The Tribune

By Diane Phillips

The waters of The Bahamas belong to all of us, or in the vernacular, allawee. We take so much pride in our waters you’d think we had given birth to them. Like those who live near dense forests or grow up against the backdrop of snow-capped mountains, we develop a rapport with our surroundings. We feel grounded by their very presence. They become part of our psyche as much as the neighbourhood we live in, the space we worship in, place where we work or play.

As rapport with surroundings go, the relationship between the people of The Bahamas and the waters of The Bahamas is about as tight as a relationship between people and place can get. Beyond our fascination with the never-ending fluctuation of their colours, we take sustenance from them. For more than 500 years, our forefathers, our ancestors and our own families have depended upon the waters for our fish, conch and crawfish. Unlike those in other places who respect their surroundings, we eat from the vast wonderland we gaze at in awe. Those turquoise waters, the shades of pale greens and yellows, the defined lines of barely beige in shallows and sandbanks are the seafood breadbasket of The Bahamas.

Despite that personal attachment, we understand the premise of sharing a bit of our wonder. We grant seabed leases to certain entities for an extraordinarily low fee, supposedly because the business they generate benefits allawee. We’ve grown accustomed to knowing that what lies under us as we swim or snorkel or tie up a boat at a marina may be out on loan to a private entity, understanding that development - a resort or marina or combination thereof or accessibility to a private island or excursion destination – comes with a price.

Most of the time we don’t even think about seabed leases. They are as far from our daily lives as caviar for a lunchbox snack. But when something whips up the waters like a few recent events, we stir, lift our protective shoulders and become proud, possessive parents of our waters, embracing them as we would a young child in danger.

We all saw what happened when a seabed lease for a large chunk of The Bahamas in an area with the country’s most beautiful waters was granted without public consultation. The reaction was immediate, as fever-pitched as anything that has happened in years and still has legs nearly a month later. But that is not the focus of this column. Others have written about it with far more knowledge of fact or what they could discern without freedom of information than I will ever gather and personal attachments also cause me to want to leave that for the better informed. I only mention it to show how much the generally apathetic public cares – like the dead coming back to life - when it comes to the waters of The Bahamas and any private business that benefits from that which belongs to allawee.

Now, two more issues arise, one that of a developer who has proposed a resort and residential project on Big Sampson Cay in Exuma and apparently believes it is acceptable to dredge and destroy conch hatcheries, displace endangered sea turtles and wipe out wetlands. More than 1,200 people have signed a petition urging that the proposed project be halted until it can be re-designed without irrevocable environmental damage.

The lone voice who cried wolf to alert others to the environmental hazards when the project was first proposed is no longer a lone voice. In recent days, more and more of the Central Exuma community has added its voice and formed the Save Exuma Alliance or SEA. Now nearby private island operators and owners, Staniel Cay businesspeople and others are urging a halt to the development until it can be designed for environmental compatibility. No one is saying don’t build. They are merely saying build with safety to users and with respect to the treasures of the land and sea, the resources of the waters of The Bahamas. Their voices deserve to be heard.

The second issue is even more compelling. There are now rumblings in the market that the vast Bahamas seabed is being granted to an entity with interests in trading for carbon credits. There is no indication of it being a government-held institution with benefits to all as in a sovereign wealth fund but if it is, an explanation is welcome because at this very moment, rumours of private ownership are flying as fast as SpaceX debris in descent.

Here, in the words of Prime Minister Philip Davis, during his contribution to the Carbon Trading Bill 2022, he lauded the country’s position as a pioneer. “We are making history and positioning our country as the first country that will sell Blue Carbon Credits, as it relates to sea grass, on the Carbon Market,” the PM said on July 18, 2022. “The Bahamas will be the first country to put all the pieces together in terms of getting our marine resources valued as carbon sinks and monetising that value in the carbon markets. No other country can lay claim to that feat. Our greatness is on display for the world.”

The PM assured the Bahamian people the development could be worth billions of dollars that would benefit the Bahamian people.

“We are talking about a high-growth global market that is still in its infancy but is projected globally to be worth possibly a few hundred billion by 2050,” he pointed out. “The Bahamian government had a duty to ensure that it does not miss out on this opportunity for revenue generation and that we claim our piece of the pie.

“In fact, we ensured that we got in early to maximize our revenue- earning potential – we will be first in line when it comes to Blue Carbon Credits.”

If all that the PM said holds true, the potential of blue carbon credits to The Bahamas is beyond anything we have ever seen in measurable, tangible benefits to the Bahamian people from our waters. If all that the PM said... meaning that no seabed lease that would allow for dredging should be entertained if we are to protect our carbon sink for the Bahamian people. If all the PM said is so, and I would like to think it is true, it would mean that the waters belong to allawee and not to a private concern, entity or individual to gain from carbon credits.

Until we have freedom of information, we will not be able to inquire who this individual is or what company or entity is being considered for vast ranges of seabed lease. Until there is freedom of information, I cannot even find out if such a plan is afloat or whether the story that is creating buzz should be discredited, but it is gathering a lot of raised eyebrows and could be bigger than the moorings calamity. And for all the things that we let slide, Bahamians rise up when it comes to the majestic waters of The Bahamas.