Bahama Pundit

Marine Protected Areas— an Open and Shut Case

by Larry Smith

One year ago, the research firm Public Domain conducted a telephone survey on behalf of The Nature Conservancy to gauge Bahamian views on the  importance of protecting the marine environment.

The Nature Conservancy is a US-based organisation with more than a million members that works in more than 35 countries - including the Bahamas - to help local agencies protect important land and sea areas.

Public Domain interviewed over 900 residents on New Providence, Grand Bahama and Abaco last May, and the poll had a level of confidence of 95 per cent, according to the company’s principal, M’wale Rahming.

The results were definitive, to say the least.

More than 90 per cent of all respondents said that the government should make protecting our marine environment a priority, yet more than two thirds of respondents on each island believed not enough was being done in this regard.

Over 80 per cent said they would support the creation of marine protected areas throughout the Bahamas, and similar numbers said they would vote for a government that protected the environment. 

 

Over 40 per cent of respondents said they earned a living from the sea, and almost 90 per cent agreed that we should limit what fishermen catch in order to protect marine resources for the future.

More than 70 per cent considered the following issues to be urgent, requiring the immediate attention of government: protecting coral reefs, protecting marine life, developing a sustainable economy, preserving wetlands and creating marine protected areas.

In his executive summary, Rahming said the results show that the marine environment “is at the centre of the Bahamian DNA…the heart of Bahamian culture and daily life”, but most people feel the government is not doing enough to protect it.

“The brand of the government would benefit from tackling (this issue) strongly,” he said. "According to the vast majority of Bahamians, safeguarding marine life in general (coral reefs, conch, etc.) requires immediate attention.”

 

You may not know it, but both the Ingraham and Christie governments have signed on to a regional agreement to protect 20 per cent of our nearshore waters and coastlines by the year 2020, although only about 3 per cent is protected now. The agreement is called the 20 by 20 Challenge.

 Worldwide, less than 1 per cent of the ocean is fully protected, compared to 13 per cent of the land surface. Scientists agree that to conserve the ocean’s biodiversity, we need modern management tools, including legally required and globally respected marine protected areas.

A Brief History of Environmental Management in the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

In an obvious attempt to soothe public anger over the Rubis fuel leak disaster in Marathon, Environment Minister Ken Dorsett recently unveiled draft legislation "for the establishment of the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection”, saying the law would be brought to parliament in October. 

This hasty reaction, combined with an unprecedented government apology to Marathon residents for withholding key information on the health risks they faced - indicates the extent of the political damage control the Christie administration feels obliged to take.

But although titled the Environmental Planning and Protection Bill 2015, Dorsett's draft legislation goes back at least 14 years, to when the Ingraham administration first began codifying environmental protections, with help from the United Nations.

Until the late 1990s most Bahamians had no involvement in development proposals whatsoever. The government and the developers made all the decisions - behind closed doors - and there was no statutory authority for environmental controls.

Political Leadership and Corruption

by Simon

Condolences from the Bahamas Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Singapore following the death of the country’s founding father and first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, observed: “The late Prime Minister was a contemporary of the late Sir Lynden Pindling ... Sir Lynden often said that he wanted The Bahamas to be the Singapore of the Caribbean.” 

There is much that the Bahamas can learn from Singapore and the legacy of Lee.  But there are two major attributes required to replicate Singapore’s success, the absence of which makes such success difficult.  The two attributes are the personal discipline and work ethic of citizens, and the quality of political leadership.

Bahamians generally lack the discipline and work ethic of Singaporeans.  And for all of his gifts and contributions to national development, Sir Lynden, a leading founding father, lacked the strategic vision and commitment to personal incorruptibility and intolerance for state corruption that characterized the rule of Singapore’s Lee. 

One of the reasons for Singapore’s success was the example of the incorruptible Lee, who had a fierce commitment to the rule of law and launched a massive anti-corruption program after becoming his country’s leader.

Given his role and person, and the progressive movement’s desire to turn a page from the vast corruption of the white oligarchy and its political instrument the United Bahamian Party (UBP), Sir Lynden had a singular opportunity to foster a new political culture, an opportunity he quickly squandered, setting the country back for generations as the PLP became synonymous with corruption.