Last week there was a bit of a commotion surrounding the foundation in charge of park management apparently the foundation changed its bylaws, but no one reported on the actual changes.
So I asked.
Foundation president Greg Peterson, referred me to Glenn Thode, the secretary of the board, a Phd in law, more suitable, he says, to explain ‘subtle matters.’
I like calling Glenn, so I did.
The foundation, previously named Parke National Arikok, indeed wants a name change to reflect its larger responsibility with 16 more natural areas to protect and wishes to be called Parke National Aruba. The park retains its lovely name but the foundation now has a broader umbrella as a national organization.
Makes perfect sense.
The foundation also seeks to salvage the crumbling, desperate Fontein and Boca Prins parcels, both privately owned within the borders of the park, and annex them. Shame on us that these places are in such ruin! We should allow the park to raise funds and purchase them.
I am afraid to ask how much these private owners are asking but taking a page out of the Bonaire handbook, and how Klein Bonaire returned to the patria, everything is possible.
Again, this makes perfect sense.
No, they do not seek more autonomy, they seek a resolution for the park’s quagmire real estate challenges.
And they are talking to the minister and it sounds as if progress is being made. Glenn is a master politician/diplomat.
The park, more than 20% of the land mass of Aruba, has at the moment a good, stable management team, with a highly qualified woman at the helm, Natasha Silva.
Silvia has a super qualified Marketing & Communications guy Carl Quant, and a by-the-book HR Manager, Avonda Powell, who is actually requiring the rangers to work. Then there is Sietske Van der Wal in charge of Conservation Education, the wise and experienced Jan Veneman of CEDE Aruba as a sounding board project manager, Giancarlo Nunes — we worked with him on a Shoco project, a gem of a naturalist, and Frank Judell holding the purse strings.
I recently heard that the idealistic Sheela van der Poel Lacle started working at the park, fired up about children’s education. This power-house with one foot in the Maggy’s Beauty Emporium business voluntarily left a cushy private sector job to change the world, starting at Parke Arikok.
I expect great thinks from them. And by the way, the rangers were never government employees, they have always been foundation employees, but they saw an opportunity to hog the limelight.
Special blessings to all of you who care about birds, bees and trees, because it seems to be last on everyone’s list.
Having suffered under Diego Marquez and Emil Ter Horst, and others I forgot, the park is now in better shape than ever.
