Wildlife Management in the Caribbean The path toward sustainability and environmental justice for Small Island

Developing States

Sheila Keen July 2nd, 2015

Sheila Keen Page 1

Sitting on the rock in the black of night, we wait. One by one they arrive, swooping over

our heads in the dark, seeking their nests. Instinctively I duck my head and am amazed that these

unassuming birds can fly so precisely into this rocky island and find the exact crevice in the

rocks where their young wait to be fed. The Audubon’s Shearwater looks modest in its grey and

white plumage, but it is a wonder to behold and a gift to be able to play a part in their survival.

Earlier, at sunset, our captain had dropped us off at this uninhabited islet, Long Rock,

part of the chain of islands which make up the Exumas National Park in The Bahamas. Except

for the large slab of smooth rock where we made landfall, the rest of the cay is full of hole-ridden

limestone, worn razor-sharp from erosion. By the light of the dying day we stumble over vines

which hide treacherous, ankle-breaking holes, looking for the shearwaters’ homes. Our intrepid

leader, Dr. Will Mackin, has been to this lonely rock in The Bahamas several times and knows

where to look. We map out the likely nests so that we’ll be able to find them in the dark once the

shearwaters have come home to roost and then head back to our smooth bit of rock which Will

euphemistically calls “The Beach” to wait for darkness and our returning birds.

Audubon’s Shearwaters, or puffinus ilherminieri ,inhabit the warm waters of the open

ocean, feeding all day on squid and small fish and returning to their nesting colonies on islands

by night.1 The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Redlist, the most

preeminent authority on all species’ numbers, put the Audubon’s Shearwater in the category of

“least concern” but notes that the population trend is “decreasing,”2 which is why I and my three

other travelers are perched on uncomfortable rocks, waiting for the night to be dark enough for

1 Kaufman, Ken. "Audubon's Shearwaters." National Audubon Society. Accessed July 15, 2015. http://www.audubon.org/. 2 Puffinus Iherminieri." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Accessed July 15, 2015.

http://www.iucnredlist.org/.

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them to return so that we can catalogue their numbers and note their overall health. We watch the

golden crescent of the new moon sink into the sea like the grin on the Cheshire Cat. The

shearwaters fly in from their day’s foraging, diving for their nests, their black shadows whipping

around us like spitfires. We can hear their plaintive calls to each other and to their young, and

then we know it’s time to get to work.

Turning on our headlamps, we get to our feet and begin the precarious search for the

nesting shearwaters. One by one we locate their hidden nests and gently extricate the squawking

bird. Shearwaters need so much room to take flight that it’s impossible for them to fly away

quickly, and this makes them easy to catch. We put numbered bands around their left leg or read

the number of the existing band, weigh them, measure various body parts, and put them back

exactly where we found them. We do the same with the chicks, oohing over their fluffy grey

1 Audubon's Shearwater chick

cuteness. Will is the chief bird catcher, and he heroically dives in holes surrounded by cactus

just to reacquaint himself with an old friend – he’s been studying these birds for almost twenty

years. Jessie does the weighing and measuring. With her nursing background, she has a very

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gentle yet firm way with her “patients.” Anwar, our representative from the Bahamas National

Trust, keeps records. He’s as new to this as Jessie and I, but very enthusiastic and meticulous

with his attention to detail. I am in charge of the “Death Bag.” Each of the cays we have visited

has its share of mortalities. When one is found it is collected and counted for later DNA testing.

Most of the remains are skeletal, but there are some fresh kills from an owl that’s made his home

on Long Rock.

Hours go by as we trip from one precarious, tilting rock to another in search of the

shearwaters with only our headlamps to light the way. We manage to catch and band about

twenty birds before exhaustion and shaky legs make it too dangerous to continue. Finally we get

back to “The Beach” to wait for Captain Andrew to collect us. Except for the occasional call of

the shearwaters and the lapping of the water, the night is still, and we feel like we’re all alone on

the planet. The tropical breezes brush our faces, and we take time to gaze at the stars. I lie back

on the slab of rock and wait for a thin cloud to pass, but it isn’t a cloud. It’s the Milky Way, and

as my mind readjusts, I’m in awe. These stars are always above us, but we need to come out

here: on an uninhabited island in the middle of a dark sea to be able to see them. Our civilization

is a wonderful thing, and human beings are amazing, clever creatures, but we tend to lose sight

of our greatest treasures.

