• Warns Bahamas jobs at risk over permit hold-up

• ‘At a loss’ to explain treatment under new regime

• ‘Glimmer of hope’ - but uncertainty still crippling

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The scientific institute spearheading The Bahamas’ fight against a killer coral disease yesterday said it may have to start slashing local jobs this summer due to permitting woes, adding: “We’re being viewed as potential pirates.”

Dr Craig Dahlgren, the Perry Institute for Marine Science Institute’s (PIMS) executive director, told Tribune Business he is “at a loss” to understand why non-profit environmental and research groups such as his have been stonewalled for more than a year when it comes to obtaining the necessary approvals under the new permitting regime introduced in 2021 by the Minnis administration.

While his organisation has been able to obtain two consecutive short-term permits to restart the fight against the Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (STCLD), he added that it was still awaiting approval for six other permit applications to conduct research and monitoring in Bahamian waters that were submitted more than one year ago.

Dr Dahlgren explained to this newspaper that the permitting delays, and resulting uncertainty over whether the necessary approvals will be forthcoming, are continuing to cause research funding - and especially grant financing - to dry up when it comes to The Bahamas.

He identified, in particular, some $1m that has been made available to the Reef Rescue Network via the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Global Fund for Coral Restoration as funding that The Bahamas could “potentially lose”. Much of this money has been earmarked for Bahamian dive operators, who will then finance and carry out restoration of the coral reefs that they take tourist clients to.

Dr Nick Higgs, head of research and innovation at Cape Eleuthera Institute - the Island School, who has been equally as vocal as Dr Dahlgren about the damage being done by the permitting hold-up, yesterday told Tribune Business that “we are seeing a glimmer of hope” that the problems are starting to ease.

His organisation has received two permit approvals, and is hoping a third is imminent. Both himself and Dr Dahlgren praised Senator Ryan Pinder, the attorney general, and Dr Rhianna Neely-Murphy, the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP) director, for their sincerity and commitment to addressing both the deficiencies with the Biological Resources and Traditional Knowledge Act and the approvals system itself. 

Mr Pinder could not be reached for comment by Tribune Business yesterday, but this newspaper was told draft reforms to the Act have now been drawn up and are being circulated to stakeholders to obtain the necessary feedback. However, environmentalists and scientists are urging the Davis administration not to delay acting given the time-sensitive nature of much of their studies.

And, with potential financiers becoming increasingly skittish over Bahamas-based research projects, lay-offs in the sector could occur imminently. “We might have to start laying people off as early as this summer because we don’t have the money to support their positions in The Bahamas,” Dr Dahlgren told Tribune Business.

“We have about 12 staff, mostly in Nassau and some in the Family Islands. I’m not sure we haven’t gone as far as planning different scenarios, but right now we’re barely able to support that number of staff in The Bahamas, and may have to lay people off beginning this summer.

“If we were able to get the permits and do the work, because 90 percent of our funding comes from grants, we have all the salaries built into this budget and not a lot of leeway. If there are issues with the deliverables, something has to get cut.”

Besides halting financing, Dr Dahlgren said research funders are also requesting that monies be returned to them if the specific project cannot proceed due to the permitting hold-up. “A lot of funding is done on an annual basis, and it’s been over a year since we’ve done work,” he added.

“A lot of the funders have said they’re not going to fund us until we get the permit or are asking for their money back. The Bahamas Protected Area Fund, a Bahamas government-funded foundation, has had us return money to them for Stony Coral disease work when we were unable to do that.”

One of the “key deficiencies” with the Biological Resources and Traditional Knowledge Act, enacted into law on April 1 last year, was the failure to distinguish between commercial research and that conducted by non-profits, conservation groups and students, subjecting them all to the same regulatory regime.

This has resulted in lengthy delays that have made it almost impossible for non-commercial entities such as the Perry Institute for Marine Science to get approval. As a result, its efforts to combat Stony Coral disease in The Bahamas were held-up for one-and-a-half to two years, although the Institute finally received a 75-day permit to proceed in March. It was subsequently provided with a three-month extension from May 4 to September 15, 2022.

