Martin Henry
PEAR TREE Bottom has shot from obscurity to prominence. In the last week the area has become the principal battlefield of the showdown between environment and 'development'.
It is an area I know pretty well. There are pleasant memories of ecological field trips turned picnics there with my students from Brown's Town Community College, in another life. It was a great place to observe a variety of freshwater, wetlands, estuarine, and coastal habitats in short order.
Hurricanes and human action have, of course, been altering the environment there for a long time - from the time Columbus landed nearby and even before in Taino times. Then along comes the Bahia Principe hotel project and the environmental battles over it.
In a major success for the
environmental NGO movement, Supreme Court judge, Bryan Sykes, last week, quashed the environmental permit for the construction of the Bahia Principe hotel. The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) was ruled in breach of its own standards of consultation.
NEPA'S FAILURE
NEPA, his ruling declared, failed to consult with the relevant government departments and agencies and had failed to circulate a vital marine ecology report, which raises the possibility that members of the public could have made incorrect conclusions about the environmental impact of the development.
The judge also ruled in favour of the plaintiffs led by the Northern Jamaica Conservation Association (NJCA) and the Jamaica Environ-ment Trust, that the environmental impact assessment was deficient in a number of areas.
In law, the Supreme Court ruling, is essentially a due process ruling, that NEPA had failed in its statutory duty to consult according to law. The Court did not seek to settle the issue of whether stricter adherence to due process would have led materially to different decisions or that the development has been found to be unacceptably damaging to the environment.
This point of distinction is raised because it will be crucial for future building and land use projects in Jamaica and for the conservation of the environment.
Environmental NGOs have been vociferously challenging development projects over the last few years with increasing strength. But, every human alteration of the environment will have some negative spin-offs. What properly conducted EIAs by independent parties and the process of public consultation do is to allow broad-based risk assessment and cost benefit analysis.
The people of the surrounding communities certainly do not see the construction of the hotel in the same light as NJCA's Wendy Lee and other environmental crusaders as some kind of unmitigated environmental disaster. They also see opportunities for work and trade, opportunities which will come at some cost to their local environment which has already been substantially altered by human action.
The sub-text of the ruling of the court is best read as a strong call for greater rigour in balancing the often conflicting demands of development and environment. The ruling calls for due diligence on the part of the appointed agency in carrying out the requirements of the law for conducting environmental impact assessments and holding public consultations on the strength of the best information available. But the process, however rigorous, will never bury all bones of contention, especially with the involvement of unreasonable and unreasoning people.
FORCED TO THINK TWICE
With so much by way of investments and investor confidence on the line, NEPA's political bosses will now be forced to think twice about balancing the often conflicting claims of environment and development fairly and transparently. As the unfolding judicial drama will soon teach the euphoric conservationists, they will not be able simply to use the courts to block environment-altering development and to return the island to pre-Taino times.
Environment/development controversies have now firmly become issues for judicial resolution. And we can still trust our 'uncorrupt' courts for fair play. These are the real victories of Pear Tree Bottom.
Martin Henry is a communication consultant.
