PHILIPSBURG, SINT MAARTEN – The Nature Foundation Sint Maarten is deeply concerned by the circumstances surrounding permits for the Vie L’Ven development in Cay Bay, also known as Indigo Bay. The proposed plans are likely to negatively impact protected corals within the bay’s reef and did not undergo comprehensive environmental evaluation before a building permit was issued in 2023. Despite efforts from the current Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment, and Infrastructure (VROMI) to retroactively improve the ambiguous permit conditions, we remain apprehensive about the future of this coral reef. As a leading non-profit environmental organization on the island, we call on the Ministry to set a firm and just precedent, and we remind residents that impacted individuals have until March 12 to submit official objection letters.
In mid-2024, the Nature Foundation met with representatives of Vie L’Ven and its Canadian developer, Alltree, to provide advice on sustainability initiatives. However, we withdrew from further meetings in October upon viewing blueprints for the bay’s marine infrastructure, which we deemed to be irreconcilable with our mandate to protect the existing reef. In December, the Nature Foundation submitted a letter of concern to the Ministry of VROMI following social media posts from Vie L’Ven that suggested the development was cleared to proceed. As reported by the Daily Herald in February 2025, current Minister of VROMI Patrice Gumbs revealed that the Vie L’Ven building permit had been granted in 2023 under the previous Minister and was re-issued in January 2025. This permit implied the construction of a marina and breakwater, as well as the placement of sand on the naturally rocky beach.
Though the Nature Foundation conducted a limited land-based terrestrial rapid assessment in 2021 upon request from the previous Ministry of VROMI, we were never asked to evaluate the marine area. Underwater, the Cay Bay shoreline is characterized by a complex reef that includes dozens of elkhorn corals (Acropora palmata), a protected and IUCN-listed “Critically Endangered” species. Monitoring since 2024 found that some resilient specimens have appeared to survive impacts of Hurricane Irma, debris and sand sedimentation, and rising temperatures. The species, found exclusively in fast-moving waters, is imminently threatened by infrastructure that reduces the wave energy – the very function of a breakwater.
While the Ministry’s utilization of the Nature Foundation is at-will, we expect to be engaged for developments impacting high-profile, sensitive natural ecosystems. We were surprised not to have been notified earlier, when we learned that the permit seemed to imply extensive marine works. Neither was an independent environmental impact assessment ordered before the permit’s approval, making rigorous environmental evaluation of the marine area non-existent. In a press conference, Minister Gumbs also stated that the permit was not published in the National Gazette when it was first approved, preventing residents from submitting formal objections. He added that not all civil works permits have been approved for the development, though they generally serve as a prerequisite to building permits.
In response to these findings, Minister Gumbs retroactively published the building permit in the February 14 edition of the National Gazette for public objections, committed to reevaluating the permissions for adding sand to the beach, and has requested that Alltree pay for an environmental impact assessment. However, the reality is that the building permit has already been issued, and we are left with serious concerns about whether the development could be retroactively held to the legal standards it ought to be, as well as the integrity of a future environmental impact assessment. Vie L’Ven has even continued to publicly advertise the site’s “private yacht dock” and “on-beach water sports” to potential buyers, suggesting that they are not seriously entertaining a future without their beach, breakwaters, and piers.
Vie L’Ven is not the first ecologically sensitive development to be approved without public transparency or environmental assessment, but we consider it to be one of the most glaring examples in many years. It is unthinkable that such large-scale plans, alongside a shoreline full of protected species, were issued a building permit without sufficient environmental safeguards. This disregards the government’s own Nature Policy Plan and commitment to the SPAW (Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife) Protocol. As we have reminded the current Ministry, the government will be obligated to submit a formal request for exemption to the Secretariat to the Cartagena Convention to proceed with planned works.
Given the circumstances, we take issue with the “greenwashed” approach Vie L’Ven has adopted publicly, including multiple commitments to environmental stewardship. While there are a few small sustainability aspects of this development that we appreciate, positioning this reef as an amenity for guests to snorkel and advertising their development as uniquely environmentally conscious, while actively planning to build infrastructure that threatens to destroy it, is astonishing. Neither do we believe this development is in the best interest of Sint Maarten’s local economy or community wellbeing. This reef supports several artisanal Sint Maarten fishermen, who have few other areas in which they can legally catch fish. Community organizations such as St. Maarten Pride Foundation have also voiced concerns regarding beach access and the lack of undeveloped shoreline, which we share.
This situation has again highlighted the desperate need for codified environmental regulations. The Ministry’s historic use of the Nature Foundation has been fully on their terms, allowing for situations where our small non-profit organization was bypassed to easily greenlight environmental damage. Billy Folly, a key biodiversity area, is just one example of a lower-profile site undergoing development that we have never been asked to provide advice on. It does not have to be like this. The new RESEMBID-funded internal civil works manual provides VROMI with a starting point to address this situation, but more will be needed. We strongly urge the Ministry to approach this issue with extreme thoughtfulness and caution. The Vie L’Ven controversy represents much more than the potential destruction of a coral reef; it represents the government’s potential culpability in facilitating the illegitimate destruction of Sint Maarten’s remaining natural heritage.
The Nature Foundation is in the process of submitting a LOB-verzoek to obtain all documentation related to this project. Impacted residents can do the same and are also encouraged to submit a formal objection to the Ministry of VROMI before March 12, 2025. Instructions for the objection procedure can be found at https://naturefoundationsxm.org/permit-objections.
