Welcome to BEST

In 2004, the Bermuda International Business Association (BIBA) delivered a report to the Bermuda Government, titled Campaign for the Future of Bermuda: A Review of Youth Violence. In the report, BIBA called for the assessment, management and planning of growth in the International Business (IB) Sector. The same analysis should be applied to the Tourism sector. (more…)

“ADVANCED T-SHIRT PURCHASES”
$20, $50 or $100 Shirts
Please make cheques payable to: B.E.S.T.
Mail cheques to:
Suite 528,
48 Par-la-Ville Road,
Hamilton HM11
Bermuda
Note: Please send email to cpowell@northrock.bm indicating your payment and cheque number.shirt-layout.pdf

To put it simply, BEST is working on several fronts to preserve Bermuda’s social, economic and physical environment. (more…)

Dear friend of the Environment,

In order for the Bermuda Environment and Sustainability Taskforce (BEST) to continue the fight against the ongoing threats to our diminishing open spaces we must begin to raise funds to support our cause. (more…)

If the Southlands developers build on the shoreline as planned, they will:

• Set a precedent for making Bermuda’s shoreline resemble Miami or Cancun where rows and rows of hotels are built virtually right on the beaches.

• Open shoreline to other development opportunists - once one hotel does it then other developers will argue they should be able to do likewise for hotels, condos, an other luxury housing projects.

• Require construction of “foreshore reinforcement” and protection devices - experts and experience tell us that without protective walls, revetments, groins and other massive concrete devices, no buildings can survive heavy weather and waves on the shoreline.

• Affect beach dynamics far beyond property borders - whatever beach protection device is used, it will change the dynamics of the beachfront leading to beach loss or disruption further along the coastline.

• Set stage for coastline litter - when any destructive event occurs, the construction materials, including glass, along with furnishings and other debris will be strewn along the South Shore, making the area far more unsafe and unaesthetic than it would otherwise be.

The Bermuda Government has this information from the Coastal Erosion study commissioned after Hurricane Fabian. We all have this information from the news from Cancun & other places reporting on the consequences of shoreline development.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2007/03/11/cancun_nature_at_war_over_beaches/
http://www.examiner.com/a-612820~Cancun__Nature_at_War_Over_Beaches.html

Building on Bermuda’s shoreline must not be allowed!

The following is the transcript of a speech given by Mr. Rudolph Hollis (recent ex-Director for the Department of Planning) at the BEST public meeting on March 22nd, 2007.

I was invited to come this evening and speak. As a career Civil Servant, we are obviously taught and trained not to take things personally. When we assess applications, we have to be very open-minded and simply rely on our education, the policies of the day and precedence. In many cases you will get situations where you feel very personal about something, but you have to set that aside and simply deal with the facts as they are presented to you.

My presentation simply speaks to the SDO as it’s commonly known, and what I’d like to do is simply just to look at the facts as it relates to the SDO and not to be personal in terms of the actual development of the “Southlands” property. (more…)

Here’s another image that shows very clearly how the Southlands Resort would drastically change the shoreline. The cliffs along the beach at Southlands offer prime habitat for the critically endangered Bermuda skink and the longtail. If this resort is allowed to destroy the coastline in such a way - Bermuda will be missing a large section of important haibitat, placing our native and endemic wildlife at greater risk.