P.M. responds to land development in reserves…

APAMO, the Association of Protected Management Organization, sounded its concerns to the government this past Tuesday about the UNESCO report which details the leases and commercial development within protected areas such as the barrier reef, a World Heritage Site. APAMO called on the government to reactivate the National Protected Areas Commission and to cancel leases and titles granted after 1996 within the site. But before APAMO’s position was advanced, Prime Minister Barrow preempted their recommendations last Friday.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“Some of the details spoke about land that was given out as early as 2002. I don’t know that the government is prepared to embark on an exercise that will see us try to acquire all those lands. That would be hugely disruptive; it would be a huge dislocation. It seems that what we’ve done is to put a moratorium on that sort of thing immediately after taking office, must be maintained to the extent that some of the lands that were given out and their particular positions might be especially troubling. To that extent, perhaps we need to look at the question of acquisition, but I don’t want to suggest that there can be any wholesale taking back of the lands that were given out.”