Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
species than occurred before development, the resulting mix of birds was
dominated by a few common species and many rare ones. On the estate,
pigeons and doves became common, as did a few wetland and open-i eld spe-
cies, such as the cape wagtail, blacksmith lapwing, spotted thick-knee, and the
beautiful pin-tailed whydah. Their local gain came at a regional expense of the
four lost Strandveld specialists.
The birds of St. Lucia paid an even higher price. Only around i fteen
hundred white-breasted thrashers exist in the world, all of them on the two
tiny Caribbean Islands of St. Lucia and Martinique. Travel and tourism drive
these island economies, so the pace of resort construction is furious. As a re-
sult, nine of every ten bits of native bird habitat have been cleared from
St. Lucia. Native bird populations are reduced to small, endangered capsules
crowded into the few remaining fragments of nature that survive. Each suc-
cessive resort chips away at the tenuous existence of the birds. Le Paradis re-
sort was built in 2006 on top of the largest remaining thrasher population. It
took a quarter of the birds' remaining habitat and cut the world's population
by 15 to 20 percent. Large developments on small, biologically rich islands are
incompatible with nature conservation. Even the best attempts to limit de-
struction and mitigate ef ects are destined to fail—there is quite simply not
enough room for the inevitable miscalculation of humans and randomness of
nature. The greens fees of island golf are priced beyond what nature can af-
ford to pay.
Sometimes golf courses make real contributions to conservation. A be-
loved electric blue, rust, and white songbird was recovered from the brink of
extinction in part because of nest boxes installed on golf courses. The eastern
bluebird population in the United States and Canada declined from the
1930s to 1970s, eventually being reduced by an estimated 90 percent. Clearing
of nesting habitat, overzealous use of pesticides, and a series of very cold win-
ters transformed a favorite and common bird into a species of conservation