Dr. Mackin is Jessie’s and my biology professor, and he asked if anyone would be

interested in this trip during a class in cold, bleak March. Jessie and I raised our hands

immediately even though neither of us has any experience in this area. He warned us that the

islands we would visit were not the coconut palm, white sanded beached ones we were probably

thinking of. The work would be hard, and living on a boat was no luxury – more like a camping

trip. Cool. Where do we sign up? There are not many opportunities handed to us in life where we

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get to live on the edge of the world and participate in something useful. Taking a holiday is easy:

check into the hotel and look at a menu. Dinner is served, would you like a cocktail? Coming to

The Bahamas on a working research vessel is another animal altogether. In the end there were

nine of us on the catamaran, and we had the time of our lives. Beyond that, our eyes were opened

in a way that can’t be taught in a classroom.

Ground truth is the term used by conservationists and ecologists when reading about a

situation in a report isn’t enough. You have to go out and see for yourself the lay of the land and

how the inhabitants are interacting with their environment. You have to experience the isolation

of being at sea, you have to stumble on rocky, bloodthirsty cays to understand the geology of the

area, and you have to meet the people who live in the region and see how they cope with that

habitat. Without this experience, our opinions are only academically based when it comes to

conserving the environment. Without seeing and experiencing the habitat we limit our view.

Those of us who were on the research trip to the Exumas know now that even with this

experience, we are still naïve and know only a fraction of what it means to preserve an

environment. We have a better sense of the reality of environmentalism and the vastness of the

situation, but we are in awe of the scale of the task of preserving and sustaining the environment.

Our little trip was hard work and took months to prepare for, and we were only looking for one

type of bird on a few scattered cays in one portion of a group of the Exumas.

Studying and researching the flora and fauna of the world and the bio systems they

inhabit is important and expensive work if we want to conserve nature. Most people are

supportive of the work that scientists and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) do; however,

the work they do is meaningless without regulated support from governments and international

organizations like the United Nations. There is no point in discovering endangered species if we

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then do nothing to preserve them, and the only way to truly save a species is to save their entire

ecosystem. Biodiversity, the variety of life in whole ecosystems, is a valuable commodity, and

we need to recognize it as such. The policies and regulations which are put in place are tools of

the current system, and they aim to conserve the environment and preserve it for future

generations, but they aren’t worthy if they are not monitored, implemented, and valued, and they

aren’t fit for purpose if they are outdated and ignored. Such an enormous undertaking must be a

collaborative effort, and it must be privileged by all nations because we are all stakeholders in

this endeavor.

The Caribbean is a very beautiful place with its islands curling south from the United

States all the way to South America. The clear turquoise waters are home to numerous species of

fish, and the tropical temperatures allow rare fruits to grow and attract scores of tourists from all

over the world. The region can be mistaken for heaven, but Small Island Developing States

(SIDS) face a unique array of environmental problems which, if handled improperly, can lead to

a degradation of this unique environment and the social wellbeing of its inhabitants. When

environmental policies are implemented they impact both the environment and the citizens, and

it is for this reason that a careful study needs to be made in how best to introduce, implement,

and monitor those policies. The future of the region depends on those sovereign states making

wise decisions for a sustainable and environmentally healthy existence, but the region is not a

wealthy one and is prone to exploitation. With that in mind, how can the North facilitate

sustainable and equitable environmentalism in SIDS? I believe that support and encouragement

from Key International Organizations and collaboration with the region’s citizens will be the

best safeguard for the environment and ultimately for its inhabitants.

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Much has been written on the subject of conserving the environment, and it reveals a

wide array of policies, both past and present, and several schools of thought on how the

environment should be treated specifically in the Caribbean and with regards to oceans in

general. It is important to remember that the islanders of the Caribbean rely on the ocean as a

source of food, recreation, and transportation, so any study of the islands must include the

treatment of the waters surrounding the islands. The environment is a large topic, and it is

beyond my current abilities to address all of the environmental issues which face the Caribbean.

However, I believe that focusing on the management of wildlife will give a broad view of how

policies are chosen, implemented, and regulated. The following four schools of thought give an

overview of priorities, suggested systems, and criticisms of current policies.

