Luxury Resort Spells End of National Park and Dove Sanctuary in Grenada

Due to the pristine natural surroundings and abundant ocean views, Grenada's Mount Hartman National Park could be sold off to the Four Seasons Hotel and Resort Group so that a 150-room luxury hotel and 300 villas along with a golf course, conference center and marina can be built for tourism dollars. The National Park is the home of the small island's national bird, the Grenada Dove, a critically endangered bird that numbers less than 180.

Mount Hartman is also known as the "Dove Sanctuary", as it was established ten years ago to alleviate the habitat destruction that lead to the downward spiral of the Grenada Dove population. The 154 acre Park is also home to other endangered species, such as the Grenada Flycatcher, the Antillean Crested Hummingbird, as well as a rare species of hook-billed kite.

The Government of Grenada, despite their vow last year to increase stewardship of the island's biodiversity, seems to indicate that they are willing to simply "privatize" Mount Hartman, in order to sell to a group of investors that include Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. Despite the growing popularity of eco-tourism in the Caribbean, the Four Seasons resort currently is not being planned to accommodate eco-friendly practices, nor is there a plan in place to minimize the impact on the Grenada Dove population.

Environmentalists are outraged with the current plan, and groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity and Birdlife International are calling for a rejection or severe modification to the planned resort. Activists claim that there is little room for error in attempting to preserve the remaining population of the Grenada Dove, which numbers as low as 100 in some counts.

Though it is obvious that the primary motivation on the part of Grenada's inclination to sell off the National Park is economic, the same tourists that would want to visit the resort may also be turned off as the Grenada Dove is an attraction for many tourists to Grenada. Moreover, the profits from such a resort would indeed trickle down to the local economy, but only into the un-skilled labor sector, with the majority of the profits going to overseas investors. With another property on Barbados, the same resort group actually flies in non-local employees, so the trickle down theory doesn't hold much water, as Grenada could exploit its natural resources and gain more in eco-tourism that promotes sustainable practices and smaller "footprints."

Unfortunately, time may be running out. A press release from September 2006 claims that the property has already been purchased, but this cannot be confirmed. Environmental groups have just recently begun to launch campaigns to save Mount Hartman.