Officials from the BNT said they believe a private developer has taken it upon himself to clear away 10 acres of land at the Perpall Tract Well fields. BNT President Glen Bannister held a press conference yesterday and told reporters that none of the relevant goverment agencies accepts responsibility, and he is calling on “the higher-ups” to put a stop to the tree cutting.
“This is the concern,” Mr Bannister said. “The Ministry of Housing has stuck to its plan and they are developing the areas they said they would develop. But they said that they don’t know this person who is clearing away the other part of the land. So, someone has cleared the land out there but no one has been able to give us answers as to who is clearing the land and who is developing it.”
The government is planning to build 74 new low-cost homes and a public golf course on the 212-acres of land in what the BNT calls an environmentally sensitive area. While residents in the area and the BNT protested the move, they agreed to let the government cut down 12 to 15 acres on the plot. But according to Mr Bannister, an unidentified company has moved into the space and cleared down an additional 10 acres, blatantly breaching the agreement and disturbing “the most diverse coppice forest system on New Providence.”
But Bahamas Association of Social Health (BASH) President Terry Miller said he is more concerned about finding out who is responsible for destroying the 10 acres of land that was not supposed to be touched.
“Obviously they’re working illegally because the BEST commission did not give authorisation for the land to be cut,” Mr Miller said. “Even the Water and Sewerage Corporation said that if they were going to clear the land, the first thing would have been to approach the BEST commission, so obviously it is being done illegally. We even saw this person taking topsoil to his farm.”
Back in December, the Perpal Tract Well fields issue came to a head when environmentalists and residents in the area protested against the government destroying the area.
Mr Miller added that while he does not oppose the government’s decision to build affordable housing for ļ¾ Bahamians, he believes he has actually developed a plan, which will allow both conservation and the construction of more homes to proceed simultaneously.
“If the minister would consider building houses from Perpal Tract on the west, along the southern fence of BATELCO to BASH on the east and from BASH’s boundary on the north, to the southern most house on Columbus Drive, one house deep with a wall to the rear to protect the remaining forest from criminal elements, we have calculated at least 120 houses along this strip alone,” he said back in January.
At the conference, Mr Bannister added that the area is a hotspot for biodiversity on the island and has been assessed by both botanists and ornithologists as the most diverse coppice forest system on New Providence. He added that a recent botanical assessment found that there are several rare and endangered trees in the forest, and that the species diversity is perhaps the highest of any remaining broadleaf coppice area on New Providence.
Mr Bannister added that the BNT would not rest until they find out who’s to blame for overstepping these bounderies.
By IANTHIA SMITH, Nassau Guardian Staff Reporter
