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Partners announced work toward Little Key nature park in July 2024
In July 2024, the Ministry of VROMI and the Nature Foundation announced they were working with partners to finalise legislation protecting Little Key, a three-hectare island in Simpson Bay Lagoon, as Sint Maarten's first land-based nature park.
By SXM Daily ยท
Reported 29 July 2024.
The Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI) and the Nature Foundation Sint Maarten announced in July 2024 that they were working with the Blue Marine Foundation, the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance (DCNA) and the law firm DEJONG to finalise legislation for a Little Key Protection Area. The announcement was made at a public "Mangrove Morning" event at IGY Simpson Bay Marina, according to a government release dated 29 July 2024.
Illustrative: Simpson Bay Lagoon from above. Photo: SV Zanshin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
According to the release, Little Key is a three-hectare island on the lagoon border between Sint Maarten and Saint-Martin. It includes a well-known mangrove restoration area, healthy native seagrass beds and a nursery area for marine life. The pending legislation would support making it the first terrestrial "nature park" under Sint Maarten's National Ordinance on the Foundations of Nature Management and Protection.
What was said
VROMI policy adviser Ildiko Gilders said ratifying Little Key as a nature park would give legal protection to the ecosystems around it, and that heavy coastal development made protecting such areas more essential. Nature Foundation manager Leslie Hickerson, VROMI Minister Patrice Gumbs and conservationist Tadzio Bervoets also spoke about the value of mangroves.
The government said nearly 50 members of the public, civil servants and political figures attended. Afterwards, Nature Foundation staff led a lagoon tour by boat to see the mangroves at Little Key and Mullet Pond. The Nature Foundation published the same announcement on its own site.
What happens next
The release did not give a date for the legislation to be passed. For more on the lagoon around Little Key, see Simpson Bay Lagoon and Mullet Pond.