Barbudans launch new environmental legal fight in Caribbean against wealthy developers

By DÁNICA COTO
Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Construction of two private villas inside a national park in Barbuda has sparked the latest environmental legal fight between angry residents and wealthy foreigners seeking to develop the Caribbean island with government support. Fisherman and tour guide George Jeffery and the U.K.-based Global Legal Action Network filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to overturn the construction permit because the island’s Development Control Authority granted it even though the Department of the Environment of the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda rejected the proposal twice. The fight comes on the heels of another case in which Barbudan residents are opposing construction of hundreds of luxury residences, an 18-hole golf course and a beach club on protected wetland.