Barbados to Sign $100 Million IDB Loan for Coastal Climate Resilience Project

By Emmanuel Joseph

Barbados is to sign the documents sealing an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) $100 million loan for a major coastal climate resilience project.

Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn said the IDB Board approved the loan after successful negotiations with his ministry and the bank’s country team last month. But already the project that the IDB loan is funding has been the subject of intense discussion over the future of the plan to link the south coast through a network of boardwalks and beaches intended to stretch from Accra to Oistins.

“The next step is for all of the loan documentation to be signed by both parties such that the Coastal Zone Management Unit can continue the good work on the coastal defences as part of Barbados’ effort to build climate resilience,” Straughn told Barbados TODAY as he rebuffed suggestions that the IDB’s public disclosure of the loan approval late last week was premature.

Some South Coast residents have come out in opposition to the coastal project while others along with nature watchers are urging balance in the operation of the measures.

One person who did not want to be identified said that during a number of meetings between the Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU) and residents, “not one resident, villa owner or investor wanted the boardwalk to extend around the Champers [Restaurant] rocks, along Worthing Beach and Sandy Beach”.

He added: “In short, an extension of the boardwalk in Hastings to St Lawrence Gap will be built on a beach that is a huge turtle nesting beach. The environmentalists locally and globally are fighting this build as it would destroy nesting sites, add pollution to the beach and sea, add lighting which attracts hatchlings towards the boardwalk/road where they are killed.”

Director of the Barbados Sea Turtle Project Sea Turtle Carla Daniel said while the country has to do something about the effects of climate change, many of the solutions so far have been making it difficult for biodiversity.

Daniel told Barbados TODAY: “There are a number of issues that are created for turtles when we put these hard structures on the beach…. The existing boardwalk has caused significant problems for the turtles and the turtle nesting. So, the expectation is that any extension of the existing boardwalk or the construction of additional boardwalk will exacerbate those problems.

“There are a lot of factors at play. In terms of sea turtles… the more boulder developments that we put on our coastline, you will find the more turtles will get trapped in boulders. We had to have the Fire Service use the ‘jaws of life’ both [in 2022 and 2023] in an effort to free adult turtles from boulders.”

The turtle watcher also expressed concern about the difficulty these reptiles are experiencing nesting. She said erosion is quickly occurring at some of the beaches, especially those with existing boardwalks.

“And we have a lot of exposed eggs and so on as a result,” said Daniel. “Also, because the beaches are quite narrow, we have turtles crossing the boardwalk and trying to nest on the other side…hatchlings becoming disoriented by lighting from business places. So, it’s a very