NASSAU, BAHAMAS- Save The Bays has welcomed Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper’s recent public commitment to ensuring that major tourism and investment projects meet strong environmental standards, while urging the government to apply those principles to ongoing developments in sensitive ecosystems, including the proposed Yntegra Rosewood Exuma project at Sampson Cay.
Mr Cooper, who is also Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation, told Skift’s GreenShift podcast that The Bahamas has adopted a firm approach to development oversight. “If you are prepared to do quality business in a sustainable, environmentally friendly way, we welcome you,” he said. “And if you plan not to conform, there’s no place for you.”
Save The Bays said it supports that position, noting past disputes in areas such as Clifton Bay where legal action and sustained public pressure led to stronger protections for the surrounding marine environment. “We applaud the Deputy Prime Minister for his strong stance assuring that investors will be held to the highest standards of environmental protection,” the group said. “We have seen far too many cases where investors came in with promises of jobs and big visions, but took bulldozers and excavators and left empty promises and scarred earth and sea in their wake because their vision did not suit the reality of the location.”
The group pointed to the Yntegra Rosewood Exuma development, which has drawn significant public concern, including nearly 7,000 signatures on a petition opposing aspects of the proposal. Environmental advocates have raised alarms over a planned dredging area involving coral reefs and seagrass meadows, as well as a 390-foot seawall that could alter tidal circulation and nearshore marine conditions.
In the interview, Mr Cooper acknowledged that some development will require environmental intervention, but said mitigation and restoration must be embedded into planning. “If you are building an airport on the coastline, for example, it might involve removal of some mangroves, but that plan might require that you replace those mangroves, that you reposition them, or you plant twice as many as you destroy,” he said. He added that the government will look favourably on projects incorporating renewable energy and measures to protect carbon sinks such as seagrass and mangroves.
Save The Bays said it agrees with that framework, stressing that its advocacy is not anti-development. “Save The Bays has never been anti-development. We simply call for development that embraces its surroundings and does not offend, overwhelm or destroy the environment that makes The Bahamas the special place on Earth that it is.”
The organization said the next test will be whether the government applies the standards outlined by Mr Cooper to active projects already under review, including those in his own constituency. “The Deputy Prime Minister is absolutely right to want the best protection – and we look forward to seeing how that is implemented in practice, not least of all with regard to the development on his own doorstep in his Exuma constituency,” Save The Bays said. “We keenly await his next step.”
