Nassau, The Bahamas – Bahamar donated $1 million dollars to the Bahamas National Trust and will be the official site for the nation’s long-awaited wildlife sanctuary.
The funding will cover the protected tree species such as Beefwood, Brasiletto, Candlewood, Caribbean Pine, Horseflesh, Lignum Vitae, Mahogany, Red Cedar, Rauwolfia, Silk Cotton, and Black Ebony.
“One of the things that we are creating, you know we’ve always talked about this wildlife sanctuary which is 70 acres, which we are going to basically develop in conjunction with the Bahamas National Trust,” said Robert Sands, senior vice president of Baha Mar administration and external affairs.
“We will fund it with an initial grant of a million dollars and another grant of a second million dollars towards the on going maintenance of that operation.
It is going to be water based and allow for the opportunity for persons to experience the number one asset in The Bahamas, which are basically the beautiful waters and the beach. But at the same time, we are going to have some exotic Bahamian animals, the flora and fauna that will be around certain areas of this beach and pool experience.”
Baha Mar’s and BNT’s partnership had drawn a mastermind of environmental organisers to transform themselves into green space architects of the nation’s wetlands systems.
The $2 million grant is included in the public record of Baha Mar’s Heads of Agreement to financially manage the 70-acre “no build zone”, designated for use as a wildlife sanctuary.
“This is our contribution to the Bahamas National Trust. We have committed by agreement to turn this ‘no build zone’ into a wildlife sanctuary, which will be developed in conjunction with or in consultation with the Bahamas National Trust,” said Mr. Sands.
“And we will fund with an initial grant of which we will monitor and obviously, by subvention, give contributions up to a million dollars for the initial works and another million dollars of on going works.”
He said this would create a sanctuary for the Cable Beach wetlands, the natural flora and fauna and the bird’s natural habitat within the “no build zone” at the western end of the project. The golf course would also triple in size to offer more protected green spaces on the development.
“The Government has just entered into a contract to do a four lane corridor on this road, which takes it into town. We are taking and developing the golf course and almost tripling it in size,” said Mr. Sands.
“From an aesthetic point of view, you will have much more green spaces and also eliminate the opportunity for major concrete super structures within these green spaces in the future. ”
The new wildlife area would call for the rerouting of the current road system into a more functional thoroughfare around the bushy wetland area that is already there. It would connect the new West Bay Street, Westridge Road, and Skyline Drive into what is known as Corridor 7. The new corridor will connect JFK Drive and Gladstone Road to the new West Bay Street and become the entrance to Baha Mar from the airport road.
“In addition as a result of this reroute of West Bay Street, we are putting a beautiful jogging trail or walking trail along the outside of this road,” said Mr. Sands.
“It is creating excellent green spaces that will be pleasing on the eye and extremely aesthetic, that is eco-sensitive, and in an organised and master plan way. You can be very proud of this development, once in fact it has been finished.”
By Gena Gibbs
BAHAMAS INFORMATION SERVICES
