph by James Cervino, faces insurmountable obstacles posed by the Bakers Bay Golf course.

I urge the Government of the Bahamas to promptly enact and enforce environmental laws to protect the Nation’s natural resources before they are further destroyed or degraded, and in particular to immediately stop this damaging “development” scheme. It is astonishing that the Bahamas is one of the few countries in the world with no real laws to protect the environment, especially the coral reefs and mangroves that are so crucial to it. For years long-term divers in the Bahamas have been telling me how fast the reefs are disappearing. In fact the damage is now so extensive that even saving and strictly protecting ALL remaining habitat in good condition will not be enough. Large-scale restoration of damaged coral reefs and mangroves will be needed if the country is to maintain its shore protection from rising sea level, its fisheries, and its ecotourism value. A long term sustainable environmental policy that is enforced is the badly needed first step.

I have voluntarily looked at this site, with no payment for my time, because of the urgency of the issues involved in this particular project, which has achieved worldwide notoriety for its destructiveness, the incompetence of its environmental impact assessment with regard to marine impacts, the give-away of Bahamian Crown Lands to foreign developers, and the near unanimous opposition of local residents. I have dived longer and in more reefs all around the Caribbean, Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Southeast Asia than any other marine scientist in the world, and advise international agencies, governments, non-profit community groups and environmental conservation groups, hotels, and dive shops on protecting and restoring coral reefs all around the globe. My only personal consideration is the preservation and restoration of the coral reefs for future generations.