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.
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.”
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.
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.
Deciding that it is important to protect the marine resources of The Bahamas is easy, but one has to ask the question - how will we go about doing this? The Bahamas is a wide expanse of islands and cays whose borders and sea markings are dubious at best. Securing our marine resources would first be an issue of fundamentally protecting our country’s external borders.
The illegal immigration problem clearly demonstrates our incapability to be masters of our own domain, and this is not all that surprising. Adequately protecting land resources require constant attention and cutting edge technology, while sufficiency protecting our ocean resources, is a monster in and of itself. The unique geographical landscape of our country certainly does not help.
My belief is that if our inhabited islands can operate independently from each other - countries within a country, so to say, then might we be able to adequately protect our marine resources. Written laws and marine protected areas can only go so far, enforcement is necessary, but to sufficiently do that we need the power of our forces to be matched, not just in a few areas of The Bahamas, but throughout the entire geographical scope. This may in turn only happen when remote parts of our country become more populated.
Posted by: Méliton de Sardes | May 22, 2015 at 12:33 AM