St Andrew residents joined with environmental advocates to urge the government to tighten protection of Long Pond, warning that off-road vehicles, litter and inadequate visitor controls are threatening a beach and wetland regarded as vital to the parish’s heritage, biodiversity and coastal resilience.
Long Pond is not being respected as a designated natural heritage conservation area, they told the St Andrew Ideas Forum on Thursday at the Alleyne School, where they identified several concerns and the need for greater community involvement in managing the area.
Long Pond project coordinator Kellyann Alicott said the community wants greater involvement in deciding how the area is managed.
She said: “The people in the community don’t want to be seen as just a visitor in their own home. If we’re thinking of using Long Pond as a conservation area and a place where we have co-management done by the community, we have to take into consideration their needs and their wants.”
Alicott said guidelines were needed to govern how Long Pond is used, “so that not only locals are told what needs to be done but also persons that come in to use the area also have guidelines and particular areas in which they know that they’re not supposed to be doing and that’s something that needs to be put in place because if we don’t have standards for not just locals but international persons then we’re gonna have an issue in terms of preserving the area”.
Greater emphasis should also be placed on environmental education, beginning with children and continuing through secondary and tertiary education, she urged.
“Another concept that I think needs to be implemented, especially in… terms of education, is… respect for community and respect for natural places like the same place Long Pond, Turner’s Hall [Wood], and other areas that are similar to the area that we’re trying to preserve right now.”
Alicott described Long Pond as more than an environmental site, but as a place of memory, heritage and relaxation that could become a beacon for St Andrew, calling for it to be incorporated into wider plans for the development of a national park.
Co-founder and director of the St Andrew’s Community Development Commission, Selena King, also raised concerns about activities taking place along Long Pond beach and its sand dunes.
Her organisation is working with environmentalist Professor Robin Mahon on preserving and protecting the dunes, which she said were being damaged by off-road vehicles.
She called on the government to help protect the area, particularly because of the importance of Long Pond as a wetland and its role in protecting St Andrew’s low-lying and coastal communities.
King said: “There are persons who are off-roading; they are driving on the beach, they’re destroying the tourist habitat, the flora, and the fauna of the sand dunes, and we wanted to bring that attention to the government officials, for them to come on board with us as well to come and help us to protect what is going on there right now the sand, the long pond, as you know, the wetland, it is necessary for preservation and we have low lying communities, coastal communities in St Andrew, and we really need to protect the Long Pond.”
King suggested that St Andrew had significant potential for community tourism and ecotourism, which could create economic opportunities while diversifying Barbados’ tourism product.
“From that we recognise that Saint Andrew has a lot to offer. It has great potential, in terms of community tourism, economic, ecotourism, and also to drive economic activity for Barbados and to also give a kind of diversification of the tourism product that we have here in Barbados.”
King suggested that the government consider designating a specific area where off-road vehicles could operate, and make it illegal to drive on Long Pond beach and other environmentally sensitive areas.
“What the government could look to do is find an area that is preserved or designed just for off-roading, just like how we have Bushy Park just for car racing, or there are some roads or areas just for car racing, then that’s something I believe that we should do for off-roading, create an area that’s specifically just for them, because at the end of the day, the Long Pond is a very important habitat for many birds, many animals, so many species, and we have to protect those as well.”
Dr Ariana Marshall told the forum that greater community involvement and clearer guidelines were needed to govern activities in the area.
Long Pond presented an opportunity to expose young people to real-world entrepreneurship and environmental opportunities, she added.
“It is an opportunity to create kind of coordinated programs that could work with deal with the environmental issues and the preservation of it and engage our young people in something that is not just something that they’re being told to do, like they can see, wow, there are people out here creating films, there are people out here creating products, right? I wanna be a part of that.”
She said young people should be involved earlier in planning so they could see opportunities for themselves, rather than simply being told about them in the classroom.
Dr Marshall proposed an eco-entrepreneurship programme linked to the Ministry of Education’s community service learning programme.
She said such initiatives could help young people develop an appreciation for the environment while creating opportunities for communities around Long Pond.
Minister of Education Chad Blackman said community service learning would be rolled out nationally in September, providing students with opportunities to work with community groups and institutions outside school.
“Through school [students] have the opportunity to also partner with institutions and community groups outside but through a structured format, sustainability, agriculture and all those areas are things that also allow for them to build the capacity.”
Students will complete 60 hours of community service learning during the academic year under an initiative branded “60 hours at 60”.
Blackman encouraged Barbadians to volunteer and participate in the programme, which he said was intended to provide young people with clear routes to national development.
Another resident, Hedda Phillips-Boyce, raised concerns about litter in St Andrew and said greater attention must be paid to keeping the environment clean.
Gutters contained plastic bottles, snack wrappers and other garbage, with the problem becoming particularly noticeable after the gutters were cleaned, she said, as she urged public service announcements to remind Barbadians that the island was their home and should be kept clean.
She also suggested that more strategically placed skips could help with waste disposal, and called for greater attention to recycling, particularly plastics. (LG)
