The appearance in the dailies of a request for an expression of interest in the construction of a hotel at the old tracking station in Macqueripe, Chaguaramas, raised the hackles of environmental activists.
One such group, Papa Bois Conservation, has been drawing attention to the Chaguaramas developmental plan of 1974 which is said to zone the area in question as a national park and nature reserve.
The group's defensive position is that this developmental plan is the only valid guiding document in existence and, as such, is the supreme law which must shape any considerations regarding the old tracking station site.
The targeting of this spot for a hotel seems quite peculiar. Members of the public could be forgiven their suspicions that the request for expressions of interest bears the distinct odour of an interest which has actually already been expressed.
Papa Bois has begun stoking public interest, given the high stakes of maintaining the fragile balance between delicate ecosystems in the Chaguaramas Peninsula and the crush of commercial interests greedily carving up the western wedge.
The notification put out by the CDA refers to a full service hotel. If the authority meant to specify environmentally sensitive eco-bungalows using sustainably sourced materials, constructed and operated with the faintest possible footprint, they would have done so. Full service hotel conjures images of a Hilton plunked down in the middle of a forest with all the attendant side effects such as light pollution and general displacement of wildlife, and that's just for starters.
More importantly, the CDA's overture illustrates a throwback to outdated ideas, concepts which seem ill-suited in a world long departed from a "build it and they will come" ideology. It is worrying that in 2016, our state institutions meant to shape public policy, are piloted by minds obsessed with development concepts dug out of the archaeological record.
The public has every expectation that the best and brightest have been assigned to drive sustainable economic development. Yet, at every turn we seem saddled with intellectual lethargy in the driver's seat; dusty old ideas repackaged as innovation.
In this column, which began in 2009, I have repeatedly focused on opportunities for sustainable ecotourism in communities such as Orange Valley on the west coast, Kernaham village on the east coast and Cedros and Icacos in the south western peninsula. Across the country there are towns and villages established in close proximity to natural environments with reasonably stable populations various species of wildlife. The allure of places like these is that they offer an escape from the concrete jungle and punishing yokes of the workaday world.
Proponents of the hotel at the old tracking station might argue this is precisely what the CDA is going for; but it isn't at all the same thing. The aforementioned communities represent human development which, albeit unplanned and even undesirable in some instances, has already happened. Tucker Valley and Macqueripe haven't seen that sort of incursion (yet). Some spaces in this country should remain pristine given that they are so few in number.
In Kernaham Village, a settlement hewn from the Nariva Swamp, simple infrastructural investments can kick start a regional economy based on what's available; wildlife, breath-taking scenery, bucolic village life. Training of residents in ecotourism and small business management can create a culture shift in those who've traditionally relied on agriculture (subject to the caprices of the weather and hell-sent wholesalers) fishing and make-work schemes.
With a little help, the village could brand itself as an authentic ecotourism experience replete with village customs, night time folklore story telling sessions, indigenous foods; the full village experience package.
If it's the solace of isolation we want to cater to, then there is no better location than Cumaca Village in the Northern Range. Apart from a productive wildlife environment, Cumaca boasts a very unique village life. Again, with minimal infrastructural development, Cumaca's natural resources, including its people, can be leveraged to create a tourism product that can appeal to the growing adventure tourism niche market. The establishment of a rural economy, one in which villagers cater to the needs of their guests with foods they already produce themselves can go a long way to conserving this indispensable village culture in Cumaca. With the global tourism market moving increasingly toward experience tourism, this is precisely the sort of shift in thinking that we need.
At the level of both government and our institutions, development seems considered exclusively in mega-terms. It's got to be a monolithic structure or vast feeding trough of contracts with dubious outcomes. All of the emerging trends around the world which acknowledge a world traveller who has evolved to demand more of tourism seem lost on our leadership. They are hopelessly tethered to past, endlessly chewing the cud of expired ideas.
The thought of a hotel at the old tracking station site in Chaguaramas is cause enough for ulcers in any environmental activist. The fact that it has been mooted at all points to a dearth of creative thought and agile minds in the places they are most needed.