By IANTHIA SMITH, Guardian Staff Reporter

ianthia@nasguard.com

Just weeks after admitting that it had suffered a "significant budgetary deficit" over the past few years and and had lost many of its private sponsors, the Bahamas National Trust is slated to benefit from a $1.2 million donation from the Baker's Bay Golf and Ocean Club.

Senior Vice President of Environmental and Community Affairs at Baker's Bay Livingston Marshall explained that the $1.2 million will be paid out over the next six years, and will go a long way in bringing some much needed relief to the BNT.

"Discovery Land Company and Baker's Bay Golf and Ocean Club will contribute $600,000 over the next three years to the Bahamas National Trust," Marshall said.

"Those funds will come in the form of $200,000 per year in each of the first three years and thereafter we will sit with The Trust and we will look at its accomplishments, objectives and milestones, with a view to supporting the trust again to the tune of a second three-year grant for another $600,000."

Back in May, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham promised to give the BNT a $1 million grant, but at the time The Trust's Executive Director Eric Carey said while the amount was "greatly appreciated," it was nowhere near the amount needed for the organization to survive. He explained that the BNT needed greater support from the private sector, which had been turning a blind eye to the BNT's financial situation.

During a press conference held yesterday to announce the donation, BNT President Glenn Bannister was singing a different tune and continued to call on other private organizations to follow suit.

"This donation and grant today is music to our ears," he said. "It gives me great pleasure to accept your donation and I would like to encourage entities in Nassau, Paradise Island, Grand Bahama and throughout The Bahamas to come forward and support The Bahamas National Trust because as you know talk is cheap but it takes money to preserve land."

Carey explained that while the grant specifically will allow for a higher level of involvement in the Abaco national parks, some of the funding will also be used to support other core activities of The National Trust.

"We've already started developing job descriptions for staff in Abaco," he said. " We're also going to meet with friends of the environment to discuss the joint environmental program, Discovery Club, and this will hopefully be the first thing that happens. Simultaneously we will be looking to develop some staff capacity in Abaco and the new national park that we are hopefully going to get approved soon is also going to be dealt with."

Baker's Bay is also doing its part to help the environment. Marshall explained that the company has taken drastic steps, from rebuilding sand dunes to using dredging and excavation approaches that minimizes run-off into the environment.

BNT President Bannister agreed that "Bakers Bay is doing all the right things that they need to do to protect the environment."

The BNT's executive members said they hope that other companies would follow suit and help The Trust. The Bahamas National Trust is the only known non-governmental organization in the world with the mandate to manage a country's entire national park system.