St. Maarten Agricultural Research and Development Centre President Denicio Wyatte (right) shows Minister of Agriculture Stuart Johnson some of the guavaberry plants and other plants in the community garden.
ST. PETERS–Denicio Wyatte is facing many challenges in his bid to provide an organic, alternative food source for his community in St. Peters. Demolition of St. Maarten Agricultural Research and Development Centre, which is set for Hurricane Irma’s anniversary on Thursday, September 6, may be the healthy food proponent’s largest challenge to date.
Bones of contention are three buildings erected at the Spaceless Garden area. Hurricane Irma destroyed the three original wooden structures in September 2017. To prevent any future damage Wyatte, the Agricultural Centre’s president, decided to rebuild the buildings in concrete.
A building stop was ordered in October/November 2017 because no building permit had been issued. And on July 24, 2018, the Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI ordered Wyatte to break down the structures as they had been built without a permit.
Wyatte turned to the Court in an effort to get the ministerial order off the table, but on August 17, 2018, the Court ruled that the VROMI Ministry’s decision to order the removal of the concrete structures was valid, despite Wyatte’s company’s “noble goals.”
Children enjoying Philipsburg Jubilee Library’s summer camp at St. Maarten Agricultural Research and Development Centre. (Spaceless Gardens photo)
According to Wyatte, his project provides “unique learning opportunities, community-outreach efforts, volunteer opportunities, capacity and leadership building, entrepreneurship opportunities, socially-interactive experiences, waste management through organic reconstruction and possibilities towards a healthier lifestyle.
“It also offered higher-quality organic produce for free or at lower cost than the average supermarket price, while offering a place to get away from the overcrowded developments and be inspired by nature towards preserving the environment.”
The centre has been supported by members in the surrounding communities and supportive organisations such as Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, UNESCO, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Social and Health Insurances SZV, the Ministry of Public Health and St. Maarten Tourist Bureau.
Students of many local schools along with college students from as far as Harvard University in the United States have visited the property and participated in various programmes.
As part of its community outreach, the centre supplies plants to residents to help them start their own farms. However, when Wyatte built his nursery that houses more than 4,000 plants at a time to accommodate the programme, he was told it had to be demolished.
Wyatte said that over the next few days he will be trying to establish communication with VROMI Minister Miklos Giterson “with hopes on getting a speedy appointment to sit and discuss positive possibilities on moving forward with the project and perhaps how government can also play a great role towards using the research and data gathered by this project to help complement and strengthen the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP).”
A petition to stop the demolition or relocation of the Agricultural Centre has gathered more than 700 “digital and physical” signatures thus far.
“All that is missing now is the positive support and signature of Minister Giterson himself,” Wyatte said. “We have all seen the grief and sorrow of a natural disaster and the organisation is asking Minister Giterson not to create a manmade disaster but consider using the already-thriving project as one of the first sustainable projects in the direction of community livelihood and resilience of the NRRP.”
Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (TEATT) Stuart Johnson visited the garden on Friday. Johnson said that while he does not have responsibility for the VROMI Ministry, which deals with land, he will reach out to his colleague minister to see what, if anything, can be done to save the garden.
“This is an unfortunate situation indeed, seeing that this project has so much great potential for St. Maarten. I am always elated to see when young people take the lead,” Johnson told Wyatte.
Johnson said TEATT Ministry will be developing a “sustainable agricultural policy” to maximise the potential for farming and fishing as a business model for residents. It will also create programmes to stimulate backyard gardening. He said the work being done by Wyatte “is precisely the kind of practices that we should be encouraging everyone to do if they have some space in their back yard.”
Johnson told Wyatte that while many in the past may have played politics with his dream of providing a sustainable organic food source to the community, he would work with his government to find solutions and support related projects.
Based on the recent challenges of finding adequate food supply in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, Johnson said more effort must be put into encouraging agricultural entrepreneurship and promoting the benefits of stimulating aquaponics and hydroponics within the community.
Impressed with the presentation, Johnson told Wyatte he plans to work on establishing positive collaboration between the TEATT Ministry and the community garden.
“I would like to thank Minister Johnson for taking time out to visit me at the project, I highly appreciated his presence. We had a very positive conversation, and we both felt positive about the direction and objectives that are trying to be achieved,” Wyatte said.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/80249-agricultural-research-centre-facing-demolition-thursday
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