The first school of thought is full of criticism for the structures in place and the political

environment which fosters new policy. In Lawrence Susskind’s 2000 book Transboundary

Environmental Negotiation: New Approaches to Global Cooperation3, the authors argue that in

order to create substantive environmental policies, the current weaknesses in the system require

analysis and that the current system is unable to protect the environment and create real solutions

with tangible results. Susskind’s more recent publication still sees flaws in the current political

structure. He and his co-author, Ali, say that environmental issues are the hardest to tackle

because of “uncertain science” combined with politics and economics. They also posit that there

is a “schism between North and South” which further makes efforts difficult.4 While Susskind

and Ali are quite negative as to the nature of environmental negotiations, they do offer a

suggestion of “sequenced negotiation” which is a multi-step process for addressing

3 Susskind, Lawrence, William Moomaw, and Kevin Gallagher. Transboundary Environmental Negotiation:

New Approaches to Global Cooperation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2002. 4 Susskind, Lawrence. Environmental Diplomacy: Negotiating More Effective Global Agreements. 2nd ed.

New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Sheila Keen Page 7

environmental issues. Their negativity may, in fact, be realism, and their suggestions are valid.

SIDs are a representation of the South and lesser developed countries. If there is a schism with

developed countries then that obstacle must be addressed. Hurrell and Kingsbury believe there

are too many actors and too many interests for any meaningful work to be done. They argue

further that countries will only deal with environmental issues if it impacts them “negatively and

overtly.”5 This theory of selfishness must be kept in mind when looking at the success or failure

of any past policy or treaty. Alternative agendas can derail the environmental priorities, but they

may also help negotiations as bargaining chips. This leads to the question of profitability and the

environment.

The second school turns to free trade and multinational corporations for answers. This

school of thought says that the way to environmentalism is through trade and sanctions. In a

2009 article in the Journal of Money, Rose and Spiegel cynically suggest that the only reason a

state would participate in an environmental policy would be for trade negotiations only. They

submit that environmental treaties are useful for creating bridges between states with a view to

creating better trade relationships. Their results show that “international environmental

cooperation facilitates economic exchange.”6 This doesn’t have to be viewed as a negative,

though, as preserving the environment as a way to make money can satisfy both objectives. The

environmental stress the Caribbean faces is addressed in the paper “Conceptual Framework”

(2004) with regards to measuring its impact on the human population. The paper maintains that

the answer to conservation is through the tourist industry as its gross earnings (in 1999) were $17

5 Hurrell, Andrew, and Benedict Kingsbury. The International Politics of the Environment: Actors, Interests,

and Institutions. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. 6 Rose, Andrew K., and Mark M. Spiegel. "Noneconomic Engagement and International Exchange: The Case

of Environmental Treaties." Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 41, no. 2-3 (2009): 337-63. Accessed July 2, 2015. doi:10.1111/j.1538-4616.2009.00208.x.

Sheila Keen Page 8

billion and supplied 900,000 jobs.7 This cannot be the only answer; however, as an

environmentally irresponsible tourist industry will not only degrade the biodiversity of the region

but ultimately kill the jobs as well. This is affirmed in a 2011 article in the Journal of Coastal

Conservation “To Preserve or Develop?” where Zuidema points out the economic need to dredge

shallow bays to allow larger boats access to fishing and hotels.8 Marine dredging is done to

remove material from the sea flood to increase the depth of the water to accommodate larger

boats.9 In a review paper written in 2012, the authors cite several research papers which prove

the damage to coral systems in two ways. First, the dredging destroys the coral being dredged,

Coastal News Today, 18 May, 2014. Image: BBC. Note the cloud of sediment.

but secondly, the accompanying clouds of sediment bury outlying coral polyps which are

sensitive to the amounts of light they need.10

Hammerschlag and Gallagher looked at a similar

situation when they measured the impact of feeding sharks for tourism. Their conclusion is that

7 "Conceptual Framework." BioScience 54, no. 9 (September 2004). Accessed July 2, 2015.

8 Zuidema, Chris, Richard Plate, and Angela Dikou. "To Preserve or to Develop? East Bay Dredging Project,

South Caicos, Turks and Caicos Islands." J Coast Conserv Journal of Coastal Conservation 15, no. 4 (2011): 555-63. Accessed July 2, 2015. doi:10.1007/s11852-011-0144-5. 9 www.oceanservice.noaa.gov

10 Erftemeijer, Paul, Bernard Riegl, Bert Hoksema, and Peter A. Todd. "Environmental Impacts of Dredging

and Other Sediment Disturbances on Corals: A Review." Marine Pollution Bulletin 64, no. 9 (September 2012): 1737-765. doi:10.1016/0025-326x(76)90043-6.

