Dear Editor,
Once again, the question of what to do with the vervet monkeys on the island of St. Martin has become the buzz of the town. Cull, kill or sterilise? That was the question posed by the Nature Foundation in St. Maarten and the Resérve Naturelle National de Saint-Martin, which have conducted surveys, researched reproductive patterns, and studied cases in neighbouring islands and southern Africa.
According to these organisations, which are endowed by the governments of our island to manage our flora, fauna and surrounding waters, the invasive species is said to have been introduced to St. Martin centuries ago. They threaten our natural patrimony and there are three ways to deal with them, opting for the cull. In February of this year, Nature Foundation announced that 450 should be put down in 2023, because as is clearly indicated on their webpage, they are not allowed to set the invasive species back into to the ecosystem even after sterilisation.
For local farmers or fruit producers, or anyone who happens to have a soursop tree near a hilly slope on their property, the discussion has never died down and there is no season restricting the conversation on monkeys. Nevertheless, the issue becomes interesting around mango season, as one fruit-producing friend stated clearly, “Out of 1,000 harvestable mangos growing in my garden, I can only sell 200 since the monkeys bite the rest and throw them to the ground to rot.”
A new organisation enters the scene: Save the SXM Monkeys. On their Facebook page, one will see the aggressive doom banner stating Sint Maarten Kills Monkeys. Equipped with a website, the organisation maintains the identity of the “primate experts” anonymous – who you fuh? These fellows ended up barking up the wrong tree. You see, my farming friends decided to take matters into their own hands, because their livelihood depends on it, and then the know-better primate experts, who also seem to be newcomers, decided to start lecturing them. Lesson #1 – don’t ever talk down to a Soualigan, especially from a place of privilege. Shots have been fired.
The tense debate represents everything colonial about St. Martin, North and South, and I am not talking about the Dutch and French but more about the coloniality of doing and solving problems. We have a local government that gives out building permits allowing for the destruction of flora up on the hills to make way for irresponsible housing construction. The hungry monkeys, which also endanger native species, come down for food; food production is impacted, and our hard-working farmers suffer.
The administrators of our natural resources maintain insufficient communication with the community-at-large. Enters an organisation which defames country St. Maarten, aggressively criticising and slamming the farmers for taking matters into their own hands. Let these primate experts go to the Garden of Eden in Dutch Quarter to see how people are going to react to them. Stop the arrogance! Stop being evasive, look at the root causes of the problem and have compassion with those most affected. Stop being an evasive species, while protecting an invasive species.
Last Saturday night, I finally got to see the SXM band Orange Grove which gave a spectacular concert at Roxxy’s in Simpson Bay. In the middle of the performance, prior to playing the song “Rats”, lead singer Michael Maidwell gave a shout-out to all the local farmers by promoting their home-grown, organic products. To paraphrase, he said, “Yes, the monkeys are cute but they are getting in the way of our farmers trying to make a living. We need to support those who are producing our food without pesticides and chemicals; they are St. Martin.”
Maidwell, and I assume his crew as well, understand that you can’t come to the island with your preconceived ideas and impose solutions without consulting the community. At the end of the day, the well-being of our people and the health of our ecosystem should be at the heart of any intervention.
Dr. Antonio Carmona Báez