The Act was initially billed as plugging a loophole said to have enabled foreign exploitation of The Bahamas’ biological and genetic resources without this nation earning a cent. It sought to establish a regulatory, permitting and revenue-sharing regime with companies seeking to research and exploit this nation’s marine genetic resources.

However, Dr Dahlgren yesterday argued that the Institute and non-profit research, conservation groups like it are all being grouped into this category of ‘exploiters’ with the permitting system treating them as such. “We feel like we are providing a vital service to The Bahamas at no cost to the Government, providing a lot of critical information to manage marine resources or actively restoring marine resources, bringing in millions of dollars to do these things.

“Instead of being welcomed to help out, or engaged as a partner, we’re being viewed as potential pirates or criminals trying to steal something. The system has never been set up like that in all my 30 years of working in The Bahamas. What we do is of great value and help to The Bahamas, and we are doing things that The Bahamas does not necessarily have the capacity to do and helping locals.

“Not only are we being turned away, but we’re also being looked at as if we’re reaching into the pocket of The Bahamas and that’s not the case at all. I don’t know how it got to this point.” Eric Carey, the Bahamas National Trust’s executive director, yesterday backed up Dr Dahlgren’s concerns over potential local job losses if the permitting delays continue much longer.

“It’s absolutely concerning from all angles, whether you’re looking at people losing their jobs, communities losing the economic benefits from researchers that come into those communities and rent houses and card, and whether it’s the ability to get the data we need to address Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease and other environmental scenarios,” he added. “Bahamians are losing their jobs, losing their incomes and no one wants to be responsible for that.”

Mr Carey has suggested that the Government issue temporary research permits until a more permanent solution can be found. “The Act in and of itself, the act of creating the Act was admirable and the right thing to do because we need to protect our resources from unscrupulous people that might come and exploit our resources,” the BNT chief added of the Minnis administration’s efforts.

“We need to make sure there are opportunities to share knowledge with the Bahamian people and the financial benefits through a sovereign wealth fund or other mechanism. But we are in agreement with the attorney general [Mr Pinder] that it needs to be amended and reviewed.

“We have seen the draft amendments he has in hand, and we are hoping - as he has said - that he will lead the charge to bring it to Parliament so this matter is resolved. Until then, we believe it’s in the best interests of our country, and its marine and terrestrial environment, to issue permits on an interim basis until we have a more permanent solution.”

The Island School’s Dr Higgs, meanwhile, said the recent permits issued to his organisation as well as contacts with senior government officials had given him optimism that moves are afoot to rectify the situation. “I met with Dr Rhianna Neely-Murphy a couple of weeks ago, and we had a very positive conversation,” he added. “She asked me for my honest opinion if things had improved, and I believe they are genuinely trying.

“We are seeing a glimmer of hope. It’s overall improvement that needs to be made to the system, and the legislation and regulations, and we’d like to see more transparency” on the number of permit applications, made, how many have been approved and to whom and for what purpose.

In common with Dr Dahlgren, he added that the uncertainty over whether permits will be approved - and in what timeframe - is “taking its toll, and eating up time, money and resources”. Dr Higgs said: “It leaves me as the director of an organisation asking: ‘What do I do?’ I have two to three positions open right now. Should I hire? How do I hire if I don’t know whether I will get the permit?

“The uncertainty. When you don’t have a clear or regulatory framework, it just adds uncertainty and is difficult to make the case. It makes it hard to go out to funders when I cannot guarantee whether I will get the permit to do the work or, internally, to go to my boss and say: ‘Can I hire another research scientist when I can’t guarantee they will do any research?’

Dr Higgs said “these realities are starting to bite”, especially for organisations whose financial years start on July 1 and are now in the process of finalising next year’s budget. “There’s a lot of uncertainty and up in the air on the bottom line,” he added. “It’s a difficult situation to work in as a manager and operational leader.”