[xml][/xml]
The Bahamas Weekly Facebook The Bahamas Weekly Twitter
Community : Service Organizations Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM


Bahamas Ntl Trust Hailed as Global Pioneer in Environmental Conservation
By Bahamas National Trust
Mar 7, 2014 - 11:24:17 AM

Email this article
 Mobile friendly page
BNT-hailed-as-a-global-pioneer-in-environmental-conservation.jpg
Accomplished scientist Dr. David Campbell, former executive director of the Bahamas National Trust (BNT), was the keynote speaker for Tuesday’s session of the Bahamas National History Conference. He told attendees that the BNT has been a global pioneer in environmental conservation for decades. (Photo courtesy of Bahamas Visual Media)

The Bahamas National Trust (BNT) was praised as a global model and pioneer in the fight to protect the environment during the second annual Bahamas National History Conference.

Keynote speaker and accomplished international scientist Dr. David Campbell told the conference that over its nearly six decades in existence, the BNT has repeatedly stood out as a shining example,  establishing landmark conservation policies and showing other countries the way forward.

“The BNT was a groundbreaking achievement. Its work has been great for The Bahamas,” he said. “Few people understand how the Trust has really served as a model for the planet and one of the more effective, successful and ethical agencies to oversee wildlife and natural resources.”

Dr. Campbell, who served as the executive director of the BNT during the 1970s, wrote the first ever natural history of the Bahamas, “The Ephemeral Islands”, which lent its name to the theme of this year’s conference.

He said he feels privileged to have been a part of the Trust’s work during a revolutionary era.

“It was a time of great creativity on these islands in various different sectors – in scientific exploration, in establishment of rigorous laws to protect Bahamian natural history and in terms of education.

“This was the first time the Bahamas was being systematically mapped, land and sea, and this built on the illustrious tradition of the Trust’s establishment and management of the Exuma Land and Sea Park back in the ‘50s.

“That was the first time that anybody established a park that recognized the integration of the land and sea. You can’t protect one without the other.”

“By the time I came along, these paradigms had been tested. It was a time when biological explorers were coming down here to do inventories of endangered species like the rock iguanas for example, and species that were abundant but threatened were also coming under surveillance.”

The Trust, Dr. Campbell said, also played a key role in preserving the flamingos of Inagua at a time when the regional population had been decimated.

“That was a triumph - the flamingo was being relegated to a few small areas, except for in Inagua and no one really knew where it would end. But again, in the 1950s, the Trust hired wardens and they managed the population. It was actually growing when I was trust director,” he said.

“The other thing that was quite instrumental was the Bahamas signing on to CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), that meant that all the other signatory nations were enforcing Bahamas wildlife conservation laws.

“It was really a renaissance time for science and its application to conservation and the Trust was absolutely focal in all of this.”

And, Dr Cambell said, he is delighted to see how far the BNT has come since then.

“I am pretty awed by the Trust today, and (current executive director) Eric Carey is doing a wonderful job,” he said.

“Everything that I dreamed this Trust would grow into it has, and it’s actually surpassed my hopes.”

Related:

Bahamas Urged to Become Global Beacon for Protection of Marine Environment

Bookmark and Share




© Copyright 2014 by thebahamasweekly.com

Top of Page

Receive our Top Stories



Preview | Powered by CommandBlast

Service Organizations
Latest Headlines
Rotary Club of Old Fort hosts “Combating COVID-19” Series of Virtual Events
Rotary Club of Nassau Sunrise bursts of light in the community
Annual Bahamas Red Cross Ball 2020
Rotary Club of Old Fort brings Christmas cheer to Bain Town
Rotary brings more aid to residents of Hawksbill