Sheila Keen Page 9

the feeding of apex predators, if done with conservation in mind, can be used as part of

management practice. They argue that by raising awareness in tourists, or people who wouldn’t

normally come into contact with sharks that sharks as a whole will benefit.11

There is a fine line

to walk between conservation and ecotourism, and managers have to be very careful not to

destroy the very thing which enables their livelihood.

The third school of thought is a traditional one and ascribes to the policy of using existing

structures as a framework for new environmental and sustainable policies. Multilateral and

International Environmental Agreements (IEAs and MEAs) are one example of traditional

framework. Created by the United Nations in the 1970s, MEAs are an “international legal

instrument” whose goal is to protect the environment with respect to cross border environmental

issues.12

The MEA uses a traditional Conference of the Parties, a secretariat, and treaties, and

according to Churchill and Ulfstein, the MEA can help develop new methods for tackling

environmental issues.13

Jessica Byron points out in her paper “Singing From the Same Hymn

Sheet,” that the Treaty of Cotonou (Feb. 2000) is actually an adaptation of Caribbean foreign

policies and diplomatic strategies used “to cope with a globalized international environment.”14

Much of environmental law is new territory and perhaps using existing structures which are

familiar to governments help them to understand the regulatory nature which is required to

preserve the environment. Preserving the environment may raise money through tourism, but it

can also raise money through taxation. Attzes, et al. studies seven Caribbean countries and their

11 Hammerschlag, Neil, and Austin J. Gallagher. "Don't Bite the Hand That Feeds." Functional Ecology 26,

no. 3 (June 2012): 567-76. Accessed July 2, 2015. doi:10.1111/fec.2012.26.issue-3. 12

Fauchald, Ole K. "Multilateral Environmental Agreements." Oxford Bibliographies - Your Best Research Starts Here - Obo. March 23, 2012. Accessed July 02, 2015. http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/. 13

Churchill, Robin R., and Geir Ulfstein. "Autonomous Institutional Arrangements in Multilateral Environmental Agreements: A Little-Noticed Phenomenon in International Law." The American Journal of International Law 94, no. 4 (2000): 623. Accessed July 2, 2015. doi:10.2307/2589775. 14

Byron, Jessica. "Singing From the Same Hymn Sheet: Caribbean Diplomacy and the Cotonou Agreement." European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 79 (October 2005): 3-25. Accessed July 2, 2015.

Sheila Keen Page 10

environmental management systems. They found that taxes and revenues could protect the

“extremely vulnerable” and “at risk” from excessive negative impact.15

There is another school of thought that aims to collaborate with all parties in order to

protect the environment and its inhabitants. It combines the governmental agencies with citizen

activists and is largely led by the scientific community and non-governmental organizations. In

the Caribbean such agencies as the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) and the International

Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are two vocal agencies which monitor the

environment and work with citizens and their governments to make sure all parties are aware of

issues. The AZE are concerned with specific species and their numbers, but since habitat is

intrinsic in their study, they work closely with the IUCN and with the United Nations.16

The

IUCN publishes the Red List of Threatened Species and also maintains the World Database on

Protected Areas (WDPA).17

The IUCN use “approaches that best advance the biodiversity

conservation agenda, while responding to end users’ needs for a scientifically rigorous yet

pragmatic methodology for practitioners.” Another NGO, Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund

(CEPF) uses a regional approach and collaboratively looks at ecological threats. They maintain

that many economic policies have failed to protect the Caribbean environment. However, they

support “civil society groups” and use a regional approach to identify hotspots and look at

ecological threats.18

Most texts on wildlife management extol the virtues of collaborative efforts,

and the European Union reached out to Latin American countries in 2013 to do just that. The

EU-LAC effort sought to address “climate protection and economic growth” as “complementary

15

Attzs, Marlene, Malini Maharaj, and Gopiechand Boodhan. "Survey and Assessment of Environmental Taxes in the Caribbean Policy Brief No: IDB-PB-188." Inter-American Development Bank, July 2014. Accessed July 2, 2015. 16

Zero Extinction - Home." Zero Extinction - Home. Accessed July 02, 2015. http://www.zeroextinction.org/. 17

"Key Biodiversity Areas." IUCN. Accessed July 02, 2015. http://www.iucn.org/. 18

"Caribbean Islands Biodiversity Hotspot: Ecosystem Profile Summary." CEPF.net. June 17, 2015. Accessed July 02, 2015. http://www.cepf.net/.

