By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE executive director of the Bahamas Association for Social Health and CEO of Earth Village is sounding the alarm over suspected deforestation in an area of western New Providence.

Terry Miller said the area in question is the former Perpall Tract well field consisting of 212 acres of land that was secured by the government in the late 1930s to provide water to the city of Nassau.

It is also the site of the Earth Village project where tourists got robbed back in 2009.

Mr Miller is frustrated about the issue and said he has consulted a lawyer to see if they can sue the Ministry of Environment to “make them do their job” and stop the reported action.

“I started developing a plan, a vision that would show the government of The Bahamas that this property did not have to be destroyed. It could still make money because that’s what they’re interested in. An ecotourist, cultural heritage environment and over the years we developed a business plan in 2005. Invested $25,000 in the business plan that was donated by the IDB to show the viability of this project. We had 12 eco-tours,” Mr Miller said about the history of the site.

He said during the Christie administration, a man allegedly started cutting into the forest.

“I alerted the public to what was going on. Called on the Bahamas National Trust. We had a press conference - nothing happened. In the Minnis administration under an environmentalist who was the Minister of the Environment, he was the first person that we approached. They say they would do something. They connected us to the Department of Forestry; nothing was done. For five years, this man continued to peck, peck and take bits and pieces of this land,” Mr Miller said.

“In December last year, in January of this year the minister from the environment and a team from the ministry came with me to see what was going on and promised that they would put a hold on it,” he claimed. “It accelerated. It has accelerated to the point when you see what is going on down there, this land is being decimated. I heard this man claim he owns a hundred acres. He doesn’t own anything in here. This land was taken by eminent domain - by the government of The Bahamas.”

Mr Miller said he will not stop advocating for the area until the deforestation ceases.

“When we started this project, there were 10 protected plants on the list. There are over 200 protected plants in the country. This man has destroyed thousands of protected plants on our land,” he claimed. “This land belongs to the Bahamian people and we are sitting back and allowing it to happen and the government is sitting back and allowing it to happen.”

Yesterday Minister of Environment Vaughn Miller said he was made aware of the complaint yesterday and said officials from his ministry are looking into the claim.

“We got a complaint about that today,” the minister told The Tribune. “The Department of Environmental Health and Planning and Protection sent several officers there to investigate it and I’m waiting to hear (back). I just heard of it a few minutes ago. . .of course whatever we need to do to make certain that the laws of the land are protected, we will do that.”

Vaughn Miller said he was not certain what had happened in the area and explained he was not on the island, but in Eleuthera on an official visit yesterday.

“But we will not stand by and watch that happen, I assure you of that,” he said.

He said it is his understanding that the property was taken by the government under eminent domain, however he was not certain of this.

“Based on the reports we are getting it is (under) eminent domain, based on the reports we are getting, someone seems to be pushing down some bushes without authorisation, using a tractor or whatever the heavy-duty equipment is, that’s my understanding,” the Environment Minister said.