May 5, 2003 – St. John eco-resort developer Stanley Selengut has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with a 2003 Environmental Quality Award in the area of business and industry.
At an awards ceremony on April 24 in New York, EPA Region 2 administrator Jane M. Kenny presented the award to Selengut as president and founder of Maho Bay Camps.
The award is the highest recognition bestowed upon public entities by the agency. Also named as 2003 V.I. recipients were Island Resources Foundation, in the category of not-for-profit organization or environmental or community group, and Carol Cramer-Burke of the St. Croix Environmental Association, in the category of individuals.
Maho Bay Camps was cited for "demonstrating its outstanding commitment to protecting and enhancing the environmental quality of the U.S. Virgin Islands," an EPA release stated.
It noted that "Maho Bay Camps is one of the most widely praised eco-lodgings in the world, and its president, Stanley Selengut, is recognized as a pioneer in the field of eco-tourism. Over the last two decades, he has built his resort into a showcase for environmentally friendly projects like recycling and alternative energy sources like solar and wind power. He has expanded this concept by adding three other eco-lodgings on the island and has been a staunch worldwide advocate for the concept of eco-tourism."
The other hostelries are the adjacent Harmony Studios and the Estate Concordia Studios and Concordia Eco-Tents.
Maho Bay Camps recently inaugurated an art gallery that displays items created by artists and artisans working on the property in recycling programs. The works include hand-blown glass objects made from recycled beverage bottles and pottery fired in a kiln that is fired by burning wood shipping pallets, not by electricity. (See "Art of recycling on display at Maho Bay gallery".)
The EPA release noted that Maho Bay Camps also received a Editors' Choice Award from Travel Holiday Magazine for the Best Buys of 2003.
At the awards presentation ceremony, Kenny called the recipients "champions" who "reflect a growing awareness that we have to do all we can to protect our precious environment." She added: "We have some mighty challenges ahead of us. It is tremendously gratifying to know that people like our award winners are working so hard to protect the environment and public health."
Selengut expressed special pleasure that the EPA award "is not from a travel or tourism organization but the environmental universe at large." The EPA release noted that he has previously made the point that eco-tourism can have a lasting impact on visitors: "After all, you have them when they are relaxed and open to new ideas."
Among his wider efforts on behalf of eco-tourism, Selengut serves on the advisory board of the National Park System and the board of directors of The International Ecotourism Society.
For more information about Selengut and his St. John eco-resorts, visit Maho Bay Camps Web site.
Island Resources Foundation, a research and educational institution founded on St. Thomas in 1972, was recognized for having administered more than 200 independently funded projects in several dozen small islands and more than 70 in the territory. "As part of its assistance to local community groups, the foundation recently inaugurated its Environmental Reference Center at Coral World" for the not-for-profit community, the EPA noted.
Cramer-Burke was recognized for her leadership in a mangrove reforestation project undertaken at Sugar Bay in the wake of devastation caused by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. In a three-year project with federal funding, she and SEA oversaw the efforts of more than 500 volunteers in planting 14,500 red mangrove and 3,000 black mangrove seedlings. The project ended last year, the EPA said; while a survival rate of half the seedlings had been project, the actual survival rate was 82 percent.
An EPA release noted that the agency's Region 2 annually presents the Environmental Quality Awards to individuals, not-for-profit groups, educators, business representatives, government officials and media representatives in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands "who have made significant contributions to improving the quality of the environment in the region. Winners are chosen by a panel of EPA employees who review nominations submitted from inside and outside the agency."
Publisher's note : Like the St. John Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.
