Chiara Carter
Moves by a South African company to create a free trade zone on a tiny island off the West Coast of Africa have been slammed by environmentalists.
West African Development Corporation (Wadco) has won a contract to operate a free trade zone stretching across a third of the island of Principe – a 139km2 volcanic island in the Gulf of Guinea.
The proposed free zone is intended to serve market and industry needs in the gulf, where more and more oil companies are operating, and function as a free trade haven such as the Channel Islands, Mauritius and the Bahamas.
Activities would range from a deep- water port to tourism, trade and industry and financial services.
The agreement between Wadco and the government of Sao Tom and Principe includes a provision that any development is dependent on an environmental assessment report. The agreement also stipulates that Wadco has to comply with a range of international environmental norms.
However, conservation groups want the free zone to be relocated to the larger island of Sao Tom , which is 800km2 and has a larger population. The World Bank agrees that Sao Tom would be a better site for the project.
Conservationists are concerned that large-scale development will threaten the ecosystem on the island and in surrounding waters. Principe and Sao Tom were never part of the African continent, which means several species of wildlife and plants are unique to the islands.
Principe is one of the 20 top bird conservation areas in the world and the nearby rocks are a major breeding ground for birds.
According to Martim Pinheiro de Melo, a researcher at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of the University of Cape Town, if the trade zone goes ahead, workers would have to move to Principe placing pressure on forests surrounding the free zone area.
De Melo said the $250 000 insurance Wadco has to pay against the possibility of environmental degradation was low, as was the $100 000 annual rental Wadco would pay the government.
Locating the free zone in Sao Tom would have greater socio-economic benefits and fewer environmental risks.
However, the agreement between Wadco and the government specifies that the assessment would not look at other possible sites for the free zone.
ENDS