St. Maarten Private Eye

Love the Lagoon, Environmental Protection in the Caribbean

The term “Environmental stewardship” refers to the obligation we all share in protecting and managing the natural environment for the benefit of present and future generations of all living organisms. It is the responsibility for environmental wellbeing shared by all those whose actions effect the environment. For St. Maarten environmental stewardship entails the protection and sustainable management of the island’s pond, lagoons,hills, beaches, coral reefs and other natural resources.

We humans often tend to think and act as if we own the environment, just look at all the environmental destruction taking place in and around the Simpson Bay Lagoon and all over on St. Maarten every day . We do not own the environment, none of us do! We are merely the stewards of the natural resources we make use of in our daily lives and it is our duty to manage these resources sustainably for the benefit of future generations of St. Maarteners and visitors.

Advocating environmental stewardship and protecting Sint Maarten’s natural resources with tourism as the island’s main economic pillar has proven to be exceptionally challenging for the island’s conservation NGOs; The absence of comprehensive land-use planning ordinances has allowed the drive for new (tourism) accommodations, urbanization and the need for transportation infrastructure to raise competition for land resources with other purposes (e.g. residential, recreational or conservation). This in turn has caused increased pressure to excavate Hills or reclaim land from Ponds, the Simpson Bay Lagoon and other ecologically valuable areas. Examples of these activities include the destruction of the caves at Maho, the filling in and destruction of the Flamingo, Cupecoy, Guana Bay and Dawn Beach ponds and the continuous filling in of the Great Salt Pond and Simpson Bay Lagoon to make room for hotels, villas, condos, marinas, commercial, industrial and residential areas.

EPIC’s Love the Lagoon project and its components such as the Blue Flag program which the Foundation is working to establish are all about Environmental Stewardship relating to the Simpson Bay Lagoon. The project is designed to raise environmental awareness and increase sound environmental practices among tourists, residents, beach and marina management and staff.

In order to establish the Blue Flag program on Sint Maarten EPIC must first become a member of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) the program’s international coordinator. EPIC has been in close contact with FEE, the Foundation is now entering the final stages of the application process and hopes to attain FEE membership shortly.

A prerequisite in attaining FEE membership and local Blue Flag coordinator status involves obtaining a letter of support for the establishment of the program from the Commissioner/Department of Education and the Commissioner/Department of Physical Planning & Environment. EPIC has written Commissioner Wescot-Williams and Commissioner Heyliger requesting their assistance and a letter of support regarding the establishment of the Blue Flag Program and hopes to receive favourable responses from them in the near future.

Make sure you read the next Lagoon Log for more information on the Simpson Bay Lagoon and EPIC’s Love the Lagoon project.

Rueben J. Thompson
Project Manager Love the Lagoon,
Environmental Protection in the Caribbean

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