Great Bay,– "The environment and economic development are not two enemies fighting for survival in a world where our eco-systems are disappearing at an alarming rate. The environment is a legacy we must protect not only for future generations, but for our own very survival today."Those were the words of Commissioner of Tourism and Economic Affairs, Frans Richardson on occasion of World Environment Day, WED, which is being celebrated on Saturday, June 5th under the theme: "Many Species. One Planet. One Future".
According to the Commissioner, we are all custodians of the environment, no matter where we live and work.
"Preserving our environment is not just fancy talk anymore, it is something we must do to survive," Commissioner Frans Richardson said.
"Our hills, our beaches, our fast disappearing ponds, our corals and mangroves, are what have sustained us as a people, giving our island its unique beauty and providing economic benefits for us. We cannot therefore see them as an impediment to progress, but as crucial to our development," the Commissioner added.
According to Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program, UNEP, at the World Environment Day Environment and Conservation Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, "World Environment Day is a peoples' day - a day when communities and citizens to local authorities and companies can express their support and their desire for an improved environment through actions on the ground."
Steiner added: "The public in the end give politicians the license to operate-this is the day when their voice, requesting a new and transformational engagement with the natural world, needs to be heard."
While pointing to the fact that eco-tourism and a "green economy" are now the buzz words for sustainable tourism development all over the world, including St. Maarten, Director of Tourism, Regina LaBega, called for increased individual and community awareness in the preservation of our environment.
LaBega recalled that her office organized the annual Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) Children's Environmental Poster Competition earlier this year.
"The enthusiastic participation of our students in this annual competition shows an increasing awareness on their part of the importance of environmental protection. Protecting our environment is not something for government alone; each and every one of us has a responsibility to ensure that for example when we go to our beaches, we do not leave them in a worse condition than we met them, leaving garbage and plastic bottles behind," LaBega said.
"In order words, we must each do our part to keep our beaches clean and not wait on environmental groups to clean up our mess for us," she added. "This is not just for the sake of tourists: it is for St. Martin."
She said what happens in one part of the world impacts the rest of the planet and pointed to two recent international cases – the volcanic ashes from Iceland that recently crippled air travel in Europe and several parts of the world and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which is spreading its ecological and economic devastation to many regions in the US and beyond.
"The volcanic ashes from Iceland and the on-going BP oil disaster, show how inter-related the whole planet is, and how an environmental crisis in one corner of the world can affect all of us. That is why we must all do our part to ensure that we preserve our environment," LaBega concluded.
