The Hog Island/ Mt. Hartman Development Project in Grenada is being undertaken by Cinnamon 88. According to the Cinnamon 88 website, this development is ‘a 400-acre southerly coastal tropical woodland development incorporating 55 private island residences, 115 beach front villas, 18-hole golf course, spa, tennis academy and a 124-room Caribbean-style hotel’. It boasts that it will be the biggest Four Seasons in the world. The development involves a national park and nearby Hog Island, a 70-acre island owned by a local family for four generations. There are many controversial issues surrounding this proposed development. Hog Island, used as pasture land for animals, is also part of the National Park and Protected Areas system, a national landmark which borders a Marine Protected Area. There was no dialogue with the owners of Hog Island about the plans for using their land for the tourism development and the issue of compensation remains unresolved. The Marine Protected Area contains some of the most pristine mangrove forests left in the island, which serve as a nursery for approximately 70 per cent of the fish species fished in Grenada. Locals are asking: “Are more mangroves going to be cut down to create beaches and what about the livelihoods of local fishermen?” Mt. Hartman is a national park and houses a dove sanctuary, home of Grenada’s critically endangered species the Grenada Dove. However, the government amended the National Park and Protected Areas Act to facilitate the transfer of the ownership of the Grenada Dove sanctuary to Cinnamon 88. This action elicited much protest nationally and internationally, including a Save the Grenada Dove campaign which has highlighted significant destruction of the Grenada Dove habitat and mangroves to make way for a bridge joining Mt. Hartman to Hog Island. Despite this, Cinnamon 88 began land clearing in 2007. Currently, in Grenada, all beaches are public. But locals are fearful about whether they will still have access to the beaches on Hog Island or whether they will be deterred by the presence of security measures as has happened on nearby privately owned Calivigny island. On Mt. Hartman access has already been cut off by the erection of a gate at the entrance of the public road. We as locals have important questions which are not being answered. Did Cinnamon 88 get planning permission and if so, how? Was an Environmental Impact Assessment conducted and reviewed by a credible and competent team? Without any public consultation on this immense luxury development, there is now a feeling that locals are becoming strangers in their own country. Source: Tourism Concern Author: Sandra Ferguson