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Atwood/Gibson correspondence with Four Seasons Resorts and Hotels and with
the Prime Minister of Grenada, and the Leader of the Opposition.
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November 12, 2006
Mr. Isadore Sharp
Chairman and CEO
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
1165 Leslie Street
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M3C 2K8
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COPY
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As joint Honorary Presidents of BirdLife International’s Rare Bird Club, we
have seen the letters sent to you by Dr Michael Rands and by Michael de Pencier.
As you undoubtedly know, both letters express grave concern, as do we, about the proposed
Four Seasons Hotel development at the Mount Hartman estate on the island of
Grenada.
Neither man has yet received an acknowledgement of his letter, let alone a response to
our concerns. Are we to take this to mean that it is your wish – and the wish of Four
Seasons Hotels and Resorts -- that BirdLife International make a major issue
of this publicly, or is there room and willingness to constructively negotiate the issue, as
suggested in Dr. Rand's letter?
Birds are a natural focus for the dismay that people are increasingly feeling
about what is happening to the earth. Between sixty and eighty million Americans,
depending on which statistics you believe, now say they watch birds. The Royal Society for
the Protection of Birds in the UK has well over a million paying members. The per capita
numbers in Canada would certainly be similar.
BirdLife International is a global partnership of conservation organisations that operates in
over one hundred countries and territories, with approximately ten million members and
supporters world-wide. The Canadian partners are Bird Studies Canada and Nature
Canada; between them they have approximately 27,000 members and supporters across
the country. BirdLife’s monthly glossy magazine, WorldBirdwatch, is distributed in more
than one hundred countries.
BirdLife International takes its concern for the fate of birds and their habitats very seriously
indeed. For this reason we are keen to see an amicably constructive resolution to what
could become both an expensive and a time-consuming public campaign in defense of the
critically endangered Grenada Dove.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Margaret Atwood Graeme Gibson,
Joint Presidents, the Rare Bird Club |
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