A recent judicial battle over environmental issues has broken out in Barbuda between affluent foreigners and incensed locals over plans to develop the Caribbean Island with government backing for the construction of two private houses inside a national park.
The government of Trinidad country of Antigua and Barbuda was sued recently by George Jeffery, a local tour guide and fisherman, and the NGO Global Legal Action Network, both headquartered in the United Kingdom.
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The high-end development was granted by the island’s Development Control Authority, even though the idea was twice rejected by the national environmental agency. This is why the complaint aims to revoke the building permission.
Following up on a previous lawsuit, Barbudan locals and Global Legal Action Network are fighting the development of hundreds of opulent homes, an 18-hole golf course, a beach club, and a natural gas storage facility on almost 600 acres (240 hectares) of protected marsh in Barbuda.
The director of Global Legal Action Network, Gearóid Ó Cuinn, stated in the latest case, “This small island nation is under-resourced and faces an enormous fight against wealthy foreign developers.”
Cuinn and Jeffrey are requesting the permit that was granted by officials in May 2022 to be revoked from the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in St Lucia.
Regarding the lawsuit, representatives of Abercorn Trust Inc., the company developing the project, could not be immediately reached, and a message left for comment was not answered by the government’s Development Control Authority.
At the location in northwest Barbuda, construction has already begun on a project that will include two opulent residences of at least 15,000 square feet each, tennis courts, swimming pools, and a helicopter pad.
Based on court documents, the site is situated on 114 acres (46 hectares) on the edge of Codrington Lagoon National Park, a protected wetland that is home to a frigate bird sanctuary, a turtle nesting site, and endangered species like the Barbudan warbler, the West Indian whistling duck, and upside-down jellyfish.
Ó Cuinn noted, “Wetlands are the most effective natural carbon sinks on the planet protecting humanity from climate change.”
