Commitment No 7: Review the Range, Quality and Availability of Baseline Data for Natural Resources and Biodiversity.
This was the seventh commitment made by the government of Anguilla, like other OT governments which in the year 2001 signed up to an Environmental Charter [link here] .
Dr Mike Pienkowski is the Chairman of the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum. He was engaged as a consultant to examine how we were performing under our Charter. He prepared a Report of August 2007. His Report measures performance by the year 2007 of UKOTs and the UK Government in implementing the 2001 Environment Charters. A copy of his 19-page Report can be read [link here].
According to the Report, Anguilla is doing about average in meeting its obligations in relation to this commitment. There are some taxa and natural resources for which base-line data have been collected and made available. [A taxon (plural taxa), or taxonomic unit, is a name designating an organism or group of organisms. A taxon is assigned a rank and can be placed at a particular level in a systematic hierarchy reflecting evolutionary relationships: [link here]]. Similarly, there are some taxa and natural resources for which there are, apparently, monitoring programmes in Anguilla. In this, we are said to be similar to such territories as Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos. But, we are said to have to do a lot to catch up with Bermuda, Gibraltar and the Isle of Man.
I would really appreciate it if someone in the Environment Department or the Anguilla National Trust could enlighten us as to what exactly it is that we in Anguilla have done to meet this commitment. Does it only mean that we have been counting iguanas? What about the rubbish dumps that are developing on the road to Cap Juluca Hotel? Or, on the dirt road through the Hughes Estate from Anguilla Trading to Long Bay? Do these count, or are they irrelevant to natural resources and biodiversity?
this link is also very interesting;
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/32roqb
from BioDiplomacy submission to the Select Committees Foreign Affairs
The FCO says, "We need to put a greater proportion of the revenue we raise from our environment into locally established environmental funds and systems. Expenditure must be transparently linked to the purpose for which the funds were originally raised."
ReplyDelete"The Minister of Finance further disclosed that with effect from January 1, 2003, an Environmental Levy would be introduced. It will be collected by the Anguilla Electricity Company on behalf of the Government with the payment of electricity bills. He said the tax will be at the rate of 5% of the electricity bill of each household or business. This will provide for a minimum collection of $5.00, amounting to $1.5 million in 2003. He noted that this amounted to a fraction of the over $2 million expected to be spent on maintaining a sustainable environment."
--The Anguillian, 13 December 2002
He later revealed that the money would be used to fund garbage collection services.
From the United Front Manifesto 2000:
ReplyDeleteECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
The United Front programme for the economic and social development of Anguilla will be based on careful planning combining economic, social and environmental planning in an integrated approach. A five year integrated economic and social development plan will be prepared and implemented, on the basis of the programme goals and objectives and specific targets and commitments contained in this United Front agreement.
From the United Front Manifesto 2005
AUF Vision 2020: Anguilla in the year 2020 will be a harmonious and empowered society, in a healthy environment...
AUF Mission 2005 and beyond: To manage the environment to achieve long term sustainability, for the benefit of present and future generations.
This Government is hellbent on destroying Anguillians with their many taxes and tax increases. Tieing the Levy to the Electricity bill is both arbitrary and abominable, given the enormous amounts charged by Anglec to its customers; including the so called "fuel surcharge" etc. The 5% is taken on the total bill which includes this illegal charge, and will kill a lot of hard working Anguillians..
ReplyDeleteWhat is the Government paying Anglec, now a Private Corporation, to manage this scheme for it??
Why is it necessary to use Anglec or its billing system to impose this unnecessary additional tax on people??
This Government has sold Anglec to a few people when it was already owned by ALL the People of Anguilla.
Check the ownership of the shares in Anglec now and you wilol see a pattern of what is called "Interlocking directorates".
A few people and institutions in Anguilla control all the key assets in Anguilla, and some of them are Decision Makers.
That this continues to happen without a word from the people of Anguilla illustrates the docility and unawareness, not to mention the relative stupidity, of the people.
It has oft been said that a people get the Government they deserve. Anguilla speaks volumes to that assertion.
The United Front is the WORST thing EVER to happen to the people of Anguilla. The rich elites get richer and the working people get nothing. Check out the enormous increase in wealth of the Gangs associated with United Front personel.
ReplyDeleteThe call for written submissions by the Foreign Affairs Committee generated 36 responses from Overseas Territory governments, groups and individuals. They included submissions from Pitcairn Island (population less than 50), the frozen Falkland Islands and remote St. Helena, but not a word from Anguilla.
ReplyDeleteThose in Anguilla whose incessant posturing about how we are treated by the FCO were completely silent when they had a chance to really change things. I believe this exposes their true motives, which are all about the next election.
I can only repeat the words of Eric Reid in his Farewell Message, in which he warned us about "persons who become community minded only to ensure their own personal gain."
It is quite distressing to hear of the sad state of affairs in Anguilla on the net. We seems to have a knack for speaking out on-line but not where it really matters. What is wrong with that picture is that, even though our problems are aired and debated, it really achieves nothing in terms of a remedy. There is no outward change in policy or the Gov't’s position on the issues that directly affect us. We appear to be raging about issues that are not at the forefront of the Gov't 's agenda, whatever that means.
ReplyDeleteIt is therefore our responsibilty to work to remove these officials so that the proper focus and plans can be speedily implemented. If not we will be the laughing stock of the region and our economy and ecosystems will ultimately collapse. The greed for financial gain or advancement is clouding the thought process and judgement of our people and it is time that we put and end to it permanently, once and for all.
Why are we so resistant to outside suggestions is beyond my comprehension, and reeks of a more sinister conspiracy, where our people are being systematically brainwashed into believing that the UK and all other foreigners are bent on dispossessing us of our land and homes. In fact to the contrary, our leaders are filling our heads with this utter nonsense to cover their deception and deceipt. There is a way to recover from all this, and that. is to show them through the democratic process that we no longer need their services and are willing to allow a new breed with a new vision for the country to take over the leadership and propel us into the future with a new purpose and direction. We have to stop waiting on others to do this and take responsibility to better ourselves seriously.
"How could you tell how much of it was lies? It might be true that the average human being was better off now than he had been before the Revolution. The only evidence to the contrary was the mute protest in your own bones, the instinctive feeling that the conditions you lived in were intolerable and that at some other time they must have been different. It struck him that the truly characteristic thing about modern life was not its cruelty and insecurity, but simply its bareness, its dinginess, its listlessness. Life, if you looked about you, bore no resemblance not only to the lies that streamed out of the telescreens, but even to the ideals that the Party was trying to achieve ... The ideal set up by the Party was something huge, terrible, and glittering - a nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts and shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting... The reality was decaying, dingy cities where underfed people shuffled to and fro in leaky shoes, in patched-up nineteenth-century houses that smelt always of cabbage and bad lavatories." --George Orwell, 1949
ReplyDeleteGeorge Orwell's Animal Farm?
ReplyDeleteJeh jeh and Merry Christmas.
We had 25% Ham from Proctor, sent in the pigs.
But really, I was under the impression it was Anguilla, Anguilla politicians and people who were so unconcerned about Anguilla's future.
From the report by the RSPB I take away that it is a general trend in the overseas territories and Anguilla is one of the many who are just not getting it just yet.
It made me feel better, it did.
Thank you for sharing, Mr. Mitchell