By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
CITING the “immense potential” for nature-based tourism in the Bahamas, the National Trust’s (BNT) executive director believes an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) funded project to promote the sector in Andros and Inagua could ultimately “jump start” the sector throughout the Family Islands.
Eric Carey said: “That project is funded by the IDB, and is really designed to create nature-based tourism around birds on the islands of Inagua and Andros.
“Next week, two members of my staff are travelling to Belize for a kick-off meeting. That’s where the project is going to be finally conceptualised, and work plans put in place.
“At the end of that project, which will run for two-and-a-half years, I think we will have a good system of nature guides and an eco-tourism product identified but, more importantly, we would have a model we could apply to other island.”
Mr Carey had previously said the BNT, with funding from the IDB, was working with the National Audubon Society, an American non-profit environmental organisation with more than 800,000 members and constituents, for the development of nature-based tourism centred around birds.
“We’re not just looking at tourists who go to those islands. We’re looking to create eco-tourism opportunities for people who come to stay at Baha Mar, Atlantis etc. There is a lot of potential for nature-based tourism, especially in Andros. We really want to jump-start nature-based tourism in the Family Islands,” said Mr Carey yesterday.
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 10 years, 5 months ago
WORTH REPEATING: Can't help but note that although Eric Carey is always loudly crying poor mouth for the BNT, this supposedly non-profit organization (which has been given much treasured land by the Bahamian people to care for) does not even bother to publish the full set of its annual audited financial statements on its official website for Bahamians to see. Assuming the BNT's purported dire financial predicament is as bad as Mr. Carey suggests, then surely publishing a complete set of its latest available audited financial statements should only help to drive home his point. Frankly, it's amazing that an organization like the BNT, that has been granted and entrusted with so much highly prized land by the Bahamian people to care for, does not see fit to account to the Bahamian people for its financial activities by publishing its complete annual audited accounts (with all footnote disclosures thereto) on its website. Surely the BNT provides its annual audited accounts to its supporting conservation and preservation organizations, many of whom no doubt make this a condition for their continued support of the BNT. So why not make this same information available to all Bahamians, each and everyone of whom has an interest in the BNT? Not doing so only begs the question: Is something being kept hidden from the Bahamian public?
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