Striking a balance is crucial
CEO of the Barbados Agriculture Society (BAS), James Paul is open to ideas from stakeholders on how to handle the vexing issue of monkeys being a pest on farms. However, even though the BAS wants a solution, he assures farmers that they are working fully on their behalf.
Paul was speaking at a press conference held by the BAS and Action for Animals Barbados at the BAS headquarters. He reiterated, “I have spoken about the impact monkeys have on farmers’ livelihoods. They view them as pests because of the damage they do to crops. In a small space such as Barbados we are impacted, therefore we must manage this entire situation.
“At the BAS we want to protect the farmers’ livelihood, but we are open to different methods. This is a vexing issue to farmers, but we know we have unplanned development and planned development that has destroyed their habitat. Therefore, it also calls on policymakers that, in terms of making planning decisions, they need to consider all the variables in the environment. Some ask the government to make speedy decisions on applications for development in certain areas, those persons who want speedy decisions are operating in many cases from a point of self-interest.
“Certainly, we are asking for Government to take into consideration all the variables that are required when making a decision, such as the farmers’ interest and also the question of the wildlife population in the area and the extent to which we are compromising their habitat. We have seen with the Four Seasons project some time ago the destruction of the habitat of the monkey population and because of that they proved to be a pest in areas that this was not a problem.”
Paul insisted, “We need balanced and sustainable development where we take into consideration all stakeholders in the matter and the fact that we need zones in Barbados and we do need an agriculture zone that is protected. We know the monkeys have been in certain areas traditionally and some of those areas have been compromised.
“While it is all well and good when persons have monkeys as babies, when they get big they become uncontrollable and they just get rid of them, but the society has a responsibility not to engage in acts that will create problems in the future.”
The members of the Action for Animals (AFA) believes that through a pilot project with farmers they can protect the monkey and prevent them from being a pest for farmers. They believe other methods have not worked and this in the time for a different approach.
Karen Howard-Tripp, member of AFA added, “We are looking at helping man and animal coexist better. We have such beautiful land and gullies, we wanted to find a way that is a win win situation that we can keep monkeys in the gully areas.We have spoken to Paul and the farmers and we know they are a menace to crops.
“We have decided to take a pilot project and try and develop the gully areas, clean it out, [and] replant and enable the monkey to have their own food source. We will also take some research to understand their patterns. Our next stop would be to meet with the farmers to do an onsite visit of the gullies.” (NB)