By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamians were yesterday urged to draw ‘a line in the sand’ over how Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) are conducted, an attorney warning this nation was “completely out of step” with global standards on sustainable development.

Romauld Ferreira, who has 23 years’ experience of conducting EIAs, told Tribune Business that the way Genting’s multi-million dollar investments in Bimini were being handled showed the Bahamas was not adhering to international norms for approving such projects.

Quoting from United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) principles, some of which were established as far back as 1987, Mr Ferreira showed how the Bahamas was non-compliant with several key conditions.

Among these principles were that government agencies, the public, “experts in relevant disciplines” and interested stakeholder groups be allowed to comment on an EIA before a project is approved.

Other UNEP principles that he suggested were being violated by the Bahamas were “clearly defining” an EIA in legislation, and procedures for determining the likely environmental and social impacts from a specific development.

Arguing that transparency was lacking when it came to Genting’s new $150 million hotel, cruise shop dock and other developments in Bimini, Mr Ferreira said the Bahamas’ flawed EIA and investment processes meant approvals were being given to developers “in secret” with no opportunity for local community and stakeholder input.

“The confusion is this,” the attorney explained. “If we follow the process, then people, the local inhabitants, will have an input. But because we’re not following the process, their input is ignored.”

Many observers feel Genting’s Bimini investments have highlighted the dilemma created when a government, desperate to create jobs (understandable), excludes local people from the decision-making process and imposes projects that are too large, and out of scale, for both an island’s size and character.

Asked about the likely consequences of all this, Mr Ferreira told Tribune Business: “The obvious one is it will be unsustainable ecologically over the long-term.

“You’re talking about devastating social consequences, all for the sake of a dollar. This has to be the high water mark. We have to say never again and guard against it.

“You want to have buy-in from the community, as opposed to it being imposed upon them. It’s big government imposing their will. Jobs are a good thing, development is a good thing; it’s just the way it is done.

“It may not be a bad development, but we just don’t know. The fact you’re keeping it secret raises suspicions.”

Mr Ferreira meanwhile suggested that “confusion” also stemmed from the perception that the EIA, and associated Environmental Management Plans (EMPs), as documents were “the end all” when it came to major development projects.

Instead, he suggested it was the process of developing and monitoring EIAs that was the most important aspect - not the documents themselves.

Indicating that this misperception had marred many investment projects prior to Genting/Resorts World Bimini, Mr Ferreira said numerous Caribbean and Central American nations were ahead of the Bahamas when it came to environmental protection and sustainable development legislation.

Drawing on specific examples, Mr Ferreira said Guyana’s laws provided for public participation before a project was approved - lasting for up to five years after it was completed.

Belize required developers to hold meetings with local people and interested stakeholders, who were invited to make written submissions on the project, with comments also allowed after an EIA was submitted.

And in Trinidad & Tobago, both the EIA and EMP must be submitted for public comment.

In contrast, the likes of the Bahamas National Trust (BNT) have complained that they have yet to receive information on Genting’s Bimini investments - which are already approved - despite submitting written requests to the Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA) and Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology (BEST) Commission.

“It says that we are not following the rules and proper protocols in relation to the conduct of EIAs for large projects that have a significant impact, not just an ecological impact, but a social and economic impact,” Mr Ferreira told Tribune Business.

“We’re completely out of step, and what’s interesting is that countries to the south and in the Caribbean, who we tend to look down on, have advanced much further.”

Arguing that the Bahamas was currently “violating all the rules pertaining” to how EIAs were conducted, Mr Ferreira told Tribune Business: “It’s very difficult for me to believe that the developers, in their home countries, don’t fulfill these requirements. It’s standard in the modern world.

“It just shows we’re not keeping pace, deliberately or otherwise, with the norms and guidelines that govern the conduct of EIAs. We’re the ones with most to lose. Environmental protections are not something to be negotiated away.”

Mr Ferreira said he had retrieved a draft Bahamian Environmental Protection Act dating back to 1987, when the Pindling government was in power, showing that successive administrations had ignored the issue.

Many Biminites have complained that the Government and Genting have provided them with little to no information on the latter’s project, which concerns have also been raised over the failure to place Bimini’s Marine Protected Area (MPA) into law.