Sheila Keen Page 11

goals” between developing and developed countries.”19

Europe has many historical colonial ties

to the Caribbean, and it is in their interest to keep the region solvent. Former colonies also have

economic ties which include tourism, so it is reasonable to expect collaboration between the two.

The Caribbean is a region of fragile ecosystems spread out over hundreds of miles and

several governments. The scholarly debate ranges from economic utility with tourism and

manufacturing to deep ecology and the protection of threatened species. I maintain that it is vital

to work in a collaborative way with the inhabitants in order to find long term solutions to

threatened environments. The loss of biodiversity and whole ecosystems will negatively impact

the regions’ inhabitants in a way which may take decades to repair. However, the more support

that the region receives from Key International Organizations (KIOs), the more engaged a

country will be with regards to their natural environment. I feel that this is the most promising

approach to sustainability, not only for SIDS, but as a model for all countries.

My theory is that a small country, like SIDS, will be more engaged with regulations to

their natural environment if that country receives encouragement from KIOs. That

encouragement may come in a variety of ways from scientific input and monitoring to funding

and trade agreements, but it all amounts to collaboration. SIDS, by definition, are not part of a

mainland, and because they are small, they can be overlooked as collateral damage. This is to all

our detriment because all of our ecosystems are connected. The loss of one habitat impacts on

other habitats like dominos falling in a row. For instance, the loss of a wetland can mean the

devastation of a nesting site, and we have already seen the damage from that in several

19

Roberts, J. Timmons. "The European Union and Latin American and the Caribbean: Paving the Road Towards a New Global Climate Change Agreement in 2015?" EU-LAC Forum on Global Government. 2013. Accessed July 2, 2015.

Sheila Keen Page 12

instances.20

The change in migration patterns of one bird will impact the fish they feed on, those

fish numbers will impact their underwater ecosystem, and so on. Every day another domino is

knocked over somewhere, and we need to be vigilant to the effects that has.

When I began this article I had lofty notions of proving a hypothesis that in a comparison

of Caribbean countries, those with a higher number of Protected Areas (PAs) maintain healthier

environments that those with fewer PAs. I had a research design which identified my units of

analysis as Protected Areas as my independent variable, x, and the environmental health as my y

axis, or dependent variable. My idea was that the health of the environment is dependent on the

number of Protected Areas a small island Caribbean state has. This sounds plausible because any

state with a high percentage of PAs must privilege the idea of protecting the environment, so

their environmental health would probably be more robust than a country with fewer or no PAs.

Encouraged by what I thought was sound thinking, I began my research with vigor.

Finding the x axis was the easy part. PAs are the standard approach for measurement of a

country’s environmental policies. The definition of a PA given by the IUCN is “a geographically

defined area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of

biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal

or other effective means.”21

The Protected Planet Report of 2014 says that currently 15.4% of the

Earth’s land is under PA status, and this number is slowly rising in accord with the projected

target of 17% by 2020.22

The IUCN also provides the WDPA, or World Database on Protected

20

Wong, Ming Hung. "Spatial and Temporal Organic and Heavy Metal Pollution at Mai Po Marshes Nature Reserve, Hong Kong." Chemosphere 52 (2003): 1647-658. Accessed July 24, 2015. doi:10.1016/s0045-6535(03)00423-5. 21

IUCN Guidelines for Protected Areas, 1994 22

Juffe-Bignoli, D., N. D. Burgess, and H. Bingham. Protected Planet Report 2014. Report no. 978-92-807-3416-4. UNEP, IUCN, WCPA.

Sheila Keen Page 13

Areas, which is used universally and is considered the authority on the subject.23

This database

was used by the United Nations Environment Program to compile the current list of PAs and

allows the researcher, me, access to the numbers of PAs I need for my study. I was able to

identify all designated PAs for 18 of the 30 territories of the Caribbean region and their

percentages with regards to land mass. This means that even a tiny country like St. Vincent and

the Grenadines with 389 square kilometers of area can be said to have 33 PAs, or 69% of their

total land mass under protection.24

With this list I can create an alphabetical chart of the

Caribbean states illustrating the amount of land they have under protection.

