It appears that this island’s lead eco-tourism attraction will not be reopened any time soon. Graeme Hall Sanctuary one of the most popular tourist attractions on the South Coast of Barbados, will remain closed for the time being.
This has been disclosed by Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy, at a recent press conference. He noted that there is a dispute about the land surrounding the land sanctuary. “We would like to ultimately see that the nature sanctuary become an attraction but to there are a few issues that we need to go through first before that can happen.
The eco-tourism site was closed in 2008, after much public debate and controversy. In 2009 the owners of the site filed formal complaints with the Ministry of the Environment. These complaints allege that Barbados has violated the Convention on Wetlands and the Convention on Biodiversity Treaties, as well as the Canada-Barbados Investment Tax Treaty. It appears that that issue has yet to be resolved.
It would be of interest to note that the Owner of the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary Peter Allard in a general letter date March 9, 2010, on the Sanctuary website highlights a major feat for the property, “Over the past 15 years we spent about US $35 million to help restore our portion of the Graeme Hall Wetland, now designated as a RAMSAR site, a wetland of international importance recognized by the Convention on Wetlands Treaty.”
In that letter Allard, cites, The 1988 Physical Development Plan for Barbados as was developed by visionary land use experts from Barbados and the United Nations. In conformance with good urban planning practices, it promised that approximately 300 acres would be preserved as a green buffer for conservation and recreation between the urban areas of Greater Bridgetown and Oistins.
He argues that it was the same place that influenced their decision to acquire Sanctuary lands in 1994 as the 1988 Physical Development Plan assured them that the lands around the conservation investment would be kept as protective buffers for the sensitive wetland habitat.
However the eco-tourism attraction owner further explains in his 2010 letter that it was the new 2003 Physical Development Plan now advocated by Government, residential and commercial development will be at their doorstep, stopped only by the 100-year floodplain boundary. The Government plan does not lead with proactive policy to provide buffers for the wetland or preserve parkland.
“Given that the only protected area is within the 100-year floodplain, it means that the people of Barbados will lose all the high ground originally promised as parkland. As someone told us once, it will soon be nearly impossible for a child to find a place to ride a bicycle safely or for a family to have a picnic in a tranquil place on the South Coast,” he states.
Moreover Allard ask a pointed question that has been on the minds of many environmentalists, and other concerned citizens and visitors, “Can we put a price on such things when they are lost?”
He makes another plea to the people of the island in his most recent letter, stating, “It is up to the people of Barbados to determine what they want to do to preserve the 240-acre green space at Graeme Hall, of which the Sanctuary is a part.”
