Let us leave the environmental authority to the State
November 3rd last, Louis-Constant Fleming, Senator for Saint-Martin, submitted a law proposal particularly aiming at requesting turning over the authority over environmental matters to the Territorial Municipality of Saint-Martin. I deem this to be an error.
The reason advanced for this request is the “logic” there would be to possess this authority at the same time as those which will be attributed to us automatically after the territorial elections due to occur during the month of March 2012 : Town planning, construction, housing, lodging and energy. According to the Senator, the environment’s protection cannot be envisaged independently of the arrangements which will be taken in these fields of competence. It is a way of seeing things…
It is true that the rules in matters of town planning or energy must respect rules aiming at protecting the environment : preservation of protected species and natural areas, realization of public inquiries, rules regarding noise levels, quality of water, land clearing authorizations, regulations regarding the set-up of industrial sites, etc…
But nothing is keeping the Territorial Municipality, even deprived of any environmental authority, from decreeing town planning rules protecting the environment better than the national laws do !
If the Senator of Saint-Martin wishes to obtain authority over environmental matters, it is thus really because environmentally-conscious parties are likely to hinder the free movement of the Territorial Municipality’s new authority, and we see dawning the risk of the framework of the rules on which the elected representatives seek to carry out this additional authority being levelled down.
If we loosen this environmental restriction, on which rules will we base our actions to avoid ruining and the over-construction of the whole territory to the detriment of the entire population’s environment ? To preserve areas devoted to agriculture and livestock breeding ? to guarantee the durability of actions led by the nature preserve for over 15 years ? to force the authorities to properly treat waste waters ? to preserve the quality of ponds and bathing waters ? to avoid the illegal set-up of industrial sites, wind vanes or solar farms ?
The preservation of the environment is a major asset for Saint-Martin and its tourism-based economy. Let’s not ask for a chain saw to saw the branch on which we’re sitting.
Who guarantees us that the men and women elected next March and those following during the following years will have the will, the financial means, and the technical knowledge required and will be better positioned than the State’s departments to guarantee the consideration of the environmental issues ? Up to now, we are not smothered by proposals or results from any parties regarding the environment, sustainable development. Up to now, the investments and projects for renewable energies have been carried out in an opportunistic manner, without thought or consultation with the neighbourhood councils and the C.E.S.C.E. . And the fact that the lawmaker plans to have the C.E.S.C.E. endowed with authority over environmental matters, or that the Executive Council be required to present a document on sustainable development for Saint-Martin once each year are in no case whatsoever sufficient safeguard, in any case much less than the State’s action.
Let’s begin by correctly carrying out the authority we already hold (tax matters, transports, tourism, roadways,…) or that we will soon hold (town planning, energy, housing, lodging, construction) before requesting more, to the risk of discrediting ourselves and provoking real ecological or health catastrophes. We already have enough to do as it is.
For curiosity’s sake, let’s take a glance at what’s happening on Saint Barth.’s, where the municipality holds the authority over environmental matters and over the protection over wooded areas since 2007, as well as authority over town planning matters. The National Environment Code has been reduced and a local environment code adopted, strongly resembling the national code, with the major difference that the public inquiries obligatorily carried out in the national code have been eliminated in the local code. The writing up of a land development and sustainable development plan has been kept, at my request, and it should legally have been completed for summer 2011. It has still not been subject to thought and has been put off to an unknown date. Finally, regarding town planning matters, if environmental stakes have been considered, it is also due to citizens’ pressure, and that of local environmentally-conscious associations.
To finish, I will add that regarding a subject of such an importance, and to give it all its chances of success, common sense would want the Senator to defend his law proposal with the support of his Territorial Council and the C.E.S.C.E., and not without even having consulted them. Thus, by giving the impression of acting alone, the Senator makes the defense of his proposal to obtain the authority over environmental matters all the more difficult, which I hope, for Saint-Martin’s long term interest, will not be accepted by his peers of the higher parliamentary assembly.
Benoît Chauvin
Cap21 Outre-Mer