Development of Birding and Eco Tourism Industry Has Multi-Million Dollar Potential for St. Maarten
The St. Maarten Nature Foundation urges all stakeholders on St. Maarten to call for the protection and sustainable development of the Little Bay Pond as a conservation area, important wetland and an untapped resource in terms of eco-tourism and bird watching potential.
The Little Bay Pond area is recognized as an IBA, or Important Bird Area. An IBA is an internationally recognized designation of an area recognizing its importance to birds and an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International. These sites are small enough to be entirely conserved and differ in their character, habitat or ornithological importance from the surrounding habitat. In the United States the Program is administered by the National Audubon Society. The IBA designation for the Little Bay Pond is AN001 and is an important migratory bird area as well as home to local populations of the St. Maarten National Bird the Brown Pelican and numerous other wetland and terrestrial species including the Antillean Crested Hummingbird, Lesser Antillean Bullfinch and Pearly Eyed Thrasher.
Environmental and conservation organizations on St. Maarten have been doing numerous conservation activities at Little Bay Pond including mangrove reforestation, educational tours and school visits, water quality management and bird counts. Additionally the Little Bay Pond acts as a catchment basin for runoff during periods of heavy rainfall, particularly during heavy flooding events preventing the Belair and cay Hill area from experiencing significant residential flooding.
St. Maarten has also seen an increase in the number of birding visitors, or visitors coming to St. Maarten to specifically look for and photograph rare bird species. Birding is a multi-million dollar worldwide industry and areas like Mullet Pond prove to be an immense untapped resource for St. Maarten in terms of untapped tourism revenue and tourism product diversification for the island. A recent United States Fish and Wildlife report states that birders spent an estimated 12 billion American dollars on birding and birding related expenses in the United States alone and that it is a significantly growing industry.
In the framework of sustainable development and destination diversification Little Bay Pond can be a crucial element in strengthening the ‘green economy’ of St. Maarten. The Nature Foundation will continue its wide scale lobby to protect the Little Bay Pond and additional wetlands on St. Maarten