By KEVA LIGHTBOURNE, Guardian Senior Reporter

kdl@nasguard.com

A United States based environmental group is calling for the immediate stop to the Guana Cay development.

President of Global Coral Reef Alliance, Thomas J Goreau, PhD, said the massive destruction of mangrove forests in Guana Cay, by the Bakers Bay Development scheme to create a huge marina and golf course in mangroves and low-lying forest areas, should be stopped immediately before it destroys what is left of the coral reefs and fisheries in the region. "The Bahamas needs sound economic development that protects its environmental resources, but this is a classic case of the sort of developments that have been allowed to cause untold damage in the past and which should no longer be permitted, now that the cumulative damage is clearly visible, and will be made far worse by climate change in the near future," he said in a five-page release issued to The Guardian.

"Much stronger environmental laws and oversight are urgently needed because The Bahamas has permitted developments whose environmental costs have neither been recognized nor compensated for, and the accelerating pressures of global climate change make continuation of such policies a fool's paradise of profiting today and ignoring all the consequences that will strike tomorrow."

The Global Coral Reef Alliance is the latest group to voice its disapproval over the Passerine at Abaco Resort Community Development. In the past, the Save Guana Cay Association spoke out against the project, also Grand Bahama attorney Fred Smith and many others.

According to Dr Goreau an extensive area of crucial mangrove habitat on the site has already been bulldozed and burned in order to create a golf course, marina, hundreds of homes, along with hotel accommodations.

"These developments already have, or soon will, destroy critical nursery areas for many species of reef fish, conch, and lobster," he claimed. "Of critical importance are the coral reefs, lying just offshore from the areas being destroyed for this development, which rank among some of the best left in The Bahamas, and which are critical for the livelihood of Guana Cay residents."

Dr Goreau added:"These reefs are extremely vulnerable to any nutrients that will inevitably wash onto them from the adjacent fertilizers of the golf course and the inadequately treated sewage of the more than 400 houses and the residential units that will be constructed on this currently-uninhabited site."

He maintained that coral reefs are the most nutrient-sensitive ecosystem on earth. He asserted that his assessment of the site is based on personal observations of the algae and over 50 years of experience of studying the role of algae on coral reefs, and the impacts of nutrients on them.