Column1 Column2 Column3 Column4 Column5

Aruba

PAs % Area

Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda

7 22%

Bonaire Bahamas

14 51%

St. Barthelemy Bermuda

20%

Barbados

8 19%

Cuba

66 28%

Curacao Cayman Islands

53%

Dominica

8 59%

Dominican Republic

88 41%

Guadeloupe Grenada

3 50%

Haiti

8 4%

Jamaica

139 31%

Montserrat Martinique Puerto

Rico

64%

Saba

23 Chape, S., J. Harrison, M. Spalding, and I. Lysenko. "Measuring the Extent and Effectiveness of Protected

Areas an Asn Indicator for Meeting Global Biodiversity Targets." U.S National Library of Medicine. February 28, 2005. Accessed July 17, 2015. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/. 24

2014 UN List of Protected Areas. UNEP-WCMC: Cambridge, UK.

Sheila Keen Page 14

St. Kitts and Nevis

3 42%

St. Lucia

54 77%

St. Martin

1 Sint Eustatius

Turks and Caicos

35%

Trinidad and Tobago

68 44%

St. Vincent and the Grenadines 33 69%

British Virgin Islands US Virgin Islands

From this list it’s easy to see that the number of PAs doesn’t necessarily reflect a

commensurate percentage of land area protected. Jamaica has 131 PAs yet this area only

amounts to 31% of its total land mass. This means that many of Jamaica’s PAs must be very

small in size; however as a country they must be committed to the idea of conservation in order

to have so many Protected Areas which are only designated after being identified by the

stakeholder for inclusion in the UN’s database.25

We can also see at a glance that Saint Lucia has

the highest percentage of land designated to PAs with 77%. This is an admirable figure, but

much of St. Lucia is mountainous region which is difficult to develop or farm. Perhaps St. Lucia

is dedicated to their environment, but knowing the percentage of their land as protected by PAs

doesn’t necessarily reflect that. Further research needs to be done to verify the environmental

commitment of each Caribbean country in order to know what these percentages truly mean.

This leads me to my y axis: my variable which is dependent on environmental health.

Here it becomes obvious to any right thinking person that there are flaws in my research design.

There is nothing to suggest that designating PAs shows anything other than an effort to preserve

an area from exploitation at the current time, but there’s nothing to say that a future government

won’t deselect the area and open it to development. Protected Areas are the best measurement we

25

www.biodiversitya-z.org

Sheila Keen Page 15

have, but they are inconsistent so I can’t show a direct causal link between having PAs and good

environmental health. That is the mathematical problem with my research design.

The reality of the matter is that there is limited or no information on the environmental

health of the Caribbean region as a whole or even in parts. Each country might have a page on

their website extolling the virtues of a national park or the numbers of certain fish, and each

NGO will have updates on conservation issues on which they are working, but there is no

absolute unit to measuring environmental health across the region. Each state will have to be

researched to find their past records on the treatment of the environment in order to compare

them to their current state of environmental health. Each state will have a different measure be it

the health of their coral reefs, amount of new development, fish stocks, or water quality, and this

also makes it nearly impossible to compare the countries with regards to their treatment of the

environment.

Back on our research vessel in The Bahamas we process the dead birds by clipping a

piece of the foot for DNA testing in France. Each piece is put into a little envelope and the data

entered into a spreadsheet. It is smelly and

painstaking work, but scientific study requires its

adherents to be thorough and precise.

Everything Dr. Mackin has done has been

his own research idea, and while he loves his work

passionately, the government of The Bahamas does

not reach out to him, rather he reaches out to them.

The Bahamian government, like most governments, isn’t primarily focused on the environment.

2 Processing the Death Bag

Sheila Keen Page 16

They concentrate their energy on their human population, their balance of payments, and

according to the CIA Factbook, their expenditures of $2.1 billion outweigh their revenues of $1.7

billion. The public debt is 57.6% of GDP, and in a country comparison they are ranked number

60, just ahead of Syria and just behind Guyana.26

Their 113,880 square kilometers of land is

comprised of about 3,200 islands and cays spread over hundreds of miles, so providing public

services is quite a challenge. The Bahamas is one of the Caribbean’s wealthier nations with a per

capita GDP of $25,557.27

The human population as of 2014 is 360,000, 83% of them are

urbanites, and 49% of the workforce serves the tourist industry. The Bahamas is a diverse

country full of culture and charm, and the nature of living on small islands is that the

environment plays a central part in the lives of the inhabitants.

