The Bahamas is a world leader in sustainable tourism, yet much work needs to be done to protect the sensitive ecological environment, which has been a pearl for the country in a sea of tourism competitors.
Additionally, more efforts must be made to bring the Bahamas in coherence with guidelines for the sustainable development of the earth. This conclusion was arrived at by the Bahamian delegation, which attended the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg South Africa.
“My visit to South Africa was a productive and fruitful one for the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. We bring back a declaration and plan of action, containing principles to which we are committed so as to protect the way we live and to further develop our country without damaging our environment, to protect our water supply, our fisheries resources, and our plant life,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, during a press briefing Sunday.
“The Bahamas is a leader in sustainable tourism and the declaration incorporates a commitment to further engrain the concept in the way we do business. Making these commitments a reality is essential to survival of our planet,” said the Minister.
Infractions of the law occur daily as trees, protected by law, are being cut down in the Bahamas – making way for construction. Pine trees, the wild tamarind and horseflesh are among trees, which should not be cut down without a permit. Trees have a connection to rainfall, the production of oxygen, the coolness of the islands themselves and also to their beauty, which is central to the country’s performance as a tourism destination, explained the Minister.
Meanwhile, populations of fish are being depleted worldwide.
While the Bahamas remains the last place in the Caribbean where schools of grouper can be found Minister Mitchell said without proper protection methods in place, that luxury could become extinct.
“Amongst the most important for us commercially in the Bahamas is of course the protection of the coral reefs and the fishery resources.
In the past five years, the previous administration put in place “no take” areas for groupers and there is a concern throughout the world about the loss of fisheries stocks,” he said.
The advice is that if we do not act quickly to put in place proper reserve seasons and no catch areas we may lose the fishery and we may loose it precipitously.”
Non- governmental organisations representatives suggested at the Summit that they will find funds to pay fishermen to safeguard those “no catch” zones. The fishermen have expressed a fear that if they stay away from those zones, Dominican and Cuban fishermen may exploit the areas.
“Our initial review of this is that existing laws of the Bahamas comprehensively cover much of what we have to do in terms of enforcement and in terms of adaptation to climate change,” said the Minister.
The United States and the countries involved in oil production would not agree to specific targets on renewable energy usage. The Minister believes that more stringent deadlines ought to be put in place for sanitation facilities and access to pure drinking water for the developing world, and those issues should have been more rigorously included in the present plan of action.
The plan of action of the World Summit on Sustainable Development can be downloaded from the website www.johannesburgsummit.com.
