Barbados Is Making A Slow Turn Toward Sustainability. But Is There Enough Time?

12.05.2024 - 12:01 / forbes.com

Sharon Cooke stands impatiently on an overgrown plot in Andromeda Botanic Gardens, a botanical conservancy on the rugged Atlantic side of Barbados.

Cooke, who is Andromeda's curator, is surrounded by thick foliage that's rich in healing properties. There's the Pride of Barbados, a flowering red plant used to treat kidney stones, malaria, and bronchitis. And there's the Bitterwood, whose smooth bark is a natural insecticide. Many of the trees and shrubs here haven't been fully studied and could cure even more illnesses, she says.

The ethnobotanical garden is her latest project, and perhaps her most important one. Cooke is restless for it to take root because when it comes to sustainability in Barbados, there's so much at stake.

"Barbados has been making a slow turn toward sustainability," says Cooke.

That's true. The island adopted a sweeping sustainability policy two decades ago and in 2020 banned many single-use plastics. Barbados also heavily promotes itself as a sustainable tourism destination.

But now there's a sense of urgency within the island's tourism industry, and it's a sentiment that ripples across the Caribbean. Whether you're diving on Barbados' reefs or hiking on the eastern side of the island, you can't help but feel that as climate change accelerates, time is running out to do something.

"Sustainability is extremely important to the island and its people," says Peter Mayers, director of USA for Barbados Tourism Marketing, which promotes tourism on the island. "Meaningful change takes time and patience – it’s a gradual process."

This is part six in a series about sustainable tourism in Central America and the Caribbean. Here's part one about sustainability in Panama, part two about saving Bonaire's number one tourist attraction, part three about Aruba’s struggles to stay sustainable, part four about Curaçao’s conservation efforts, and part five about Grenada’s attempt to go green.

At Barbados Blue, a dive shop on the southwestern side of the island, André Miller is describing his efforts to protect the island's coral reefs from diving and overfishing.

Barbados has some of the most spectacular diving in the Caribbean. On a hazy morning in early May, divers could see green turtles and moray eels on a reef dotted with fan coral waving gently in the current. Miller has also coordinated efforts to create an artificial reef with a sunken coast guard vessel in the shallow waters just a stone's throw from his dive shop.

You wouldn't know by looking at it, but these reefs are shrinking a little every day — as are many reefs in the Caribbean.

"We're out here working to protect them," says Miller.

The problem: Coral is getting bleached by disease and rising water temperatures. One of the most