RSPB-BOTs

Submission of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to the Foreign Affairs Committee on the British Overseas Territories. It is a regrettable fact that we Anguillians are too caught up in our daily activities to give much thought to where Anguilla is going. Yet, there are no other persons who should be more concerned about our environment, and plans for the future economic development of our island, than we ourselves. Commentators such as Dame Dr Bernice Lake, Colville Petty and Lolita Davis Richardson have been lamenting over this paradox for years. Nearly everyone else is silent.

The very concept of discussing where Anguilla is going is difficult for most islanders to grasp. There is no point writing about the issue. Anguillians, it is said, do not read. Some who genuinely care try to stir up local enthusiasm by making a foreign conspiracy out of the subject. So, we hear from the soap box that if Anguilla is going downhill, it is due to a secret British plot. The object is to drive Anguillians off their land. Anguillians must be permitted to over-develop the island in order to destroy its culture. This is intended to permit the British ex-pats to take over. They want to repopulate the island with hordes of semi-skilled Glaswegians and Cockneys. They are all just dying to give up their homes and move to Anguilla. So goes the theory. You will hear it whispered all over the island.

The hard evidence is entirely to the contrary. It is xenophobic rubbish. A little research indicates that there are more British individuals and organizations than Anguillians worrying over where Anguilla is going. It took the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee to begin an examination into how Anguilla is governed. They called for interviews and submissions. The RSPB filed a submission. This is something that I am not aware any individual or organization from Anguilla has yet done. It is the most accurate description yet of where Anguilla is going that I have read. The RSPB points out that Anguilla’s natural environment is under threat. This has been caused partly by a failure to implement systems of effective local government. The rate of tourism development is increasing rapidly. The natural assets which attract visitors to the island are in danger of being destroyed. Areas, such as Sombrero Island, that have been previously proposed for protection, are still not approved by the Government. Protected areas that have been approved are in the process of being degazetted. Our legislation does not require that development plans and proposals undergo an Environment Impact Assessment. Where an EIA is called for, there is inadequate expertise or capacity to accurately assess the Assessment produced by the developer. Decisions are made without consideration of the information in the EIA, or even of the government experts’ own comments on it. EIAs are frequently difficult to access, and are rarely shared with the public. Planning procedures are not transparent, and do not engage with civil society. Government frequently gives assurances to developers that, no matter what adverse indications turn up in the EIA, the project will nevertheless be approved.

As the Submission points out, our capacity to implement effective environmental governance and respond to environmental crises is constrained by limited human and financial resources. The Environment Department and the Anguilla National Trust only have small numbers of staff that are stretched very thinly. As ANT relies to a significant extent on funding from government, it is not able to respond objectively when consulted on development proposals. It would be threatened with budget cuts if it dared raise objections either loudly or effectively. ANT’s officers are principally government civil servants steeped in a culture of not rocking the boat. The Anguilla Archaeological and Historical Society is all-volunteer, but it suffers from all the symptoms of old age, and does not function any longer.

As our natural environment continues to deteriorate, government appears to be taking little or no action to remedy this. Our lack of capacity, coupled by the lack of interest or support from the UK Government on these issues, means that the deterioration of our ecosystem continues largely unabated. The Anguilla government needs to provide sufficient resources so that we can implement similar environmental standards as they have in the UK and Europe. We need to put a greater proportion of the revenue we raise from our environment into locally established environmental funds and systems. Expenditure must be transparently linked to the purpose for which the funds were originally raised.

I don’t know why I bother to post this. A sense of frustration with government’s failings overwhelms. The problem is not limited to government. It extends down to the village level. No one in Anguilla who counts cares. No one in Anguilla who cares counts. So it has always been and so it seems it will always be. Emile once told me that it would be political suicide for his government to attempt to introduce fisheries regulations to control the activities of our fishermen until they had killed the last fish. He was right. I fear that the same rule applies to our environment and to our economy.