I am writing to you again tonight to express my sincere belief that the government of The Bahamas is making a terrible and dangerous mistake in allowing the shortsighted, destructive developments on both Bimini and Guana Islands to proceed as planned.
The development plans totally ignore the profound lessons too fully demonstrated in the devastating tsunami events that have so recently struck S.E. and S. Asia.
With over 150,000 dead and still counting, how can the government officials of The Bahamas still allow such a destructive process of coastal zone development to remove the last vestiges of protective buffer that the mangroves offer residents there?
Most definitely the incidence of the tsunamis in Asia should not go unnoticed by the citizens of your island nation.
Your mutual shoreline defence offered by the mangroves of BIMINI and GUANA ISLANDS should not be allowed to be removed or degraded. Both of these planned developments smack of big money interest and narrow-minded views to the future.
These development plans are not beneficial to the majority of island residents, or to the rich marine life of your area.
With global warming and consequent sea levels rising (by six inches already), the theory getting some serious attention is that future hurricanes will be more frequent and more severe. Based upon this conjecture alone, there is serious need to conserve and restore the mangroves, not tear them out.
Just today, the government of Indonesia announced it is going to dedicate $87+ million towards mangrove restoration. This terrible disaster in Asia has serious repercussions felt around the world.
This enormous event should be teaching all of us life sustaining lessons, not merely those in Asia. As the saying goes, “If we do not learn the lessons of history, then history is bound to repeat itself!”
The citizens of The Bahamas must ask themselves would they want a golf course or a mangrove forest between them and that next great storm or wave?
Though no one knows when, that storm or wave will come–this is a certainty.
But will you be ready? Having the mangroves there is much more than pleasant aesthetics; these are your security systems against the furies of the unknown future. The mangroves are your hole in one! And, those planned developments… these are your sand traps! Which will you aim for, that is the question?
For The Mangroves!
Alfredo Quarto,
Mangrove Action Project
