Nassau, The Bahamas – Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are unified in equatorial resilience against climate change. And environmentalists have calculated that residual air and ocean pollution is the number one threat to the survival of the 53 million people that live within the SIDS global network.
“A definition of climate change is a change in climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to the natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods,” said the Hon. Earl Deveaux, Minister of the Environment.
On September 22, the Minister addressed an audience at the College of The Bahamas (COB) Performing Arts Centre, which included representatives from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Dr. Deveaux further explained how the marine environment and integrated ecosystems are experiencing their own natural destruction as the nation’s coral reefs are showing signs of bleaching and dying under the intense pressure of rising global temperatures.
“Climate change is already affecting and will continue to impact our coral reefs and integrated ecosystems. Here you have some pictures of our mangrove systems and healthy coral reef systems, which continue to be one of the healthiest in the world. But one which is increasingly under threat from us and from climate change impact,” said Dr. Deveaux.
“Here are some manifestations of the effects of climate change exhibited by primarily hurricane damage. You see the effect on agriculture, on buildings, on infrastructure, and generally on human beings. The Bahamas is fortunate in one sense that we are bordered on one side by deep Atlantic Ocean. But, the Great Bahama Bank and Little Bahama Bank, which provides for most of our fisheries, would be the most likely threatened environments of the increasing of sea water temperature.”
Dr. Deveaux advocated that Bahamians must choose to reduce the impact of climate change through increasing the resiliency to its effects. He used Schooner Bay, a development in Abaco, as a prime example of ‘appropriate development’, supported by the 2010 Planning and Subdivision Act which came into law January 1, 2011.
“Our Government has passed the comprehensive Physical Planning Act and Forestry Act and one I’ve listed is the Bahamas National Trust Act. These three pieces of legislation together are intended to inform individual decisions, policy decisions, and regional decisions in respect to how we order development in our country,” said Dr. Deveaux.
“We can integrate our adaptation into development decisions. We have an example here of Schooner Bay, a development in Abaco. We have gamuts of conservation efforts exhibited in our living conditions, in our architecture, and we have the all encompassing term ‘Appropriate Development’. That really summarises how we see the approach of our own adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate change in The Bahamas.”
The Government has taken practical efforts to address the adverse impacts of climate change through mitigation. Some of the projects include Bird Pond in Andros, Victoria Pond in Exuma, and in Adelaide Creek in New Providence. Big Pond Park stretches from COB, Thompson Boulevard, Baillou Hill Road, and all the way to the highway in the south. It is intended to be the centre of mitigation in the New Providence Road Improvement Project (NPRIP). Dr. Deveaux explained how the new developments are all connected to the NPRIP, which is designed to uphold mitigation efforts to reduce the intensity of land use.
“We also set aside, in-law, significants parts of our space and our wetlands so that they are protected in perpetuity. A third of our country will be in law and the remaining two-thirds will be protected by a process of how you interact with development,” said Dr. Deveaux.
By Gena Gibbs
BAHAMAS INFORMATION SERVICES
