St. Maarten Private Eye

By Rueben J Thompson

Love the Lagoon, Environmental Protection in the Caribbean

The last few years have seen a rising awareness within the community as well as with visitors with regards to environmental protection and conservation efforts. Residents, newspaper editorials, journalists, radio personalities and visitors decry the rapid rate of development and the environmental consequences thereof.

It is evident, in the ever growing traffic jams, free flowing sewage, roaming solid waste, excavation of hillsides, the destruction of ponds and the continuous filling in of the Great Salt Pond and Simpson Bay Lagoon to make room for often tourism related development, that the negative impacts of development have crossed the limits of acceptable change.

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Our Government assures us that our concerns and overall well-being is their number one priority. Commissioners talk about economic growth but very few if any of them seem to realize that economic growth itself does not necessarily require the constant development of new hotels, condos or villas or that economic prosperity cannot be sustained without proper environmental management and the safe guarding of natural and cultural resources.

Despite Government’s reassurances that residents’ overall well-being and by extension thereof environmental sustainability (including the protection of natural and cultural resources) is their priority, essential financial provisions and commitments in successfully addressing the environmental challenges the island faces are completely absent in the 2008 budget for the Island Territory of St. Maarten.

Global warming, loss of habitat, loss of biodiversity and pollution have become world-wide concerns. Countries in the Caribbean, the Americas, Europe, Asia and the rest of the world have acknowledged the severity of these environmental challenges and their government’s have, for the most part, allocated sufficient funds in their local and national budgets to address these matters.

Bearing in mind the extreme loss of habitat St. Maarten has recently suffered, the public outcries to preserve the environment (e.g. Simpson Bay Lagoon, the Ponds, the Hillsides, the Emilio Wilson Estate) the economic significance of our natural resources and the fact that the island is striving to achieve a separate status within the Kingdom of the Netherlands by December 2008. It is beyond the environmental foundations’ comprehension as to how Government expects to be taken seriously, in its efforts towards becoming a country, by not only the Netherlands but by the rest of the world as well without making an effort to safe guard its Natural and Cultural resources.

Government would be well advised to amend the 2008 Budget for the Island Territory of St. Maarten to provide for adequate financial means for the proper management of the island’s environment and the protection of its Natural and Cultural resources.

Make sure you read the next Lagoon Log for more answers to your questions and for more information on the Simpson Bay Lagoon.

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

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

Additional Lagoon Logs - By Rueben J Thompson - EPIC

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