Save Exuma Alliance welcomes development halt at the Rosewood Exuma site as it joins other small island nations in calling for the luxury hotel brand to withdraw its name from controversial projects that may threaten the environment.

Rosewood Exuma developer Yntegra should live up to commitments on construction activity in The Bahamas and Rosewood needs to back its sustainability commitments with real action.

EXUMA, The Bahamas, Aug. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Development work by a Miami-based developer, Yntegra Group, on its Rosewood Exuma hotel project has been brought to a screeching halt amid a government halt order that the developer failed to disclose to the public for two weeks.

On August 12 Yntegra, who are developing the Rosewood hotel project on a small cay in the Exuma chain of islands in The Bahamas, "voluntarily" committed in a Bahamian Supreme Court hearing to pause all development and construction activity at the Sampson Cay site, hours before an emergency injunction application was due to go before a judge in Nassau, the Bahamian capital.

Adding to questions about the level of transparency shown by the developer, it was revealed this week that rather than this being a voluntarily-made offer and "gesture of goodwill" as Yntegra claimed in front of the court, the developer had in fact been instructed to do so by authorities. In a letter to the developer on August 11th, Acting Director of The Bahamas Department of Physical Planning, Jehan Wallace, said the "site should remain in its current state".

The Save Exuma Alliance (SEA) is a community alliance of business owners, tour operators and residents who believe that the high-density project would over-develop the island and pose serious risks to Exuma's environment, community and way of life.

Most recently, SEA's attention has been focused on Yntegra's development work on the island in July and August that has taken place notwithstanding a partial court injunction and stay from planning authorities while judicial review proceedings against the project are underway. These legal cases call into question whether environmental, planning, forestry, building and related approvals were lawfully obtained.

SEA is glad that the Bahamian government has seen fit to bring the work on the Rosewood Exuma project at Sampson Cay to a temporary stop amid all these community concerns. However, we have serious concerns about the amount and type of work that has already been carried out, which appears to go against Yntegra's testimony in court filings about what it said had been done on the island.

The alliance also has serious concerns about what Yntegra told the public. They announced the stoppage as a voluntary gesture of goodwill, and the letter now on the court record shows a government department had already instructed the developer to stop its activity. Communities in Exumas are asked to take developers at their word. Their word is no longer enough.

In an affidavit on August 7, Yntegra's head of operations, Nicolas Maclean, told the Supreme Court of The Bahamas that "no excavation has been undertaken" at its site on Sampson Cay. However, video footage apparently showed bulldozers and backhoes at work, tearing out trees and bushes and moving significant amount of earth in July and early August. 

Mr Maclean also said: "Works will not involve any excavation, removal of trees or additional clearing of the land." Again, footage from July 1 seemingly shows bulldozers clearing land that formerly had trees and bushes with plant debris visible.

Ahead of the work, in a March 16 affidavit, Nicolas Maclean said "this activity… will not cause any negative impact… to the environment". Footage recorded on June 30 appeared to show silt escaping from a curtain placed by workers next to the island while heavy equipment was operating nearby. Further footage from July 7 showed extensive apparent spillage of silt beyond any containment measures.

The Bahamas' Department of Physical Planning issued their letter to Yntegra in the wake of the development work being brought to the public's attention via social media by the Save Exuma Alliance.

SEA has seen time and again with this project that the words do not measure up to the action. This is about protecting the environment, and making sure development is done in the right way. We support the DPP's call for a work stoppage on East Sampson Cay, and hope it remains in place until all other issues are resolved.

SEA recently joined three other grassroots campaigns from island territories across the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean to launch the Small Islands Coalition, showing that the luxury developments and dispossessive government policies threatening their coastlines are not isolated cases but a single, repeating pattern. In three of the four, that pattern leads back to the same multinational hotel brand, Rosewood Hotel Group.

Save Exuma Alliance in Exuma, The Bahamas, joined Friends of Aldabra in the Seychelles, Defiende a Cabo Rojo Coalition in Puerto Rico, and JaBBEM in Jamaica, in calling on their governments in each territory to halt further permitting until independent environmental assessment is completed and published, while calling on hotel brands including Rosewood to withdraw their name from these projects rather than lend it to the destruction of these places, and on international bodies including UNESCO to act where their own mandates require it.

A petition calling for a halt to environmental clearance for the Yntegra Rosewood Exuma project has reached more than 8,800 signatures. For more information about SEA or to sign the petition, visit www.saveexumaalliance.org.

About Save Exuma Alliance
Website: www.saveexumaalliance.org
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SOURCE Save Exuma Alliance