Government Launches Probe Into Potential Sale of Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary Amid Ramsar Designation Concerns

A government probe is to be launched into reports that the privately owned Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary has been put up for sale.

The sanctuary’s operations manager, Barbara Garcia, confirmed on Wednesday that it is on the market, with a “for sale” sign erected last Friday. But Minister of the Environment Adrian Forde said he was unaware of any such sale plans. “I can’t comment because I don’t know about any such sale… my officers will have to investigate it,” Forde told Barbados TODAY.

According to the minister, Steve Devonish, the director of the Natural Heritage Department, who chairs the committee overseeing the Graeme Hall heritage area told him that he too was unaware of any sale plans for the sanctuary.

The nature sanctuary covers 42 per cent of the wetlands known as the Graeme Hall Swamp – an area of 12.87 square kilometres or 1 287 hectares designated under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

-The potential sale has also caught the attention of prominent environmentalist Professor Robin Mahon, chairman of the executive group of the Land Conservancy Barbados (TLC). Mahon, an emeritus professor of marine affairs at the University of the West Indies, expressed hope that Barbados would not lose its prestigious Ramsar designation under the potential new owners.

In 2006, the entire Graeme Hall area was designated a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty that Barbados has signed. “Ramsar designation is not easy to get, and delisting would be a stain on Barbados’s international reputation,” Professor Mahon cautioned.

He added: “These designations place significant constraints on what can be done within the area. While much remains to be done to operationalise Graeme Hall Swamp Natural Heritage Conservation Area as a fully-fledged conservation area, the interministerial committee established to pursue this is making steady progress.”

The Graeme Hall sanctuary makes up 40 per cent of the Graeme Hall Swamp, with the government owning the rest. The whole area is considered a single wetland ecosystem designated as a Natural Heritage Conservation Area as part of the national system of parks and protected areas in the 2023 Physical Development Plan.

Professor Mahon noted the wetland has faced negative impacts over the years, including sewage overflow from the South Coast sewage treatment plant’s failure in 2005, though the situation now “seems to be under control”.