This past Thursday, April 18, the Island School and CEI hosted a Tourism and Coastal Development Symposium. This event was organized by CEI, One Eleuthera, the Kinship Conservation Fellows, and other partners.The focus of the symposium was to discuss the future of Eleuthera, and guests included government officials, representatives from BREEF, One Eleuthera, FIsheries Conservation Foundation, Bahamas Electric Company, Bahamas Waste Ltd., and the Bahamas National Trust to name a few. Island School students also got the opportunity to attend the symposium, and to hear about these timely issues facing Eleuthera.
There were several productive breakout sessions, with topics ranging from “Tourism and Development” to “Fisheries and Agricultural Parks” to “the Cultural History of the Bahamas”. There were many important comments from the audience, including questions posed by Island School and Deep Creek Middle School students. The evening ended with a presentation from Stan Burnside, where he discussed his hopes for a tourism focused on culture of the Bahamas. This event was well-attended, and was followed by a social event.