Green Barbados
Everyone can play their part in protecting and making the environment of Barbados Green. Learn about practicing the three ‘R’s – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – at home, at work and finally where to find recycling centres in Barbados.
Barbados relies heavily on the tourism sector to generate income to this small developing nation; therefore it is very important to the people of Barbados that this beautiful country is protected from the impact of our actions.
Therefore we encourage all tourists to dispose of their rubbish when they are on the beaches as this can be harmful to the marine and coastal environment.
Barbados also enjoys a healthy population of sea turtles, which come on to land to hatch their eggs, therefore it is very important that these baby turtles get to enjoy a natural environment as they make their first journey to the sea unhindered by our unwanted garbage.
As a developing country, Barbados has not been as advanced as other nations in developing a greener way of life, however these issues are being addressed by The Future Centre Trust, whose role is to educate the public on how to lead a greener life for the benefit of our country and to protect our much needed tourism sector.
There is one area where Barbados has excelled, and that is in the use of renewable energy. The majority of properties in Barbados get their hot water through Solar Power, and as you go around the island you will see flat panels on the roofs of houses, these panels take power from the sun and heat the water.
Another developing energy source on the island is wind power and using this to generate electricity.
Fourteen years ago at the United Nations conference for Small Island Developing States, Dr Colin Hudson created an exhibit of a the ‘Village of Hope‘ which showed the impact of our past and present actions and gave examples of how we could change for the future.
This village made such an impact on Dame Nita Barrow who was Governor General for Barbados at the time that she suggested that the exhibit become a permanent fixture in Barbados and so the Future Centre Trust was created in 1995.
The aim of the Future Centre Trust is to promote better practice for our environment in Barbados and eventually throughout the Caribbean.
On a very limited staff, The Future Centre Trust primarily targets school children and young families with their initiatives and teaches the three ‘R‘ – reduce, reuse and recycle. They are a non-profit organisation without government funding and rely solely on donations of time from volunteers and monetary donations through tours of the centre.
Hotels on the island realise their role in protecting the environment and some have implemented green policies to ensure that they are promoting a greener way of life to their guests and the community that they are located in; one such hotel is
www.counterpartcaribbean.com
.
And finally a new website www.gogreenbarbados.com has also just been launched (January 2009) to give guidance on how the community can develop better practices to protect the environment.
