By LETRE SWEETING

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE government and Bahamas National Trust partnered for a tree planting ceremony at Bonefish Pond National Park in celebration of World Wetlands Day.

Environment and Natural Resources Minister Vaughn Miller and Southern Shores MP Leroy Major were present at the tree planting ceremony.

Mr Miller said the theme for this year’s World Wetlands Day, “It’s Time for Wetland Restoration”, is one his ministry and the BNT have been working on together to prioritise.

“They produce over $90m annually in revenue, they protect against storm surges during storm events and create new land spaces through their root systems, just to name a few of the important ecosystem functions that they perform,” Mr Miller said.

“In my ministry, all of the departments have some responsibility for the preservation of our wetlands. They were listed as a protected species in 2021. And since then, the ministry has had the teeth to enforce the laws concerning your protection,” he said.

“We have issued several orders to replace illegally removed mangroves and the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection and our forestry unit are constantly regulating development to ensure that where these ecosystems are impacted, they are replaced in even greater numbers,” Mr Miller said.

Lakeshia Anderson- Rolle, BNT executive director, stressed the importance of the restoration efforts that have been taken since 2020 as part of a five-year project funded by the Global Environment Facility and the United Nations Environment Programme, launched under the Department of Planning and Protection.

“Bonefish Pond National Park is one of five of the national parks that is chartered under the GEF (the Global Environment Facility) 2020 project which seeks to restore the wetlands here in New Providence at Bonefish Pond, as well as Lucayan National Park on Grand Bahama Island,” Ms Anderson- Rolle said.

“The restoration efforts focus on removing invasive plants and also restoring those areas by replanting native plants,” she said.

“Since this park has been protected, it has truly been a significant turnaround with our restoration efforts... we’re so happy that the Ministry of Public Works is also partnered with us to help us sustainably develop this into a true community and recreation space,” Ms Anderson-Rolle said.