9th July 2025: This week brave Barbudans have been in the High Court of the Eastern Caribbean in Antigua to fight against the destruction of their island and to protect endangered wildlife.
The court heard how endangered frigate birds, rare turtles and other species’ nesting sites on Barbuda’s Ramsar wetland are being negatively impacted by construction, and that the government overruled environmental assessments and advice to push the project through.
Developers have already razed forest and ripped up mangroves for their contested ‘luxury’ developments across the island, but Barbudans are fighting back to stop the destruction of their home before it’s too late.
As George says, ‘The bird sanctuary is the most vital part on the island… let us all join, and maintain, and keep our bird sanctuary because we are very lucky to have something like that.’
Once this protected habitat is gone, these rare species will have nowhere to go. We now await the court’s decision – stay up to date.
In the second case in court this week, land defenders John Mussington and Jackie Frank continued their case opposing the unlawfully built private jet airport on Barbuda. This follows their historic win at the London-based Privy Council over their ‘standing’ to bring this challenge.
Jackie said, ‘We’re hoping for a positive outcome, because laws matter, and if the laws don’t matter there’s no democracy. So, we fight, we fight for Barbuda, and we fight for the upholding of our laws’.
This case will now proceed to a full hearing on 11th November 2025 at 11 am (Antigua time). Stay up to date with the latest developments through our case updates.
Stand with locals as they fight these important cases – we cannot allow developers to exploit Barbuda unchecked, and damage our environment in the name of profit.
