Development pressures have seen Bermuda’s legacy of natural open space, including woodlands, wetlands and coastline, come under severe threat. The last Bermuda Land Use Survey in 2016 showed only 33% of our land surface remains as open space, with an estimated 227 acres lost to development every 10 years.
Buy Back Bermuda was created in 2004 when the Bermuda Audubon Society and the Bermuda National Trust joined forces to purchase a 2.86 acre lot of unspoiled open space at Somerset Long Bay to save it from being developed with 22 condominiums. Located next to a National Park and an Audubon Nature Reserve, the property featured a fresh water pond (which would have been filled in), woodland, grassland and beachfront, providing diverse habitats for wildlife – truly a piece of Bermuda worth saving.
The public support for the Buy Back Bermuda appeal was immediate and generous - we raised over $2 million dollars in 18 months. Inspired by this success we soon went on to launch our second campaign to acquire the Vesey Reserve in Southampton and Eve’s Pond in Hamilton Parish in 2007-2008. The financial crash of late 2008 and its economic impact on Bermuda, combined with sustained high property prices through the next decade, delayed the launch of a third campaign.
Why does open space matter?
Numerous studies have demonstrated the importance of exposure to nature for human health and wellbeing. Spending time outdoors in a natural environment not only makes you feel better emotionally, it contributes to your physical wellbeing, reducing blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones.
A healthy biodiversity of wildlife in Bermuda, including songbirds and seabirds, lizards and skinks, frogs and toads, crabs, snails, and insects such as bees and butterflies, requires appropriate habitat in which these species can thrive. Manicured gardens and small, fragmented pockets of trees and bushes cannot support this biodiversity. Most species need sizeable areas of open space in which to reproduce and find sufficient food to sustain themselves and their young.
