This story won the Travel Media Association of Canada’s national eco-tourism writing award for 2006.

By CINDA CHAVICH

(ST. MAARTEN) - Andy Cabellero stands on a rocky point on the tiny Caribbean island where he grew up, surveying the turquoise blue sea.

He is here with Jesus Ruiz Lopez, a volunteer with the local Ocean Care Foundation, and they are discussing where they will place the “reef balls” they have been building – concrete domes perforated like gigantic practice golf balls – to create an artificial environment for marine life and a place to transplant  coral. Cabellero points out a small outcropping just off shore known as Pelican Rock, one of only two breeding grounds for the Rusty Pelican which is St. Maarten’s national bird, here in the middle of one of the country’s last pristine diving areas.

“There are some really pretty diving spots just out here – dolphins, sea turtles, humpback and minke whales – we’ve snorkeled with them for hours,” says Cabellero, a marine biologist and oceanographer who has spent all of his professional career working on environmental conservation projects in St. Maarten. In 2003, Cabellero and others like him were successful in having the marine area along the Dutch island’s coastline designated as a marine park, closed to fishing and boat traffic. But like much of this magnet for beach-loving tourists and cruise ships, the St. Maarten’s coral reefs and other remaining natural areas are still struggling to survive.

“We’ve been doing underwater clean-ups, planting trees, talking in schools every other week,” he says. “but we can’t do it all.  Our resources are so limited.”

As the director of the non-governmental organization (NGO) known as the Nature Foundation of Sint Maarten, Cabellero is one of the few people on the island who is actually paid to protect the local flora and fauna. Hired by the fledgling non-profit group in 1997, he acts as the Marine Park manager and oversees a team of local volunteers who work tirelessly cleaning garbage from beaches, protecting nesting areas for endangered sea turtles, replanting mangroves for bird habitat and studying the coral reefs. Along with other volunteer organizations like Reef Keepers and Ocean Care, they attempt to balance the needs of wildlife in the face of ongoing development in a country where tourism is a $8 billion business.

“Our yearly budget is minimal - $100,000 a year, which initially came from the World Wildlife Fund,” says Cabellero of the money cobbled together to run Foundation programs, including a local environmental curriculum for schools and the first scientific study of the underwater ecosystem. Some of the cash comes from fundraising, some from loans or grants from the Dutch government which oversees the country, but the budget is always tenuous.

It seems ironic that Caribbean islands like this – long loved by tourists for their pristine white sand beaches and clear blue waters – should be facing the kind of problems seen in highly-populated, urban areas. But like many small municipalities (the entire island is a mere 37 square miles, split between Dutch and French administrators), there is growing pressure on infrastructure, from roads to water and sewage systems, as more people arrive to visit or build holiday homes.

St. Maarten may be suffering from it’s own success. Every day several massive cruise ships dock here, spilling up to 20,000 tourists into the town of Philipsburg for shore excursions and shopping in the chic duty-free jewelry and electronics stores. Since the first major resorts were constructed here 25 years ago, tourism has grown exponentially. Now there are 6,000 hotel rooms on the island, plus 400 restaurants and 12 casinos on the Dutch side alone. The international airport receives 10 international flights a day, carrying many of 1.2 million visitors who arrive each year.

It all makes for a lively holiday destination, complete with all of the comforts of home.

But now it’s apparent that some stricter development controls may be needed to protect this paradise. The local government has hired a European consulting firm to complete a “carrying capacity study” to determine how much tourism pressure the island’s current infrastructure can handle and to create a Tourism Master Plan for future development.

In the capital of Philipsburg – where a strip of land separates Great Bay from the Great Salt Pond, the site of what was once St. Maartin’s only industry - a wide, paved boardwalk parallels the beach. Lined with open-air restaurants, bars and souvenir shops, it’s bustling and popular, just steps away from Front Street where hordes of tourists bargain with savvy merchants for designer diamond rings and watches.

It’s a lovely shopping strip, but apart from a handful of pretty colonial clapboard buildings – one housing the court house, another the site of a new Tommy Hilfiger clothing store - there are few signs of the old Dutch colonial St. Maarten in this historic port. But down a narrow lane, tucked between shops selling silk scarves and postcards, the Sint Maarten Museum gives some clues to the island’s past. Elsje Bosch has spent the last decade running the museum and, with artifacts she’s collected with the help of volunteers, she can trace the island history, from the Arawak Indians to the Dutch sugar plantations, the exploitation of African slaves and their back-breaking work in the salt industry. Bosch was one of the first island residents to fight for preservation of historic and natural sites, and is now administrator of the Heritage Foundation which works with groups like Cabellero’s.

