NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Bahamian environmental groups said yesterday they are starting a thorough technical review of Disney’s recently released 500-page environmental impact assessment (EIA) for its proposed Lighthouse Point development.
Environmental groups said in a statement yesterday that last October, they wrote to Disney and the minister of the environment calling for a commitment to a 90-day public consultation period to ensure an informed decision on the project.
Disney executives last week expressed confidence that the company has addressed all outstanding concerns regarding its Lighthouse Point development in an extensive 550-plus-page EIA.
According to the company, an economic impact study done by Oxford Economic has indicated that over a 25-year period, the project is conservatively expected to provide a more than $800 million increase to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and a more than $355 million increase in Bahamian government revenues.
Joseph Darville, chairman, Save the Bays, said: “It is our goal to ensure that Disney has fully considered all of the environmental, economic and social implications of their proposed port, keeping in mind and implementing the same high standards as it proposes to do to meet its 2030 environmental goals. We are already a climate change-threatened country.”
Sam Duncombe, executive director, reEarth, stated: “At first glance, it appears that Disney has prepared an EIA for a world that no longer exists and has not adequately addressed the new realities of COVID, climate change and sea-level rise and environmental injustice.”
Casuarina McKinney-Lambert, executive director, BREEF, said: “It is not surprising that Disney’s EIA claims that the project is economically beneficial and environmentally benign. Many critical voices have been almost completely shut out of the process so far, and we have just begun to read the EIA. We have serious concerns.”
The Last Chance For Lighthouse Point campaign, which includes the international Waterkeeper Alliance, has recruited a panel of more than 30 local and international scientists and experts to analyze Disney’s EIA.
The experts will be taking a hard look at the economics of the deal, the climate change and sea-level rise implications and the environmental impacts of as many as 20,000 visitors a week on Lighthouse Point and its surrounding waters.
The Last Chance campaign has gathered more than 440,000 supporters on a Change.org petition calling on Disney to work with local groups on a sustainable tourism alternative that would provide more economic benefit for local communities and would be more resilient to climate change.
Rashema Ingraham, executive director, Waterkeepers Bahamas, added: “This is not a done deal. Disney has only just released its EIA. We hope that Disney and the government will not attempt to push this project through without providing a meaningful opportunity for a public review of the project.”
