|
By Charles Fawkes
HOUSE OF LABOUR :
In most countries around the world the month of June
is considered World Environment Month with many
governments and environmentalists kicking off their
celebrations as of June.
In The Bahamas the
wife of Prime Minister Perry Christie, Bernadette
Christie and Ron Pinder of the Environment Ministry
did the honours. Sam Duncombe of RE -EARTH also
imparted many insightful ideas on the program Contact
with former MP and host Mike Smith.
Additionally, by
resolution 2994 (XXVII) of December 15, 1972, the
United Nation General Assembly designated June 5 as
World Environment Day, to deepen public awareness of
the need to preserve and enhance the environment. That
date was chosen because it was opening day of the
United Nations Conference on the Human Environment
(Stockholm, 1972) which led to the establishment of
the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Twenty
years later, the Assembly convened UNCED in Rio de
Janeiro, where nations came together to take the
decisions needed to rekindle the hopes of the 1972
Conference and take up the challenges of a viable and
equitable balance between environment and development
and a sustainable future for the earth and its people.
As the month of
June closes it is important for consumers in the
Bahamas where the government has declared themselves
committed to large scale tourist development to be
concerned about the impact of these developments on
the environment.
There are large
scale development stated for 870 acres of land in Rum
Cay, and additional acreage in Crab Cay. In Bimini ,
there is the Bimini Bay Game Fighting Club by a
Malaysian company. In Abaco there is the Winding Bay
Development in Cherokee Sound and Island Fresh Dairy
Ltd. In the Berry Islands there is the Prestine
Resort, Chub Cay, and Whale Cay development. In Cat
Island there are several large projects including
Hawk's Nest and Orange Creek that is currently under
development.
In Eluethera in the
advance planning stages are two developments at Salsa
Beach, plus at half Sound, Winding Bay and Hatchet
Bay. In West Grand Bahama 2,150 acres of the Old
Sammons Bay are being considered and the beat goes on
and on. All of these developments have dire
consequences for the further degradation of our
environment and our eco-systems.
Furthermore, the
company of the late E.P. Taylor owns one tenth of New
Providence, which he obtained under the UBP and has
retained under the PLP. The gamblers and the
developers own Paradise Island, the Grand Bahama Port
Authority controls 230 miles of Grand Bahama that has
culminated in Freeport seeming like a foreign city.
There is an American company called Columbus Landing,
which reportedly controls 55% of the land on San
Salvador. It appears that a great many of the Berry
Islands are being developed and the same is true of
the Exuma Cays. The parties of the PLP and FNM/ UBP
have caused the best beaches and the best lands of the
country to become non-Bahamian developments with the
result that most Bahamians will never own a piece of
this good earth. The question of access to our
beaches, the most beautiful part of our environment is
also an environmental issue for consumers in The
Bahamas.
All of these
developments have degraded the environment in some
form since they are tourist related. Tourism also
affects the economies of the host countries to the
extent that they are directly incur infrastructure
costs " for airports, roads, water main,
electricity, etc.) and the cost of waste treatment.
Tourist complexes generate tons of rubbish (a single
cruise ship produces 70,000 tons of trash every year,
according to the United Nations Environment Program.)
Tourism also has
disastrous effects on the natural environment,
especially when natural resources are already
insufficient. Showers, swimming pools and watering or
lawns can destroy water reserves (this explains why
our local water supply is depleted and we barge water
from Andros) and often tourist ignore the fact that
the local populations lack water for their personal
use.
One additional
aspect that tourism industry leaders like Barry
Farrington president of Hotel Owners Association and
Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace the Director-General of
Tourism and Patrick Bain, Hotel Union President must
constantly monitor is the negative social and
environmental impact mass tourism has on local
destinations. The World of Work, a magazine of the
International Labour Organisation reminds us that
tourism industry leaders and vacation spots need to
adopt a more responsible environmental attitude toward
tourism, not just monitoring the amount of tourists
arriving and amount of dollars spent. The income
generated by tourism in the form of export earnings is
significant for many countries, generating some US$455
billion in 1999, according to the World Tourism
Organisation. But there's more than that. Tourism also
generates jobs, and lots of them. According to another
body which studies tourism , the World Tourism and
Travel Council, the travel industry provided work for
some 20 million people around the world in 1999.
But increasingly,
this activity is seriously transforming the economies
of many countries, and is having a social and
environmental impact which is far from totally
positive .
The artificial
implantation of golf courses has been a disaster in
several countries intensifying the shortage of water.
Also, the chaotic invasion of hotel construction had
often modified the balance of nature, just recall
developments in Bimini, Exuma and other islands and
the erosion of the coastline has become critical in a
number of countries Even the rapid development of
"eco-tourism" conceals ambiguous realities;
it sometimes contributes to financing the preservation
of protected rural zones and the subsistence of local
populations. But it also has perverse effects when it
leads to demographic pressure and high maintenance
costs in a region which cannot afford it.
In conclusion then,
how we apply World Environment day to what is taking
place in our country determines how this annual event
can be used to enhance political attention and action.
Charles Fawkes is
the President of the National Consumer Association and
organiser for the Commonwealth Group of Unions ,
Inside Labour columnist for the Bahama Journal, Editor
of the Headline News, The Consumerguard and the
Worker's Vanguard. His e-mail address is fawkesmore@mail1.coralwave.com
or foxmoore@hotmail.com . He can be contacted at his
office in the House of Labour at 326-6620.
|
