Bermuda is "living on the edge of environmental suicide" but the issue still seems to rank low on people's lists of worries, according to Independent candidate Stuart Hayward.

"We have probably one of the most fragile environments on the planet and we are nowhere near sustainability," he said.

He added that Bermuda needed a comprehensive environmental strategy to take the bull by the horns by addressing issues of economy, population and lifestyle and providing a blueprint for the future to be referred to by all government departments.

It is three years since former Environment Minister Arthur Hodgson enshrined the concept of sustainable development in the contemporary vocabulary when his raising of issues from immigration to fish stocks generated a storm of debate in Parliament and the media.

Asked if he thought the term retained the same resonance for Government today, Mr. Hayward said: "I don't think the concept has lost its meaning. It's just lost its place in the list of priorities. I haven't heard of any long term environmental policy and that is really what's missing."

According to the current minister Dennis Lister, sustainable development is "almost a plank in our thinking when we look at the environmental issue moving forward. We need to develop but we need at the same time to conserve what we have. There is a balancing act."

The Opposition United Bermuda Party (UBP) also focuses on the future of the environment, with its use of the term "eco-friendly government" in its platform, to be achieved through such ideas as the "aggressive pursuit of electric and hybrid vehicles" and the reduction of energy use and waste production by Government itself.

In fact, both parties are touting several of the same ideas in trying to convince voters that they are serious about the issue, with each aiming to give environmental protection officers more powers by allowing them to ticket offenders on the spot.

And both would like to see the completion of a White Paper on Marine Resources, which has already been started by Government. However, they disagree over whether building height restriction should be liberalised to provide more affordable housing. The UBP wants to allow higher buildings to be constructed "for special housing initiatives". According to environment spokesman Jamahl Simmons: "We want to concentrate on building housing but not using up so much land mass and we will be unveiling some ideas for the designs of those houses shortly."

But Mr. Lister said: "I don't think that we are at that point yet. It's one of those issues that we would have to move slowly on. If you took higher buildings out of the city and into the parishes then I think you would have quite an upheaval."

He said Government's record over the last four and a half years had been one of "laying the groundwork" for the next term, in which emphasis would be put on educating people on how to prioritise the environment in their lives.

And he said he also wanted to reclaim parts of the Railway Trail that had been built on in recent years by opportunistic neighbours. "Our role is join up as much of the Railway Trail as possible so that it becomes a continuous part of the parks system," he said.

Asked what he saw as Government's major environmental achievements, he pointed out the Historic Wrecks Act 2001, which provides protection for underwater dive sites, and the Protected Species Bill, which still waits to be passed by the Senate and would provide Bermuda with a legal framework to protect endemic species of plant and animal from invasion by alien flora and fauna.

Other steps, he said, included the publishing of Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan earlier this year, which aims to increase open spaces on the Island by 25 percent and also encourages ecologically responsible behaviour, and the creation of departments devoted to Environmental Protection and Conservation.

The major environmental controversy of recent times was engendered by an agreement last year between Britain and America that sees Bermuda saddled with the estimated $60 million cost of cleaning up pollution left behind after the United States vacated its former military Baselands in 1995.

Mr. Simmons sees it as "the biggest error" of the PLP Government, and said: "For all the good they have done, that outweighs it."

He explained the UBP would aim to set aside money every year in a Toxic Waste Superfund to pay for the cleanup: "Our perspective is what type of Bermuda do we want to have in the next ten to fifteen years. Government needs to look at it in the long term."

Meanwhile, Mr. Lister said Government was still in the process of deciding how to deal with the asbestos, petroleum and toxic metals and added: "Would we liked to have had it cleaned up yesterday? Yes. We haven't set a time frame in which to do it but we recognise that it needs to be cleaned up very shortly and the longer it takes the more concern it is raising as to the damage that might come from it."

As to how the Baselands should be used in the future, Mr. Lister said he was happy that an earlier plan to develop Morgan's Point into a golf course had not come through because "it gave us the ability to have the space remain as open space so that we could assess where is our long term need".

Mr. Simmons said the UBP wanted to concentrate on preserving open spaces too, especially at Morgan's Point, but he added he would like to see the former submarine tracking station site at Tudor Hill, Southampton set aside for affordable housing.