Sharon Cooke, curator of Andromeda Botanic Gardens, in her ethnobotanical garden.
Christopher Elliott
Sharon Cooke stands impatiently on an overgrown plot in Andromeda Botanic Gardens, a botanical conservancy on the rugged Atlantic side of Barbados.
Cooke, who is Andromeda’s curator, is surrounded by thick foliage that’s rich in healing properties. There’s the Pride of Barbados, a flowering red plant used to treat kidney stones, malaria, and bronchitis. And there’s the Bitterwood, whose smooth bark is a natural insecticide. Many of the trees and shrubs here haven’t been fully studied and could cure even more illnesses, she says.
The ethnobotanical garden is her latest project, and perhaps her most important one. Cooke is restless for it to take root because when it comes to sustainability in Barbados, there’s so much at stake.
“Barbados has been making a slow turn toward sustainability,” says Cooke.
That’s true. The island adopted a sweeping sustainability policy two decades ago and in 2020 banned many single-use plastics. Barbados also heavily promotes itself as a sustainable tourism destination.
But now there’s a sense of urgency within the island’s tourism industry, and it’s a sentiment that ripples across the Caribbean. Whether you’re diving on Barbados’ reefs or hiking on the eastern side of the island, you can’t help but feel that as climate change accelerates, time is running out to do something.
“Sustainability is extremely important to the island and its people,” says Peter Mayers, director of USA for Barbados Tourism Marketing, which promotes tourism on the island. “Meaningful change takes time and patience – it’s a gradual process.”
This is part six in a series about sustainable tourism in Central America and the Caribbean. Here’s part one about sustainability in Panama, part two about saving Bonaire’s number one tourist attraction, part three about Aruba’s struggles to stay sustainable, part four about Curaçao’s conservation efforts, and part five about Grenada’s attempt to go green.
André Miller owner of the dive operator Barbados Blue, shows off an A-frame made of rebar, used to … [+] cultivate new coral. His dive shop has lobbied to expand the Carlisle Bay and Folkestone Marine Park. He says less that 1% of Barbados ‘ reefs are protected from overfishing.
Christopher Elliott
At Barbados Blue, a dive shop on the southwestern side of the island, André Miller is describing his efforts to protect the island’s coral reefs from diving and overfishing.
Barbados has some of the most spectacular diving in the Caribbean. On a hazy morning in early May, divers could see green turtles and moray eels on a reef dotted with fan coral waving gently in the current. Miller has also coordinated efforts to create an artificial reef with a sunken coast guard vessel in the shallow waters just a stone’s throw from his dive shop.
You wouldn’t know by looking at it, but these reefs are shrinking a little every day — as are many reefs in the Caribbean.
“We’re out here working to protect them,” says Miller.
The problem: Coral is getting bleached by disease and rising water temperatures. One of the most effective tools to counter that is a simple steel rebar A-frame, which Miller and his team sink in areas with depleted marine life. The frames allow coral to attach and regrow the reef.
Miller says more needs to be done, and soon. Efforts to persuade the government and fishing industry to help him expand the marine park have taken time. Miller says there’s concern that closing off more of the island’s reefs would harm the fishing industry.
“In fact, it would do the exact opposite,” he says.
Sustainability isn’t just important at sea. It is on land as well.
Walkers Reserve, an almost-depleted sand quarry in St. Andrew, Barbados, is drawing visitors with … [+] its new bee experience.
Christopher Elliott
Julian Mangal, the head beekeeper at Walkers Reserve on the northeastern side of Barbados, feels a sense of urgency, too. That’s because the 300-acre property is on the site of a sand quarry that’s almost depleted.
The owners decided to turn the property into an ecological park, where they offer camping, fishing, and a unique beekeeping experience for visitors. Every day, the quarry gets closer to running out of sand, and when that happens, he says it will be up to Walkers Reserve to pay the bills.
Mangal says bees are like a canary in the coal mine when it comes to sustainability. If they’re thriving, then the environment is healthy. If they start to disappear, not so much.
So how are the bees in Barbados?
“They’re doing quite well,” he says.
At the moment, Mangal tends to about 45 hives and hopes to cultivate enough honey to put it on the culinary map. But he also wants to attract visitors with an interactive beekeeping experience, which allows tourists to get close to the honeybees, but not too close. His bees are crossed with the Africanized honeybees and can become defensive if you get near. But their honey is delicious.
Julian Mangal, the head beekeeper at Walkers Reserve, with one of his hives.
Christopher Elliott
For Walkers Reserve, sustainability is an existential challenge. If projects like Mangal’s don’t succeed, then the old sand quarry will go under. Ensuring the bees thrive will allow Barbados to have a unique tourist attraction, but it will also ensure Walkers Reserve is successful.
“I hope my work is contributing to that sustainability,” adds Mangal.
