The storm of protest and the Development Applications Board's subsequent refusal of an application to build a second captive dolphin facility on the Island may herald a new level of environmental awareness on the Island.

It is desperately needed: At a time when pressure for housing and other forms of development is continuing to grow, the need for environmentalists to be watchdogs has never been greater.

The risk is that policymakers will otherwise throw the baby out with the bath water, and allow untrammelled development which could ruin not only the Island's beauty but the very ability of the Island to support itself.

What has made the current protests over the Dolphin Oasis unique is the level of international involvement and the way in which animal lovers have joined forces with other conservationists concerned about the damage that may have been done to Sinky Bay in Southampton. The Government received dozens of emails and letters from around the world protesting the development and the arrival of the Sea Shepherd marine conservation group in St. George's showed how closely the world was watching the controversy.

In that sense, the world is a global village, and environmentalists can and will work together to prevent damage being done to the environment from literally anywhere.

That's all very well, but Bermudians should not expect others to do the Island's environmental work for them.

To that end, Government's plans to draft a new sustainable development plan are welcome. This newspaper has stated before that the problem with the term sustainable development is that it can mean many different things to different people. Local conservationists will have to work hard to make sure their voices are heard.

The risk is that the fight to prevent Dolphin Oasis will be the end of the fight when it should be the beginning. An equally important battle is now being fought to preserve the newly-discovered cave at Wilkinson Quarry.

This may be a less emotive issue ? the deaths of stalactites and rare plankton is less likely to tug on the heart strings than the thought of dolphins in captivity. But it is no less important ? Bermuda's biodiversity and the dependence of one form of life on another means that the destruction of one part of the environment can cause the unwitting death of another.

That is not to say that renewed blasting at Wilkinson Quarry will somehow lead to the death of dolphins elsewhere; it almost certainly won't. But all forms of development need to be taken with an awareness of their potential environmental impact.

Nor does it mean that all development of any kind should stop in Bermuda. That would be a recipe for economic disaster and would leave many of the Island's social ills.

But as has often been stated, a delicate balance must be struck. Nor should it be forgotten that some of the Island's problems are caused by environmental problems, ranging from overcrowding to the sheer pace of life in Bermuda today.

For those reasons environmentalists must band together to ensure their concerns are heard.