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Nature Sanctuary Wins First Round in International Arbitration

Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary is pleased to update its stakeholders regarding the complaint filed by its Canadian owner against the Government of Barbados. 

As previously disclosed, the owner of Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary, an eco-tourist facility in Barbados, alleges that the Government of Barbados has violated its international obligations by refusing to enforce its environmental laws, thereby allowing increased pollution and land development to damage the Sanctuary. Notice of the dispute was given to Barbados in September 2009 in accordance with the Agreement for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments between Canada and Barbados. Subsequent negotiations with government representatives did not resolve the dispute and the complaint proceeded to arbitration on May 21, 2010.

The Sanctuary is within the last 240-acre green space on the island's South Coast between the Airport and the capital of Bridgetown, and is also part of the Ramsar wetland recognized by the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance. Increasing fish and crab kills have been observed in recent years along with unpredictable water levels and toxic algae blooms allegedly caused by years of sluice gate mismanagement, dumping of raw sewage by the government-run South Coast Sewage Treatment Plant, and other factors. Furthermore, in 2008 Barbados formally reversed the original protective land use policies embodied in the 1988 National Physical Development Plan that promised environmental buffers around the Sanctuary investment and the wetland.

Mr. Peter Allard, the Chairman and ultimate sole shareholder of Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary, has sought to have the government of Barbados act to remedy these problems and to compensate him for the damage to his investment. Although Barbados attempted to have Mr. Allard’s claim dismissed on jurisdictional grounds, the Arbitral Tribunal refused to so. In particular, on June 13, 2014, the Tribunal released an award confirming that Mr. Allard is the true owner of Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary, that he made a lawful investment that is protected by the Canada-Barbados treaty and that any limitations period defences should be dismissed or left to a final hearing on the merits.

On February 27, 2015, after a temporary suspension of the arbitration, the Tribunal set a new timetable for the hearing of the remainder of the case. The timetable envisages a final hearing on December 7, 2015.

Commenting on these developments, Mr. Allard said that “I regret that legal proceedings are necessary to help save the Sanctuary and that the government has not resolved this issue. The Arbitral Tribunal has seen fit to dismiss nearly all of the Government’s initial objections and I look forward to having the merits of my claim finally heard”.

 

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