Talk:Tobago Cays

The June 2, 2003 plan by Palm Island Resort Limited (PIRL) for the management of the Tobago Cays clearly offended the public, including those in the southern Grenadines. On September 9th the Mayreau Environmental Developmental Organization (MEDO) made a counter proposal in  response to the PIRL Proposal and this was soon followed by the formation of the Friends of the Tobago Cays - a not for profit, non-partisan group - in support of the MEDO’s Proposal. The government swiftly and adamantly rejected the MEDO Management Proposal and alternatives to the PIRL’s proposal and information regarding funding activities, namely, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) OPAAL Project funded by the World Bank, were discarded and referred to as “rubbish” by local authorities. The PIRL proposal had in fact violated parts of an earlier agreement to return the Tobago Cays from private investor ownership to the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a deal made under the auspices of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (U.I.G.A.). Part of this agreement was that no commercial activity would be permitted in the Tobago Cays. The June 10-11, 1998 round of negotiations in Barbados formed the basis for Prime Minister Mitchell’s public statement on this matter a year later. “…I wish to warn that my government fully understands that should we ever entertain or engage or permit commercial activity in Tobago Cays we are creating opportunity for the original owners to re-open their claim for US $6.5 million plus interest accruing from today…”(James Mitchell, April 12, 1999). Local stakeholders clearly viewed Palm Island’s control of the Tobago Cays not to be in the interests of the local communities. The PIRL management proposal held no real benefits to local stakeholders, including those in the diving, yachting and day excursion industries. Concern over PIRL proposals cemented the formation of the Alliance of Union Island Environmental Organizations, which in turn approached other Vincentians for assistance. “The Friends of the Tobago Cays” (FOTC) had as its core element some members of the defunct National Trust of St .Vincent and the Grenadines and emerged as the organization that would bring the issues to the public’s attention. The FOTC took up the challenge and embarked on an education program aimed at demonstrating the folly in handing over the management of the Cays to a foreign private operator. The FOTC was animated in its quest to ensure that the Tobago Cays, a most valuable piece of our national heritage, was not handed over  to a “foreign for-profit management” but that the Cays be maintained and managed in a sustainable way for the benefit of all Vincentians and users of the park. After critiquing the management plans of the PIRL, the FOTC expressed concerns in respect of (a) maintaining the integrity of our cultural and natural heritage; (b) financial arrangements; (c) the legal implications of commercial activity in the Tobago Cays; and (d) the handing over of regulatory functions of government to a private entity. The FOTC felt that the government was not being honest and transparent in its dealings with the local people. Government on the other hand took the view that the intervention of FOTC and others was undesirable to the government’s agenda and this attitude was encapsulated in a comment made to an FOTC representative by Senator Julian Francis, Minister of Communication and Works at a Chamber of Commerce Meeting that “lay people should stay out of certain issues”. In a four hour meeting between Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves and the FOTC late 2003   the Prime Minister stated categorically “there was absolutely nothing that Friends of the Tobago Cays would be able to contribute that would sway his decision.” The FOTC’s proceeded to conduct meetings with various stakeholders, including those in the Grenadines, the Government, Service Clubs and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Information was disseminated to the public through press releases, newspaper articles and radio programmes. A public petition which attracted thousands of signatures was sent to the Prime Minister. Following this, the FOTC hosted two major environmental conferences that were held on Union Island on April 24th and Kingstown April 26th, 2004. Those sessions hosted facilitators from the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES), University of the West Indies - Cave Hill, the Florida Cays Natural Marine Sanctuary, MEDO, the Soufriere Marine Management Area in St. Lucia, Coral Resource Management, Bonaire and other regional consultants. By late 2004 PIRL announced the withdrawal of its proposal to manage the Tobago Cays Marine Park, after a failed final attempt at a new management policy via a “Strategic Alliance Agreement between the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Palm Island Resort Limited”. This withdrawal notice was greeted with much satisfaction by many Vincentians but equally resented by the government. The government chided the critics of PIRL Management Proposal as “a small minority of Vincentians” who were at the same time accused of being “…dishonest, vindictive, untruthful and malignant…” But the reversal of the PIRL’s Tobago Cays Management Proposal and the government’s plan to hand over management to PIRL must be seen as the direct result of the collective efforts of Vincentians throughout the multi-island state who supported appropriate management structures to be put in place for the Tobago Cays Marine Park. The challenge to the government and PIRL initially came from the people of the Southern Grenadines who brought the matter to the attention of mainland Vincentians. It was also the support of many stakeholders in the business sector and the tremendous effort put out by the Friends of the Tobago Cays in highlighting the negative social and environmental problems that would have resulted if the management of the Tobago Cays was handed over to Palm Island Resorts.