“I have been one of the crying wolves since we started in the ’70s,” she says. “We were very concerned with the slowly but surely endangerment of nature and local monuments .”

“Back in the ’60s, this was a very peaceful island, only 1,400 people, clean well-kept. When tourism came, the island population doubled, and doubled again. Suddenly we have an enormous increase in people – 40,000 here and another 40,000 on the French side.”

And while progress has been slow, there have been some successes.

“The decision was made that Philipsburg should stay somewhat historical, so you can’t build too high and I’m happy about that,” Bosch says. “Now we are planting trees and people are taking pride in the island.”

While the Nature and Heritage foundations continue to press for stronger environmental and cultural protections, development remains the overriding priority for many. Tourism has brought this once sleepy island a level of prosperity and employment that was unfathomable only a generation ago. So striking a workable balance between conservation and development is tricky for islanders, even for ardent environmentalists like Cabellero.

“While it can seem that there’s no political will for conservation, the government doesn’t have the money or the expertise to do it,” he says. “Every park manager in the entire Antilles is an NGO.”

“This is a small island, with other problems,” adds Bosch. “With natural disasters like hurricanes, there are bigger priorities than heritage.”

When the Nature Foundation was established in 1998, the intent was to establish both a marine and a “hillside” park. While Cabellero personally helped with the planting of 3,000 mangrove trees around some of the island’s salt ponds, and the foundation has built platforms where birders can watch snowy egrets, ducks and an array of shore birds, so far the dream of conserving any of the natural hilltops as parks has been elusive.

“We hoped to conserve some of the hillsides here, too, but all of the land we chose to protect is private property and the owners don’t want to give it up,” he says, pointing to an undeveloped, eight-mile ridge bordering the marine park on the islands southeastern shore.

While there are no lush rain forests on St. Maarten to save, the island is covered with steep hills, dotted with cacti, buttonwood and seagrapes, and rutted with rough trails, picked across the slopes by the island’s resident goats. Short and strenuous hikes are possible – Paradise Peak reaches 424 m – and trekkers may spot resident wildlife, from five-foot iguanas to tiny tree frogs, living among the mango and tamarind trees. The Heritage Foundation has published a small walking guide, detailing several unmarked trails across undeveloped land like this, but don’t expect to find any national parks.

That’s still on Cabellero’s to-do list, along with many other ongoing projects. Whether he’s talking about issues like over-fishing of local lobster and conch, educating tourists about how careless snorkeling and diving is killing fragile coral reefs, or helping the Hospitality and Trade Association get “green”, Cabellero is voice of the environment in St. Maarten.

“We’ve been successful in getting an umbrella law, the Nature Ordinance, to finally define what the environment is, and how it will be protected,” he says of a new piece of legislation in the works. “We may not be a major eco-tourism destination, like some islands, but whatever we have left, we should protect.”

IF YOU GO:

The Nature Foundation of Sint Maarten administers the marine park on the Dutch side of the island (www.naturefoundationsxm.org or 599-542-0267) while the French side of the island has a NaturePreserve of Saint-Martin along the northeast coast, encompassing both land and marine park areas (0590 20 09 72). To learn about the natural and cultural history of St. Maarten, visit the Sint Maarten National Heritage Foundation, Frontstreet 7, Philipsburg, (tel: 5995-424917; www.speetjens.com). The Foundation publishes a hiking guide book, Island Walks by Riet Sint-Straatman, which is available at the museum for $10.

For outdoor sports, including diving, guided hikes and kayak tours, contact Tri-Sport at 545-4384 (trisport@caribserve.net). You can also rent mountain bikes for $18/day and kayaks for $15 per hour (US).

To learn about  eco-sensitive diving and snorkeling, contact dive instructor Jesus Ruiz Lopez at 599-5237390 (OceanCare@caribserve.net)

GETTING THERE:

A $90 million (US) project is now underway to double the size of the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) in St. Maarten. Scheduled flights from Canada to PJIA are offered by United, Delta and American Airlines. Air Transat Holidays has weekly  charter flights from Toronto, Montreal  and Vancouver/Calgary, and Air Canada Vacations begins weekly charters from Toronto Dec. 18. Contact your travel agent to book.

For more information contact the St. Maarten Tourist Office (Canada) at (416) 622-4300 or email stmaarten@melainecommunications.com

©Cinda Chavich

www.tastereport.com

(a version of this story appeared in the Globe and Mail newspaper)