[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Bahamas is party to the Caribbean Challenge Initiative, a regional commitment to conserving twenty-percent (20%) of nearshore and marine habitats by the year 2020. On August 31st, The Bahamas made a huge step forward in fulfilling that commitment by announcing 18 new and expanded protected areas throughout the country. The newly designated sites cover 3 million hectares of habitat including mangroves, flats, coral reefs, Nassau grouper and bonefish spawning aggregations, and blue holes. These areas will fall under the management of The Bahamas National Trust and various departments of The Bahamas Government, however the Bahamian community also has a large role to play.
Four new areas were designated for Abaco: The East Abaco Creeks National Park (Snake Cay Creek, Bight of Old Robinson, and Cherokee Sound), The Marls of Abaco National Park, Cross Harbour National Park, and the South Abaco Blue Holes National Park. The Abaco community has lobbied for the protection of these sites in order to help preserve their ecological function and ensure that each area is available for the use of future generations of Bahamians. These four parks will be part of a new cohort of mixed-use protected areas compared to previous parks in Abaco which were all “no take”. The next step for these parks will be to create management plans through extensive community consultation. Local stakeholders will be called upon to share their knowledge and thoughts for the best management guidelines for each area. Contact Friends of the Environment if you would like to be notified regarding future stakeholder meetings.
In the meantime, we encourage you to go out and enjoy our new parks! Thanks to everyone who supported the proposals along the way, whether you wrote letters, signed a petition, attended a meeting, or shared the news with a friend. It would not have been possible without you!
Friends of the Environment is a non-profit environmental organizations devoted to preserving.
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