Peter Espeut
WHILE I was on 'The Breakfast Club' last week talking about the ruling by Justice Sykes, co-host Anthony Abrahams asked me a question: "What damage is the hotel going to do to the environment at Pear Tree Bottom?" I paused, trying to quash my rising frustration. "These guys just don't get it," I said to myself.
That is precisely what an environmental impact assessment (EIA) is supposed to find out! What Justice Sykes determined was that the EIA was flawed, and, therefore, the decision to grant the permit was flawed. Even now the assessment of the impact on the marine resources has not been made public, so we don't know the full story. Until the marine report is made public - and its findings are determined to be credible - Tony Abrahams' question cannot be answered.
JOBS OUTWEIGH HEALTH
But you get the impression that it didn't matter what the EIA said, that hotel at Pear Tree Bottom was going to be built! The jobs and the tourism outweigh the health of mangroves, coral reefs, dry limestone forests, bird and fish habitat, the plants and trees, the lovely salt marsh, the other flora and fauna, and anything else the EIA could find. There is no permutation of environmental damage that would get some people to agree that the hotel is bad news! To some people, the health of the environment fundamentally just does not matter!
The answer I blurted out to both Tony and Trevor Munroe, was that I could see that talk about the environment was humbug to so many people! They sounded to me as if they wanted us environmentalists to go and hug a tree somewhere and leave serious people to get on with the business of building hotels and growing the economy? They just don't get it!
The Spanish Ambassador doesn't get it either. The first point he makes in his statement is, "The Bahia Principe Hotel is an environmentally friendly project." Now, how does he know this? Has he seen the undisclosed marine report of the EIA? With the greatest of respect, until he has seen the full EIA - and the EIA has been found to be credible (and so far even the part which has been published has been found wanting) - his words claiming environmental friendliness for the project are worth nothing!
The ambassador goes on, "The area's coral reefs, which have been neglected or destroyed in the past, will now be the focus of Piñero's preservation programmes." In fact, contrary to the ambassador's assertion, the reefs at Pear Tree Bottom (on which I have SCUBA dived numerous times) have been determined to be among the healthiest left in Jamaica. Clearly he has not read the report! According to Dr. Rena Bonem who has been studying the reefs at Pear Tree Bottom for 32 years, since the start of construction the reefs have deteriorated to the worst she has ever seen them! So far the 'focus' has covered the reefs with silt. We don't need any more of that kind of 'focus'.
PRETTY BAD EIAS
Over the last 15 years I have witnessed some pretty bad EIAs and many damaging projects permitted to go ahead by the NRCA. I know of several projects which went ahead without proper consultation. I know of cases where the EIA consultants turned up to do the vegetation survey to find the land already cleared. I know of projects where no permit was even applied for, but the project went ahead with no ensuing prosecution. I have been told about the pressures brought to bear, and I have seen the indecent haste with which projects have been approved. What Justice Sykes has done is to make it clear that all this is illegal! Things will never be the same!
But to many, even the rule of law is so much humbug!
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development non-governmental organisation.
