Plan to take tourists to Pitcairn under fire

ALOFI, Niue (PINA Nius) — A multi-million dollar plan to take tourists to the Pitcairn Islands has been criticized on environmental grounds.

An Auckland, New Zealand company, Wellesley Pacific, is planning to take tourists to what it calls the ultimate sanctuary on Earth, retracing the steps of the Bounty mutineers who settled on Pitcairn in 1790.

The New Zealand firm wants to build transport facilities, including air strips and lodges to house the tourists on Pitcairn itself, Oeno and Henderson islands.

But zoologist Dr. Michael Brooke, from Cambridge University, said the development could cause damage in the remote islands.

Dr. Brooke, who spent 15 months in the Pitcairn islands in the early nineties, said the plans threatened the islands’ biodiversity, which is of considerable importance.

He said Henderson, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was particularly special.

Dr. Brooke said because it is a raised atoll it doesn’t get washed over like other atolls, and unique plant forms have developed as a result.