Turks and Caicos Islands marine national park damaged by building of a resort

Gemma Handy, The Telegraph 13 Feb 08;

One of the world's most famous coral reefs is being put at risk by work to develop a luxury resort in the heart of a Caribbean national park, local campaigners claim.

The beautiful Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), long a haven for scuba divers, are one of the UK's remaining 14 Overseas Territories.

British residents living on the island of Providenciales have lodged an official complaint with the Foreign Affairs Select Committee saying the mammoth scheme could spell disaster for the fragile ecosystem.

For centuries the reef, one of the globe's top dive sites, has been a haven for indigenous wildlife such as turtles, shrimp, conch and lobster.

The development, which includes a Miami-style Nikki Beach resort, condominiums and yacht club, involves dredging thousands of tonnes of sand from the sea-bed to allow 200ft-long vessels to pass through.

The work is destroying the habitat for myriad seabed marine life, it is alleged, and causing silt to settle on the coral and smother it.

Divers claim parts of the ocean floor now look more like a building site than a valuable and protected ecosystem.

Local tour operators say they fear for their livelihoods while people living nearby say they have suffered with noise and dust since the project began last autumn.

Jay Stubbs has been leading sailing and snorkelling excursions in the area, known locally as Leeward Going Through, for more than 12 years with his company Sail Provo.

"There are places we used to take guests snorkelling which we can't go to any more because of the damage the silt has done to the reef," he said.

"Sediment is also building up along the mangroves making the water shallower and taking away shelter for the small, juvenile fish forcing them to relocate.

"Just last year you could see the bottom, now it's so murky even the turtles can't find their way down; we have noticed a lot more of them floating around on the surface."

A number of local tour operators' premises along with a restaurant were bulldozed last year to make way for the scheme.

"It's changing the face of the whole place," Mr Stubbs said. "Leeward Going Through has been used by boaters for generations. Now it's infringing on our livelihoods.

"When people start privatising the waterways they can assert any legal rights they like on it. All it will take is one or two complaints from high end guests about the noise from boats for them to stop us coming through.

"If that happens, how will freighters get food and cargo to the other islands? This is the main route for everyone."

Philip Shearer, of Big Blue, said: "As a seasoned diver I have seen a marked drop and decline in the quality of coral all over Grace Bay. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to see dredging is the problem.

"It is moving all the turtle grass which holds sediment at the bottom. These guys are creating a whole bunch of sediment in suspension which clogs up the reef.

"It's a major problem and sets a bad precedent if a development like that can go ahead without taking into account the full environmental impact."

Meanwhile, residents say they are being kept awake by horrendous noise. "Sometimes the sand moving trucks never stop the entire night. We can hear honking, beeping, hauling and gunning engines," one Islander claimed.

"This is not the usual 4.30am to midnight. This is going on all night."

He also expressed grave concern about the huge mountain of dredged sand at nearby Emerald Point estimated to be around 50 metres long, 200 metres wide and 15 metres high.

"The pile could be twice as high in a few months; if there was a hurricane it would be a disaster. This development is right on the edge of the Princess Alexandra National Park which has always been quite aggressively protected.

"None of us can begin to comprehend how anyone can have got permission to do anything on a coral reef. It will kill it," he added.

A spokesman for the TCI's Department of Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR) said the dredging was being monitored daily by a construction group working on behalf of the planning department and the DECR.

"Reports are regularly submitted to our office and if we see a problem the dredging is stopped while the problem is corrected," he said.

"We are in winter so a lot of sediment is being moved around even without the dredging. There will be some effects from the development but to say the dredging is the sole cause of the damage would be incorrect."

Leeward Marina Resort developer Rodney Propps, business partner of Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft, said the company had carried out a number of environmental impact studies.

"Everything we are doing we have a licence and planning permission for and all works are to international standards. We are opening the country's first mega-yacht club and that is why the Government is completely behind us.

"The noise will be finished shortly. I doubt the residents who complained are the same ones who are aware that their properties have increased in value by 400 per cent since we started."

Mr Propps said just one-sixth of the dredged sand would be sold for which the company was paying an undisclosed royalty to the Crown. The remaining sand will be used to replenish local beaches.

Silt is one of the biggest killers of coral reefs worldwide. The reason it is so destructive is because it blocks light which coral depends on to live.

Home to more life forms than any other ocean environment, coral reefs comprise the oldest and most complex ecosystems on Earth. They have existed for more than 200m years while their current level of biodiversity dates back 50m years.

In addition to pollution, a decline in water quality, overfishing and climate change are some of the biggest challenges facing these ancient sanctuaries.

Just this week, the TCI Government declared 2008 to be the Year of the Coral Reef. One can only hope this will herald protection for the reef and the marine life which depend on its survival.