Jacqui McDermott, sales and marketing manager of Ocean Hotels Group Barbados, on the beach at the O2 … [+] Beach Club & Spa in Barbados. The hotel has found a way to protect its endangered sea turtles — an important sustainability initiative on this island.
Christopher Elliott
The return of the turtles to the O2 Beach Club & Spa
Jacqui McDermott’s resort had a chance to become more sustainable and took it.
“We now have at least two or three families of turtles that live out here,” she explains, pointing at the blue waves just outside the O2 Beach Club & Spa. “They lay their eggs on the beaches here in May and June.”
It wasn’t always that way. Before 2020, turtles had become scarce as the area around the hotel developed. But after the pandemic, which stripped the beaches of visitors, the turtles returned — green turtles, leatherback, and even some highly endangered hawksbill turtles.
And that’s when the O2 Beach Club & Spa decided it wanted to do everything it could to keep them there. McDermott, the sales and marketing manager for the all-inclusive property, says the property went out of its way to accommodate the turtles. It began marking the nesting sites, and it installed turtle-friendly long-wavelength lights that are less disruptive to nesting turtles.
“That’s actually one of the best experiences, sitting here at eight o’clock in the evening and suddenly you see hundreds of turtles popping out of the sand,” she says. “All the guests and staff rush around collecting them.”
It’s a strange sight but vitally important to the Barbados Sea Turtle Project, which the hotel collaborates with. The volunteers count and record the baby turtles and then release them a few days later to give them a better chance of survival. O2 Beach Club & Spa is also working on a program this summer that would allow the guests to request a wake-up call when there’s a turtle sighting at night.
McDermott says there will always be a conflict between marine life and hotel guests. But with a little planning, “it can be a win-win.”
The Casablanca at Sandy Lane located in Barbados, a rental property in the posh Sandy Lane … [+] development, has started several sustainability initiatives outside the view of its guests.
Casablanca at Sandy Lane
Most sustainability is happening behind the scenes in Barbados
Many of the sustainability efforts in tourism are happening under the surface. For example, at the Casablanca at Sandy Lane, a rental property in the posh Sandy Lane development, the average guest wouldn’t know that the property has reduced the number of cleaning products used by almost 50% or that the refrigerators are all energy-efficient. They might not notice the installed timers on the exterior lights or that the water heaters are solar-powered.
Rather than waiting for a government mandate to conserve its resources, the property is doing what it can now because time is of the essence.
“Living on an island brings lots of challenges in this area,” says Casablanca’s director, Evlyn Mondo, “But with creativity and perseverance, we are getting there.”
Same thing goes for the Port of Barbados. Randolph Moore, the assistant manager of cruise operations, says the port has pivoted to sustainability recently without much fanfare. Among the initiatives is quietly decommissioning an aging power plant that burned trash and adding capacity to service cruise ships with liquefied natural gas, a more environmentally friendly fuel.
“We are committed to being carbon-neutral by 2050,” says Moore. “I don’t know if we will get there by then, but that isn’t stopping us from trying.”
Randolph Moore, the assistant manager of cruise operations at the Port of Barbados. The port has … [+] pivoted to sustainability recently.
Christopher Elliott
“They just want to be entertained”
In Barbados, there are countless examples of people in the tourism industry trying to promote sustainability. There are reef preservation efforts, hotels protecting turtles and sand quarries being turned into ecological reserves. Hotels are taking incremental steps to help conserve natural resources. Even the cruise industry, long a laggard in the sustainability world, is righting itself in Barbados.
“Our approach to sustainability goes beyond sorting our garbage into green and blue bins,” says Mayers, Barbados Tourism’s Marketing director. “While it is important to recycle trash, and we strongly encourage it, we really want visitors to feel immersed in helping to create a sustainable island environment where they have an impact and are making a difference. No contribution is too small.”
But back at Andromeda Gardens, curator Cooke remains impatient. She has just added a new row of seaside sage and Christmas candles to the ethnobotanical garden, the educational initiative that teaches visitors how to use plants as medicine. Cooke explains that normally she would wait for the rainy season to start in June before planting. But there’s no time to waste.
“I want this to be ready for when the rains come,” she says.
The garden has a rich history in Barbados and she is trying to attract more visitors to the land, to teach them about plants and sustainability and show them that the island is about more than just beaches
Cooke says Barbados has a lot of potential for ecotourism. And as visitors learn about the island, they will understand why sustainability is so important. Because without it, what will the island be? The quarries will run out of sand. The reefs will die. The turtles will leave, this time perhaps forever. And maybe the bees, too.
And no one really knows how much time is left.
But getting the visitors to think differently about Barbados — well, that may be the hardest part.
“I think when tourists get away on vacation, they just want to be entertained,” she says. “I’m not sure if they care.”
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Publish date : 2024-05-12 00:21:00
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