The Bahamas recognizes that tourism is its biggest employer, and large resorts employ

the most people. Resorts like Atlantis employ more than 8,000 people,28

and for each of those

jobs another 1.25 to 1.5 jobs are created. That means that Atlantis accounts for the employment

of up to 15% of the entire Bahamian workforce.29

Room occupancy tax from this one mega

resort earns the government $20 million annually, and all those tourists account for $190 million

in local purchases each year.30

An industry that supports so many people and attracts so many

tourist dollars is important to such a small country. However, The Bahamas doesn’t overlook the

market for ecotourism and sport fishing tourism. Both of these together with the big resorts turn

26

www.cia.gov “The World Factbook” 27

www.gfmag.com 28

Melia, Mike. "Bahama's Atlantis Resort Lays off 800 Employees." USA Today. December 11, 2008. Accessed July 24, 2015. http://www.usatoday.com/. 29

Thomas, Taneka. "Too Big to Fail." The Nassau Guardian. January 23, 2012. Accessed July 24, 2015. http://www.thenassauguardian.com/. 30

Ibid.

Sheila Keen Page 17

over $2.18 billion a year (2013).31

Preserving the environment helps to maintain those revenue

streams, and this is where The Bahamas National Trust (BNT) steps in.

There are 27 national parks in The Bahamas, and The Bahamas National Trust is looking

to expand those parks and include marine areas as well. The international community supports

this by dedicating those areas as PAs, and The Bahamas enforces laws making it illegal to

exploit the parks in any way. There are “no take” laws making it illegal to remove so much as a

shell, and scientific research requires permits and clearances. The problem with having 3,200

islands and hundreds of square miles of ocean is that it’s almost impossible to police. Individual

fishermen often fish in the “no take” zones, and the park wardens are on constant look out for

poachers. These poachers cause damage to the parks, but only in a miniscule way compared to

those who dredge coral reefs or clear cut a cay for a landing strip. While we were on our voyage,

both of these examples were allegedly being perpetrated in the Exumas by private land owners

who know it will be days or even weeks before anyone official notices. The Bahamas will often

fine those held responsible, and while this makes for another governmental revenue stream, it

doesn’t correct the damaged ecosystem or lost biodiversity. This is just a small sample of the

problems that a small island state faces.

The environment is suffering in the Caribbean, and while the governments are trying to

address the issue and international agencies and NGOs are helping in any way they can, there is

still much work to be done. Policies created with the help of KIOs using traditional framework is

a good place to start, but any successful plan must include the help of the citizens and

cooperation of the tourist industry. The traditional framework hasn’t been enough to preserve the

environment, so more must be done. In the first place, since the environment is not at the top of

31

www.data.worldbank.org

Sheila Keen Page 18

any government’s agenda, it is the responsibility of those who focus on the environment to keep

the world informed and raise the status of environmental concerns. Those parties, be they NGOs

like the IUCN or KIOs like the United Nations, who know how costly it would be to lose

biodiversity must constantly share what they know with others in their field and with

governments. Increasing awareness and sharing data will increase the number of people working

on the problem.

Developing policy for environmental conservation in SIDS must be collaborative.

Scientists and environmentalists must be part of the debate if any policy is to be well-informed;

however, learning to work together with poorer governments and being inclusive of affected

inhabitants will be the most important part of the process. It is a proven practice in American

land management policy to include all stakeholders in order to create lasting environmental

policy.32

Collaboration takes more time than top down approaches, but by including all

stakeholders, policymakers are more fully informed of issues, especially ones which will affect

citizens.33

Being the host of numerous beautiful islands in a clear, turquoise sea is a blessing and a

curse. These islands attract visitors in need of beauty and recreation, but in order to preserve their

pristine nature the islands require careful conservation efforts. The Caribbean nations are not

rich, though, and as SIDS they require as much help as developed countries can give. I believe

that collaboration of all states, agencies, and international organizations is the best way forward.

Working with all stakeholders be they officials, citizens, or corporations is essential to the

success of any policy. Knowledge is best when it’s shared, and when people communicate and

32

Randolph, John. "Chapter 4: Collaborative Environmental Management and Public Participation." In Environmental Land Use Planning and Management, 53-73. Washington: Island Press, 2004. 33

Ibid.

Sheila Keen Page 19

encourage each other, then maintaining a healthy and sustainable environment will be within the

realm of possibilities.

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