HOLLAND BAY, St Thomas – A local group is objecting to a proposed hotel development in this district on Jamaica’s east coast, arguing that the loss of mangroves and other important biological organisms was too high a price to pay.

According to Barrington Nesbeth, president of the Kingston-based World African Reunification Solidarity Association (WARSA), construction of the resort complex would undoubtedly prompt the building of other such developments, which would have negative effects on local flora and fauna in the area.

“We are advocating that building one hotel will cause the building of another, and we have turtles that lay along that area,” Nesbeth told the Sunday Observer.

Nesbeth maintained that the potential negative environmental effects were many, including, but by no means limited to, the loss of mangroves, which not only protect the shoreline in stormy weather, but which also protect infrastructure inland. In addition, they provide breeding ground as well as a safe haven for numerous biological organisms that form part of Jamaica’s rich bio-diversity.

“The land has been left unattended for years now, so the crocodiles have populated it,” explained Nesbeth. “They have it now as their habitat. So to come and cut out 50 or 200 acres of it and build, you are actually pushing the crocodiles back into a smaller zone…

They pretty much use this whole wetland to travel across, especially when it rains. And they will come upstream (if they are pushed into a smaller area),” Nesbeth said, adding that this could increase the possibility of their coming into contact with humans.

Minister of state in the Ministry of Housing, Transport, Water and Works, Fenton Ferguson, had announced in August that ground was to be broken for the hotel. Ferguson, who is also the member of parliament for Eastern St Thomas – the constituency in which the proposed development is to take place – was speaking at the opening of the annual Bath Breadfruit Festival in the parish at the time.

He told the Sunday Observer two weeks ago that the development – which is to be sited at Holland Bay near Duckensfield district on lands currently owned by Dr Richard Jones – was being undertaken by the Decameron Group that operates the Decameron and Royal Decameron hotels in Montego Bay and Runaway Bay respectively.

Phase one of the St Thomas project, Ferguson said, would see the construction of a 360-room, four-star hotel, while phase two involves the building of a 240-room, five-star hotel.

But Nesbeth and his group have raised a number of environmental concerns, among them the effect they say the project will have on water quality and reef life.

“This area here is also used as a catchment,” said Nesbeth. “All the mud and silt sit in there and soak away. That’s why St Thomas now has the best reefs left in Jamaica. When you start construction, dirty water finds itself there, sewage, laundry, all the things you can think of go in there and the reef slowly dies.”

But Ferguson said that all the environmental implications of the development were being discussed as a matter of priority by the developers, the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) and other stakeholders, among them the St Thomas Environmental Protection Agency (STEPA).

“We have taken upfront the challenges related to the environment. I know that the developers themselves have been pursuing discussions relative to the owners of the land, and there are discussions that they are to pursue presently as it relates to NEPA,” he said.

“We feel that whatever development is to come, it must take into serious consideration environmental concerns locally, or the environmental concerns that are coming from NEPA. The agencies – water, roads, etc – have been doing their own investigations. I have personally been involved with the local authority and some of those agencies, upfront, to ensure that we satisfy whatever concerns might emerge from the agencies,” he added.

According to Ferguson, he was working to ensure that the environmental problems associated with past hotel developments are avoided as they moved to get the St Thomas development, dubbed the “East End Project”, underway.

“In the past, there have been projects of this nature where it is when the project is on its way that a number of the environmental things have come… rather than upfront,” said Ferguson. “Those things could [otherwise] have been taken care of in terms of satisfying the environmental agency as to how you intend to operate in these sensitive areas.”

Ferguson and the developers, however, will be forced to deal with the fact that some local fishermen share Nesbeth’s concern.

One such fisherman, Delroy Willis, who prefers to be called ‘Rambo’, feels that the development should be undertaken inland and away from the mangroves and the sea where he ekes out his living.

“I would love the development, but fi go down a Holland Bay go do that, that’s a no for me,” he told the Sunday Observer. “Why not up here in the district here weh we can go down a de beach and have wi fun same way? The environment, dem always a seh save de trees, and save de crocodiles and save de dis and de dat, so why kill them out now? Mek dem stay,” he added.

Rambo, who said he has been fishing for 25 years, also raised the possibility that a hotel constructed too close to the sea could prevent him and other fishermen from accessing fertile fishing ground.

“I see my livelihood going down the drain,” he said. “Several other fishermen don’t see it. Dem seh “yes” to the development, but them nah see down the line.”

Another fisherman, who gave his name only as Mark, agreed.

“The hotel build down pon the sea go affect we,” he told the Sunday Observer. “For it to be in more to land it would be more safer so the fisherman dem can occupy the beach freely. (Anything other than that) then we go have a problem.”

But both fishermen’s views were not shared by Beford Richardson, a 64-year-old who also makes his living from fishing.

“Mi love it. Mi really love the hotel down here,” he said. “Den mi nah can tek a boat an’ show dem (tourists) how it go? If dem even mek 20 hotel down here it nuh trouble wi,” Richardson said.

Minister Ferguson insisted that concerned fishermen need not fear the development, about which he is excited.

“I believe St Thomas is well-endowed with sea and beach for fishing,” said the junior minister. “I am sure it (the development) is not going to be a push away. It is going to be a consultation to come to any position that would affect the fisher folks…

In relation to the greater picture, I believe that the benefits to fisher folks would be far greater with a hotel such as that, than it would be in relation to leaving as is and hoping that they will continue doing (what they do).”

He said he was sure that there was adequate room for whatever adjustments needed to be made “in the interest of 600 hotel rooms in a constituency and parish that are crying out badly for this kind of investment”.

Ferguson did not conceal his enthusiasm for the project, saying, “A project such as that will transform the economic and social landscape of not only St Thomas, but certainly going back into eastern Portland. And it would present a synergy between the tourism that is taking place in Portland presently and this pioneering project that is to emerge in St Thomas”.

Minister Ferguson also said that he believed that the project… would probably be one of the best things that could happen to St Thomas in decades. “I really look forward to this project as part of my own legacy as a member of parliament,” he admitted. “So it is with great excitement that I view this project.”

But Nesbeth believes that better use could be made of Holland Bay, like preserving the area, as proposed, as part of a national park.

“It was suggested that this whole area should be left as a national park,” he told the Sunday Observer. “It (St Thomas) is the one [parish] that does a lot of protection for a lot of people. I don’t remember St Thomas ever being declared a disaster area after a hurricane. And the reason is that the mangroves protect it. Once you start tampering with the Great Morass, the winds are going to come in full force.”

WARSA’s efforts to ensure that the hotel, if built, is constructed inland, is being undertaken under their ‘Save the Green and Wild’ project that began in July. The project is intended to educate people about the implications of the development and on the importance of preserving the local mangroves.

But while acknowledging his regard for concerns that will be raised by groups like WARSA, Ferguson was adamant that a balance will have to be arrived at between preserving the environment and facilitating development.

“If you were to operate in a way where every time there is a red flag that comes about, whether it is mangroves or whatever, you say that that project is dead then I don’t think we would be able to do anything,” he said. “I think what we need to do is satisfy, by way of knowledge, relative to the specialists in those areas whether what is being proposed is possible without doing harm to the environment and to the people therein.”

williamsp@jamaicaobserver.com