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Charles Sheppard, Jerker Tamelander, John Turner, The Chagos Archipelago (British Indian Ocean Territory): Legal Black Hole or Environmental Bright Spot?—A Reply to Sand , Journal of Environmental Law, Volume 21, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 291–293, https://doi.org/10.1093/jel/eqp013
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We were surprised by Peter Sand's article which was thoroughly critical of both the legal situation surrounding the Chagos Archipelago and the alleged poor environmental condition of Diego Garcia, which is one atoll within it. In his interesting article perhaps Peter Sand has strayed a little far from his legal expertise in reaching his conclusions. We know the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia, to be perhaps the least polluted, inhabited archipelago on this planet. We thank the editor for permitting this very brief response.
Early military development on Diego Garcia was indeed careless in several areas, is well documented, and we do not defend early reckless practices, but for the past many years the picture has been very different. Three quick examples: first, Sand states that a leak of jet fuel in the 1980s ‘had filled and replaced the entire freshwater lens below the base’. Actually the water supply for the base has long been drawn (and still is) from over 100 extraction wells below it, and people who have actually been on the island will know that the showers there deliver clean water, not jet fuel. Second, Sand reflects on oil spills being a cause of lagoon water contamination, and comments on the need to inform the Ramsar Convention Secretariat. In fact, no detectable oil contamination exists in the lagoon: levels throughout have been undetectable by us at one part per trillion oil hydrocarbons (measurements mostly report parts per million or, occasionally, billion). Monitoring is rather more detailed, and pollution much less, than he suggests. Third, Sand is critical of an apparent lack of attention to invasive species. But an IUCN survey recently detected no marine invasive species, animal or plant. On land there are two serious ones, both dating back to plantation days: the main animal invasive being the rat which first caused comment in the 1780s, while the main ‘invasive’ plant is the coconut palm which was introduced as a crop. It is not invasive in the usual sense, but it artificially dominates. Any development in the past many years removed coconuts, not native hardwood. Sand's comment that some early military construction on Diego Garcia caused ‘elimination of much of the tree vegetation’ refers only to this introduced tree.
