Nature Sanctuary’s fate ‘news’ to environment, heritage authorities

A government probe is to be launched into reports that the privately owned Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary has been put up for sale.

The sanctuary’s operations manager, Barbara Garcia, confirmed on Wednesday that it is on the market, with a “for sale” sign erected last Friday. But Minister of the Environment Adrian Forde said he was unaware of any such sale plans. “I can’t comment because I don’t know about any such sale… my officers will have to investigate it,” Forde told Barbados TODAY.

According to the minister, Steve Devonish, the director of the Natural Heritage Department, who chairs the committee overseeing the Graeme Hall heritage area told him that he too was unaware of any sale plans for the sanctuary.

The nature sanctuary covers 42 per cent of the wetlands known as the Graeme Hall Swamp – an area of 12.87 square kilometres or 1 287 hectares designated under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

-The potential sale has also caught the attention of prominent environmentalist Professor Robin Mahon, chairman of the executive group of the Land Conservancy Barbados (TLC). Mahon, an emeritus professor of marine affairs at the University of the West Indies, expressed hope that Barbados would not lose its prestigious Ramsar designation under the potential new owners.

In 2006, the entire Graeme Hall area was designated a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty that Barbados has signed. “Ramsar designation is not easy to get, and delisting would be a stain on Barbados’s international reputation,” Professor Mahon cautioned.

He added: “These designations place significant constraints on what can be done within the area. While much remains to be done to operationalise Graeme Hall Swamp Natural Heritage Conservation Area as a fully-fledged conservation area, the interministerial committee established to pursue this is making steady progress.”

The Graeme Hall sanctuary makes up 40 per cent of the Graeme Hall Swamp, with the government owning the rest. The whole area is considered a single wetland ecosystem designated as a Natural Heritage Conservation Area as part of the national system of parks and protected areas in the 2023 Physical Development Plan.

Professor Mahon noted the wetland has faced negative impacts over the years, including sewage overflow from the South Coast sewage treatment plant’s failure in 2005, though the situation now “seems to be under control”.

The sanctuary was originally developed in the 1990s by Canadian lawyer-entrepreneur Peter Allard, who saw its potential for rehabilitation before his accidental death two years ago. Allard had been working with TLC to ensure the sanctuary’s preservation.

Professor Mahon said: “Mr Allard saw the potential for it to be rehabilitated and reopened. He was helping The Land Conservancy (TLC) Barbados to become established as a leading ecosystem conservation organisation that could ensure that the [sanctuary] endured when he sadly died of an accident in 2022. The [sanctuary] then passed to his estate and now we see it up for sale.

“We at TLC remain committed to ensuring that Mr Allard’s legacy is sustained and to ensuring that the GHNS stays as an essential component of the Graeme Hall Natural Heritage Conservation Area and the Ramsar Convention site as currently designated.”

He urged potential buyers to consider the Ramsar and national development plan designations and called on the government to “stand firm” in defending international commitments to climate change mitigation and wetlands conservation.

“We also urge the Government of Barbados, if it cannot acquire the area, to stand firm defending these designations and in the commitments made in international fora to be a leader in climate change mitigation, despite our small size, and to be a champion for the conservation of mangroves and other wetlands.” 

News of the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary’s reported sale has underlined the ecological importance of the wetland that sits on the edge of the island’s bustling south coast tourism hub as likely one of the only areas untouched by hundreds of years of colonisation that erased the island’s forests and swamps for sugar cane cultivation and later, housing and industrial development.

Professor Mahon, the former director of the UWI Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES), highlighted the sanctuary as “the largest wetland in Barbados and the only significant area of red mangroves”.

“It is home to a considerable amount of the limited biodiversity that we have on this small island. It is used by migratory birds and has been designated a Significant Bird Area by BirdLife International.” 

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb