Protected status buffering impacts on Little Cayman reefs

Cayman Compass
8 July 2022

A Central Caribbean Marine Institute researcher surveys coral in Little Cayman. - Photo: CCMI

A study of the reefs and the fish populations in Little Cayman carried out over 22 years is showing that the island’s marine eco-system is continuing to stave off many of the major stressors impacting other reefs around the world.

According to surveys carried out by staff and volunteers at the Central Caribbean Marine Institute, it appears that corals inside marine protected areas on the islands are proving to be resilient against the threats they are facing, including from climate change, human development and diseases such as stony coral tissue loss disease.

“While Little Cayman’s reefs are subject to the same global pressures that reefs elsewhere face, CCMI’s latest surveys indicate that local protections buffer the impact of those threats, and Little Cayman’s fish populations have shown significant signs of recovery,” a press release outlining the findings of the surveys stated.

CCMI said the findings highlight the importance of local marine protection laws.

However, they also showed that coral reefs remain vulnerable, as evidenced by decreasing coral recruitment and reduction in coral size. Read the whole story here.

Government looks to concessions policy as planning applications decline

Cayman Compass
23 June 2022

Photo courtesy of CNS

Government is looking to revisit the granting of concessions to stimulate construction projects after a $350 million drop in development-generated revenue and a decline in the number of planning applications.

Tourism and Transport Minister Kenneth Bryan, speaking on the Cayman Compass Facebook talkshow The Resh Hour last Wednesday, made the point, as he said the slowdown in the third pillar of the economy – construction and development – is concerning.

“What scares me is the recent numbers by the Honorable Jay Ebanks, the minister for planning, that the planning application numbers are down. That’s scary, and I don’t know if it’s the … high cost of materials or is it because of the war or the fear of the recession and high interest rates that’s causing people to want to pull back? We have to be mindful,” he said...

...Local environment group Amplify Cayman, in a statement  to the Compass following the minister’s comments, challenged government’s approach as an “unsustainable method of economic revitalisation”.

It suggested that during this period of slowdown in planning applications, an alternative solution, which would be more sustainable for the long-term future of the islands, would be to focus on diversifying the economy through investing in green-blue industries, to transition Cayman to a carbon-neutral economy.

“Local community advocates and natural capital economists have voiced their support for the government relying on these sustainable methods to generate economic revenue, which we also support, as it’s evident we need to move away from a heavy dependence on revenue from duty,” it said. Read the whole story here.

Legal battle begins over conservation council’s power

Cayman Compass
15 June 2022

The existing seawall and cabana on Boggy Sand Road. - Photo: Taneos Ramsay

A court hearing is under way that will decide if the director of the Department of Environment can act on behalf of the National Conservation Council to direct the Central Planning Authority to reject applications for proposed developments that may have detrimental impacts on the environment.

A Grand Court judicial review, brought by the National Conservation Council against the Central Planning Authority, began on Tuesday, 14 June.

The case before Acting Justice Alistair Walters revolves around a direction given by Director of Environment Gina Ebanks-Petrie to the CPA last year to reject an application by property developer Cayman Property Investments Ltd to rebuild a seawall and cabana on Boggy Sand Road in West Bay, which abuts a protected marine reserve. The CPA instead granted planning permission for the work.

The first day of the two-day hearing kicked off with Chris Buttler, the attorney acting for the National Conservation Council, arguing what he said were the three salient points in the case. These were whether the CPA had discharged its duty to determine if the development was likely to cause an adverse effect on the marine reserve; whether it had a legal obligation to give its reasons for rejecting the director of environment’s direction; and whether the NCC had the statutory power to delegate its functions to the director of environment.

Buttler told the judge, “The marine reserve is the sea off Seven Mile Beach. Given the sea laps against the site, it is right on the boundary. When the sea comes underneath the existing seawall, as it does from time to time, on those occasions, the site is within the marine reserve.” 

He contended that the CPA had ignored Ebanks-Petrie’s assessment of the likely adverse impact on the environment, and then, despite having what he described as a “heightened duty” to do so considering it had disregarded her expert opinion on the matter, the board had failed to give reasons on why it had made that decision. Read the whole story here.


What is the Keeling Curve and what does it tell us about the health of the planet?

CBC What On Earth?
9 June 2022

On June 3, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which tracks global carbon emissions, made another dire announcement. 

The American agency said that atmospheric carbon dioxide peaked in May at an average of more than 420 parts per million, “pushing the atmosphere further into territory not seen for millions of years.” 

This measurement is often reflected in something called the Keeling Curve, a graph that illustrates the changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) over time.

The graph gets its name from Charles David Keeling, the American scientist who developed the accurate way of assessing atmospheric CO2. (He died in 2005.) 

What the graph has steadily shown since its inception in 1958 is a rapid increase in atmospheric CO2 — and, as everyone knows by now, more CO2 means more global warming.

The Keeling Curve has been instrumental in measuring the rate of CO2 in the atmosphere, but that wasn’t always the case. 

Around the turn of the 20th century, some scientists theorized about the potential link between burning fossil fuels and increasing carbon dioxide, but it was still poorly understood.

Keeling developed his unique and incredibly precise instrument to measure CO2 in 1953, and in 1956, his invention caught the attention of a few scientists, including ones at the U.S. weather bureau and the Scripps Institution in California. A global CO2 monitoring program was proposed, with stations set up at Mauna Loa in Hawaii and the South Pole. Today, there are hundreds of these analyzers set up around the world. Read the whole story here.

The future of rush hour: The story in data

Cayman Compass
7 June 2022

As Grand Cayman’s population continues to increase, the island’s traffic problems are unlikely to go away.

Data from the National Roads Authority spells out the reality of Cayman’s current concerns, some of the reasons for it and the extent to which it could still get worse.

The Compass looks at seven key graphics that illustrate the issue.

While the blue dots on the map of Grand Cayman that shows where people live are fairly evenly distributed, the red dots that show where people work are clustered almost exclusively around George Town and Seven Mile Beach.

Almost half of Cayman’s voting population lives east of Grand Harbour and the vast majority of those travel through this critical choke point to get to work or go to school every day.

The NRA believes construction of the new East-West Arterial Highway will help shift more meaningful jobs to the eastern districts, but it is not clear how this will happen without a direct policy plan or incentive. Equally Plan Cayman, the upgrade to the Development Plan, could incentivise office development in the east or help create mixed-use communities where people can live, work and go to school within the same zone. Read the whole story here.

First green turtle nest of season discovered

Cayman Compass
1 June 2022

The Department of Environment has announced the discovery of the first green sea turtle nest of the year. - Photo: DoE

The green sea turtle nesting season is off to an early start with the surprise discovery of the first nest last week.

The Department of Environment, in a Facebook post Tuesday, announced that its Turtle Team had discovered the nest.

“This is the second earliest green nest recorded since monitoring began in 1998; they usually start nesting in mid-June. The earliest ever recorded was on 21st May in 2013, just 4 days earlier than this one,” the DoE said in its post.

The first green sea turtle nest follows the discovery of the first loggerhead turtle nest back in April.

The DoE says green turtle nests can be identified by the deep pit and mound they leave in the sand, and the tracks also differ from loggerhead or hawksbill turtles.

Now that the turtle nesting season will be getting into full swing in the coming weeks, the DoE is urging residents to help “our endangered sea turtles to thrive”.

It has issued guidelines to the public with the message that “together we can give our precious turtles the fighting chance they deserve”.

The DoE has warned that mating turtles in the water should never be approached.

“Give them at least 50ft (15m) so they are not disturbed,” the DoE said.

Beachside property owners are asked to keep their beachside lights off throughout the season “unless you have turtle friendly lights installed to prevent disorientation”.

The DoE is also advising that chairs be either removed or stacked away from the beach in the evenings so the beach is clear of obstacles.

“If you see a nesting turtle, do not approach and do not shine any lights on her as she may abandon her nesting attempt,” the DoE added. Read the whole story here.



Climate scientists impressed with local engagement

Cayman News Service
31 May 2022

Protest against the cruise port in December 2019

The scientists visiting from the UK to help the Ministry of Sustainability and Climate Resiliency with a climate risk assessment for the Cayman Islands said they were really impressed with the local engagement on climate change issues. The ministry is hoping to maintain that engagement since public consultation is a critical part of the development of a policy to protect these islands from the impending adverse effects of climate change.

As part of the risk assessment process, a survey has been launched to gain more insight into public knowledge, attitudes and practices related to climate change. The short, anonymous survey takes around ten minutes to complete and includes five sections: demographic information, general climate change knowledge, personal beliefs and practices, media use and climate action.

Following a two-day workshop and a public meeting last week, Principal Scientist and Lead Advisor on climate change at the UK’s Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), Dr John Pinnegar, who was leading the delegation, said that the concerns people have in Cayman about climate change line up with the research that they have done. But he said the visit had given the team “a much richer picture” about what is happening and that they can see people “really care about it”.

Despite the growing public concerns in the Cayman Islands that not nearly enough is being done to address the massive challenges presented by climate change and biodiversity loss, the research team found that the Cayman Islands has done much more than many other jurisdictions to preserve the marine environment and mangroves.

Pinnegar also said the construction standards here offer better protection than in many places across the region from the more intense storms and other weather events expected in the coming years. The team has nevertheless identified a number of issues that the country must confront, including the formation of a new climate policy, using the work done in 2012 on the draft policy document that was never implemented as well as this new climate risk assessment.

The threats identified by the climate assessment include drought and the heat risks that come with it such as brush fires; more coral bleaching and the loss of protection from reefs and mangroves as storms intensify; the loss of key habitat for local species and an increase in invasive species; the contamination of our groundwater from storm surge and sewage; more flooding; beach erosion and the destruction of beachfront homes and waterfront infrastructure. Read the whole story here.

Premier: Climate change policy could be in place by end of year

Cayman Compass
26 May 2022

The roots of palm trees on Seven Mile Beach are exposed due to beach erosion, which has been highlighted as one of the risks of climate change facing the Cayman Islands. - Photo: Taneos Ramsay

A team of risk assessors from the UK is drawing up a list of the biggest threats the Cayman Islands face from rising temperatures and sea levels, which Premier Wayne Panton says will help the government create a climate change policy by the end of the year.

John Pinnegar and Bryony Townhill of the UK’s Centre of Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) and Alice Fitch of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) are in Cayman this week to meet with local experts and the public to get their input on the risks the islands face from climate change.

Before they arrived on Monday night, the team already had a list of 52 issues relating to climate change, garnered from a draft climate change policy the Cayman Islands government drew up in 2011 but never enacted, as well as from other reports, media articles and scientific papers.

On the team’s first full day on island on Tuesday, they told the Cayman Compass they had added one more item to that list – a “positive” one, Pinnegar said. “In the long term, as it gets drier, you may get less mosquitos,” he explained.

But they acknowledge that this list is far from final and will change, based on feedback from technical workshops with NGOs, government officials and representatives of various industries on Wednesday and Thursday. Those participants are helping to determine the urgency and seriousness of the threats on the list. Read the whole story here.

Line in the sand is coming for 7MB development

Cayman News Service
20 May 2022

Regal Beach on Seven Mile Beach (from social media)

Over-development is compounding the problem of erosion from rising seas due to climate change, but Premier Wayne Panton has said that government will soon be literally drawing a line in the sand on Seven Mile Beach. A fixed high water mark (HWM) is being calculated based on accumulative data, from which a new setback will be established that will apply to all future development. Landowners will no longer be able to survey their own HWM at favourable times, which has contributed to the erosion of Cayman’s world-famous beach.

The Cayman Islands must now invest in beach re-nourishment in an effort to slow down the inevitable losses as the sea level rises. However, Panton, who is also Minister for Sustainability and Climate Resiliency, has revealed that the setback problem will soon be addressed.

Over the years owners have surveyed their high water marks at times during the year when their beachfront is at its deepest, sometimes owing to just a brief settlement of sand that is extremely short-lived. This, coupled with the constant waiving of setbacks by the Central Planning Authority for auxiliary hard structures such as pools, bars, cabanas and decks, has led to inappropriate development too close to the water and the consequent erosion.

Panton told CNS that a committee has been looking closely at this issue and, based on a decade’s worth of data, they have come up with a mean HWM line for Seven Mile Beach. From that, they will now calculate a more appropriate and sustainable setback to incorporate into the law, beyond which development will not be allowed.

“We have taken a reference line which represents ten years of data from Lands and Survey,” he said, noting that this has eliminated the highs and lows. “Having done that and come up with a pretty clear reference line, what the committee is now working on is the appropriate setbacks. That will end up being incorporated into the law and they will also be looking at the shoreline for the rest of the country.” Read the whole story here.

Historic Cayman swim highlights battle against plastic

Cayman News Service
18 May 2022

Oly Rush swims around Grand Cayman (photo by Jon Schutte)

A history-making swim all the way around Grand Cayman by British environmental activist Oly Rush not only put the island on the map for endurance open water swimming but also served to raise awareness and cash for Cayman’s growing non-profit advocacy group, Plastic Free Cayman.

After more than 36 hours in the sea swimming some 65 miles, Rush walked out of the ocean to a huge welcome in West Bay on Tuesday evening, but there were no MPs or government ministers there to mark this incredible feat.

Nevertheless, students, environmentalists and dozens of West Bayers spurred Rush on for the last few yards and were there to greet him after his superhuman efforts to raise thousands of dollars to help address plastic pollution here.

The 37-year-old plasterer from Dorset, England, who made the history books as the first person to swim around Grand Cayman, was in great spirits and doing very well when he emerged from the sea to the cheering crowd.

Rush had started out at 5am from the West Bay Dock on Discovery Day and returned to the same spot a day and a half later. Claire Hughes, the founder of Plastic Free Cayman and one of an army of support volunteers for the event, said Rush swam strong and steady throughout the incredible journey.

She said that there were no shark encounters and, with the exception of some strong currents at times, the marathon swim went off like a dream, with Rush maintaining a more or less consistent and very impressive 44 strokes per minute pace throughout the entire time. Read the whole story here.

Polluters could help fund nature’s survival in ‘new paradigm’

Cayman Compass
12 May 2022

Mangroves provide a storm buffer as well as capturing carbon from the atmosphere and providing nursery habitat for multiples species of fish and birds.

A single blue whale generates the equivalent of US $3 million in the ‘services’ it provides to the earth over the course of its lifetime.

One elephant deserves a ‘salary’ of $80,000-a-year for the role it play in capturing carbon from the atmosphere. The world’s seagrass is worth up to $2 trillion for providing the same services.

Those figures are not speculative, according to Ralph Chami, assistant director of the International Monetary Fund, who spoke with Cayman Islands government leaders last week.

They are the product of a methodical economic analysis of the services different wildlife and habitats provide and their tangible value in existing markets.

Nature markets – a fast accelerating trading niche that places monetary values on ecosystem services – are beginning to integrate conservation and climate change goals into the financial system...

...'This is not about stopping development. This is about development that is nature positive,' he said.

'Conservation changes from a cost proposition to becoming a source of capital for sustainable and shared prosperity. It is literally a new paradigm.'..." Read the whole story here.

Stormy weather ahead serves as timely reminder

Cayman News Service
15 May 2022

Image credit: micho.org

Some forecasters are suggesting the first tropical system of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season could take shape next week in our region. On Friday Accuweather meteorologists were looking closely at the western Caribbean and a potential disturbance, given that we have some of the warmest water in the entire Atlantic basin at the moment.

Premier Wayne Panton pointed out that global climate change increases the need for the Cayman Islands community to be prepared for severe weather events.

“More frequent and intense storms are one impact of increased global temperatures that is particularly relevant to our country,” Panton said. “Being prepared is one of the most important things we can do as individuals, as families, businesses and communities to minimise the impacts of severe weather events,” he added. Read the whole story here.

How companies blame you for climate change

BBC
5 May 2022


(Image credit: Getty Images)

It's an advert that is infamous in environmental circles. A man who appears to be an indigenous American paddles a canoe downstream. He starts in relatively pristine waters, but soon paddles alongside discarded newspapers, past industrial buildings, and finally pulls his canoe ashore on a bank littered with waste.

"Some people have a deep, abiding respect for the natural beauty that was once this country," reads the voiceover. "And some people don't," it continues, as a motorist throws litter from their window, spilling at the feet of the canoeist. "People start pollution and people can stop it," the voiceover concludes, as the camera zooms in on a tear rolling down the man's cheek. The advert became known as the "crying Indian" campaign.

The advert was later heavily criticised for passing the responsibility of reducing litter pollution onto consumers (and for employing an Italian American actor to play the role of an indigenous American), but when it first aired in 1971 it won awards for its environmental message, says Finis Dunaway, professor of American environmental history at Trent University in Canada.

The advert was paid for by Keep America Beautiful, a group established in the 1950s by leaders from packaging companies like the American Can Company and the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, and other public figures. Keep America Beautiful campaign against littering, but have also lobbied against bottle bills and legislation that would have required packaging to be returnable or recyclable rather than disposable, says Dunaway, who is also the author of Seeing Green: The Use and Abuse of American Environmental Images.

Rather than addressing the root cause of America's litter problem – the fact that there was much more disposable packaging after World War Two – their advertising campaigns focused on the bad behaviour of some consumers, he says. "Images and feelings were being manipulated by corporations to put the onus on the individual." Read the whole story here.

Trust expands options for mangrove emission offsets

Cayman News Service
5 May 2022

Western Mangroves Cay (photo by DoE)

The National Trust for the Cayman Islands (NTCI) is expanding its mangrove protection programme with a new partner in United States, Mangrove Education (ME), that will enable international and local donations made to protect mangroves here tax-deductible for US citizens. The Trust is already partnering with a local non-profit organisation, Island Offsets, to provide an avenue for local businesses and individuals to offset their carbon footprint by donating to the mangrove fund for the purchase of this vital habitat.

ME provides environmental education, primarily focusing on mangrove ecosystems. The Trust said this is an ideal partnership to help educate the public on the benefits of mangrove forests, the value these ecosystems have in sequestering carbon, and how preserving these areas can play an integral role in battling climate change.

“Now that international organisations can support the work of the National Trust in the purchase andprotection of this vitally important ecosystem, we are excited to partner with such a like-mindedorganisation,” said NTCI Chairman Olson Anderson.

The goal with both partnerships is to encourage and facilitate tangible voluntary offsets for any emissions that concerned commercial companies can’t reduce through the purchase and protection of this carbon-rich ecosystem to help them achieve net-zero or carbon neutrality.

Funds raised by Island Offsets are used to purchase land that would otherwise have been deforested. The trees are therefore saved to sequester and store carbon for generations to come. Read the whole story here.


Sea urchins facing fatal mystery threat

Cayman News Service
19 April 2022

Healthy Diadema (Photo by K. Marks and K. Kitson-Walters)

The long-spined sea urchin (Diadema antillarum) is experiencing another high mortality event throughout the Caribbean, and although it may not have reached the Cayman Islands yet, the Department of Environment is asking people to report any sightings of sick or dead urchins in Cayman waters to help the scientists collect data.

The first reports of distressed urchins were in St Thomas USVI in early February, but by early March urchins in Jamaica were also impacted. In the last few weeks Mexico, Dominica and St Vincent have also reported deaths, but at this stage no one knows what is causing it.

A Diadema Response Network has been formed across the region to track and investigate the cause of this mortality event, which comes almost 40 years after the last mass die-off of these important marine creatures, which happened suddenly with no definitive cause.

The urchins were brought to the brink of extinction by the 1983-1984 mortality event from a still a mysterious water-borne pathogen. To this day the population around the Caribbean is about 20% of pre-1983 numbers.

DoE Senior Marine Researcher Dr Croy McCoy explained that sea urchins, especially the long-spined sea urchins, are considered a “keystone grazer”, tasked with controlling algae growth on our reefs.

“Long-spined sea urchins play an important role in removing algae and maintaining the health of our coral reefs ecosystem. They are the lawnmowers of our coastal seas, clearing real estate so that other organisms, like baby corals, can attach themselves and grow,” he explained.

This latest potentially devastating threat comes at a time when reefs are already under enormous threat from a myriad of issues, from climate change to over-fishing. Read the whole story here.

Cayman 2050? How surging seas could redraw the map

Cayman Compass
29 March 2022

Cayman 2050? A visualisation shows which parts of Cayman would be inundated at high tide if sea-level rise projections prove accurate. Graphic: Roman Hapek

Sea-water laps at the southern shore of West Bay island.

Waves wash over the sunken remnants of Seven Mile Beach.

To the east, a vast wetland stretches from Savannah to Gun Bay. The isolated Colliers Isle sits at the centre of a brackish lagoon.

It is high-tide 2050 and Grand Cayman has splintered into a chain of multiple tiny islands, separated by shallow waterways carved by surging seas.

The visualisation is based on mapping data from US-based Climate Central – a group of scientists and journalists set up to communicate climate-change science, effects and solutions to the public and to decision-makers...

...Climate Central’s global coastal impact mapping tool compares projected sea levels against existing elevation and shows which areas would be below the tide line in various scenarios.

The map shown on this page uses the leading consensus projections from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for 2050. It is a relatively crude tool and local experts caution that far more precise data is needed as the basis for planning and development decisions.

Peter Girard, of Climate Central, said the map tool used coastal digital elevation models to provide the baseline data and compared them against projections from widely accepted scientific sources, like the IPCC report.

The base data from the elevation models is accurate to within 3 centimetres globally, according to a peer-reviewed paper published last year. Read the whole story here.

Protect Our Future activists call for action on climate change

Cayman Compass
26 March 2022

Photo credit: Alvaro Serey

Just over 100 young environmental activists joined in a climate march Friday afternoon at Government House, calling on local leaders to take action on climate change.

“We need action and we needed it a long time ago,” Emily De Cou of Amplify Cayman said Friday when she joined with members of Protect Our Future and Mangrove Rangers to shine light on climate change.

Waving signs and chanting “we want change and we want it now,” the local environmental groups, mainly consisting of students, pleaded for local legislators to pay serious attention to climate issues.

Nicolas Corin, of Protect Our Future, led the environmentally conscious students in their demonstration...

...“There is so much we would like to see in the future, it’s almost an endless list with development, over-development, the mangroves, conservation,” he said, adding that there is so much that can be done, but they are not seeing anything being done.

“We are participating in our democracy by letting our elected officials know what we need as citizens, and that they have our support to make the changes that are needed,” De Cou said. Read the whole story here.

Special report: Rethinking Rush Hour

Cayman Compass
24 March 2022

Traffic piles up as commuters make their way to George Town last week. Photo: Taneos Ramsay

In the meagre shade outside a Subway store, a middle-aged woman with conspicuous sunscreen was struggling to access Wi-Fi on her smart phone.

She had attempted to travel by bicycle from the Botanic Park to George Town and found the traffic and the weather too hot to handle. 

After waiting by the side of the road for a while, a bus had stopped en-route to the capital, but the driver couldn’t accommodate her bike. 

So, she was now sheltering in the Countryside Shopping Village, trying to connect to the Internet to look up a number for a taxi. I lent her my cell phone, which has data access, and after three attempts we found a cab that would collect her, with a surcharge added for the bike.

The woman, a visitor from the US, ultimately got where she needed to go, but she was unlikely to try travelling in Cayman again without a rental car. 

One simple Saturday journey had aptly illustrated the absence of key supporting infrastructure that makes journeys by foot, bike or bus possible in many other places around the world.

No bike lanes, no shaded sidewalks, only small minibuses operating inconsistent routes, a lack of Wi-Fi hotspots or low-cost data plans to summon a cab and affordability challenges when the taxi does arrive. In the space of a few hours, she seemed to have encountered almost every major obstacle Cayman commuters have been facing for decades. As the island’s population and traffic problems have grown, the absence of reliable alternatives has become glaring. Read the whole story here.


Campaign starts to get public behind habitat protection

Cayman News Service
22 March 2022

Wild banana orchids in bloom (Photo by Nick Johnson)

Local environmental activist group Sustainable Cayman has started a social media campaign to spread awareness about the National Conservation Council’s recent call for nominations for Protected Areas across the Cayman Islands. In a press release, the group said that they wanted to ensure that everyone knows about this opportunity and to encourage people to take action towards protecting the natural areas that they love.

“Public participation is key to helping the NCC decide which areas should be protected. It is also a right granted to citizens under section 9 of the National Conservation Law (NCL),” the non-profit organisation said.

Sustainable Cayman has created a Facebook group page, 2022 NCC Nominations, to give people a place to ask questions, share concerns and discuss areas they think should be preserved. There is also a short video explaining how they can start their own proposals.

“Individuals are encouraged to get family and friends to sign each proposal document to show that there is substantial support for that particular area,” the activists added.

The NCC opened the nomination process in February and the window of opportunity remains open until mid-May to suggest a natural habitat to be designated for protection through the purchase of lands or conservation agreements with landowners.

Areas to be nominated are ones that the nominators see as important to the country’s ecological integrity, are places of natural beauty or for one reason or another should be saved from the threat of the bulldozer. Nominators are asked to provide a statement outlining the reasons why the area should be selected, such as the habitat it provides in general for a protected plant or a species of special concern, or an ecosystem that is unique or fast disappearing. Read the whole story here.

Mangrove deforestation leaves BVI more vulnerable to climate change

Loop Cayman
29 January 2022

As the territory recovered from Hurricane Irma in late 2018, a businessman from abroad cut a wide swath of mangroves in Paraquita Bay, Tortola, in order to salvage a yacht. Government officials were upset, but they said at the time that there was little they could do to penalize him because the territory lacks a law that protects mangroves and other wetlands. Photo by Freeman Rogers | Centro de Periodismo Investigativo

When Donald De Castro was a boy in the 1940s, mangroves lined the shore and cays in front of his family’s small waterfront home in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

“We used to do a lot of fishing in mangroves,” the 86-year-old recalled. “They had snappers and they had different kinds of fish; we caught good fish.”

Today, most of those mangroves don’t exist. They have been replaced by land reclaimed to expand the capital of Road Town, which now boasts a cruise ship village, marinas lined with hundreds of yachts, and office buildings housing the territory’s bustling financial services industry.

The modern scene illustrates a dramatic economic shift since World War II that has brought unprecedented prosperity to the British overseas territory, a string of small islands that are home to around 30,000 people.

The missing mangroves, however, illustrate the ecological consequences of those changes.

Since De Castro’s youth, scientists have learned the importance of mangrove systems in providing wildlife habitat, preventing erosion, and protecting people from storm surge and swells. But as other countries around the world have enacted wetland protections — an endeavor that is seen as increasingly important for island nations as climate change threats intensify — successive BVI governments have not followed the trend.

Faced with pressure from local and foreign developers alike, governments have passed no legislation or policy dedicated to protecting mangroves and other wetlands. Partly as a result of this inaction, the destruction has continued — even after a 2006 study found that nearly half the mangroves on Tortola, the territory’s most populous island, had been destroyed since the 1950s. Read the whole story here.

2021 weather review reveals decline in rainfall

Cayman News Service
17 January 2022

The average temperature for the Cayman Islands last year was well above normal, and despite an unusually wet August which was soaked by Tropical Storm Grace, rainfall throughout the year was once again below traditional levels. The total rainfall for 2021 was almost 2.3 inches less than the 30-year average. Globally, 2021 was in the top six hottest years on record and there were record-breaking weather events in various places around the world.

The Cayman Islands also clocked some very high temperatures. The two peaks were on 8 September and 8 October, when the mercury soared to 92.3°F at the highest point for each of those two days. The day with the hottest average temperature (87.4°F) was 7 July.

The coldest point of the year came on 4 February, which had a low point of 66°F, and the day before that, 3 February, was the coolest day overall, with an average temperature of 73.8°F. The average temperature for 2021 was 83.1°F (28.4°C). 

The hottest month overall was September, which had an average temperature of 86°F (30°C) and the coolest month overall was January, which had an average temperature of 79.7°F (26.5°C). Read the whole story here.

Oceans heat up as 2021 lands in top 5 hottest years

Cayman News Service
11 January 2022

The year 2021 was the world’s fifth hottest on record, with greenhouse gases surging and oceans warming to new highs and for some countries it was the hottest on record, scientists from NOAA in the US, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and university researchers have reported. The US saw its fourth hottest year on record and all over the world there were extreme weather events.

The last seven years were the world’s warmest “by a clear margin”, climate experts said, with 2020 and 2016 topping the table. There were numerous record-breaking climate events all over the globe in 2021, but despite commitments by governments to cut emissions, carbon dioxide and methane levels surged back up to pe-pandemic levels.

Around the world emissions increased on 2020, when there was a slight and evidently short-lived decrease as a result of the pandemic lockdown. In the United States greenhouse gas emissions rose by 6.2% last year, and recorded increases elsewhere means governmental goals to combat climate change are in jeopardy. Scientists said that the surge in emissions last year cancelled out all of the gains in the previous year’s decline.

A new report from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) examining just 20 weather events in the US last year showed these cost the American economy at least $145 billion.

Meanwhile, new analysis published Tuesday showed that oceans contained the most heat energy in 2021 since measurements began six decades ago — accelerating at a rate only possible because of human-emitted greenhouse gases. Since the late 1980s, Earth’s oceans warmed at a rate eight times faster than the preceding decades.

Warming seas remain of particular concern for low lying nations such as the Cayman Islands.

CNS has contacted the Cayman Islands National Weather Service and the Department of Environment for the latest local statistics on the temperature here in 2021 and the emissions for last year and we are awaiting a full response. But the weather service was able to offer raw data, which saw Cayman’s top temperature last year exceed 33.5C (92.3F) on two separate days in September and October some 6 degrees hotter than the average for September but almost 10 for October. The average temperature for last year was 28.4C or 83.1. According to the most recently available numbers 2019 emissions were the highest in Cayman since 2007, and regionally per capita the country has the highest levels in the Caribbean region. Read the whole story here.

HSA expects to cut costs with solar panels

Cayman News Service
5 January 2022

Solar panels on the Cayman Islands Hospital rooftop

Work at the George Town hospital installing a solar array and one of the largest rooftop installations of solar panels and equipment in the Cayman Islands has finished. The Health Services Authority (HSA) said that this places the hospital among the corporate leaders for environmental sustainability and green initiative among government agencies.

Once it is switched on, it is expected to produce an equivalent amount of clean energy to power 50 private homes in the Cayman Islands. The near $500,000 project is part of a estimated CI$2 million investment in conserving energy at the hospital.

The panels and other green projects are expected to save the hospital around $360,000 per year in running costs and cut down on the HSA’s carbon footprint.

“This project is our flagship solar panel system installation and part of a broader initiative to ensure more healthcare dollars go into staffing and patient treatment and less into operational overhead,” said HSA CEO Lizzette Yearwood. “Our efforts in 2021 included replacement of decades old windows to improve thermal protection, replacement of old chiller systems to high efficiency equipment, and the replacement of bulbs across the main campus with more energy efficient LEDs.” Read the whole story here.

DEH wants Christmas trees recycled rather than placed at landfill

Loop Cayman
5 January 2022

The Department of Environmental Health (DEH) is announcing the beginning of its annual Natural Christmas Tree Recycling Programme.

DEH said that collection bins have now been placed for the public to drop off their natural Christmas trees in the following locations:

• George Town Cricket Field
• George Town Landfill public drop-off area
• Spotts Dock, Savannah

Residents are reminded to remove all wires and ornaments from Christmas trees before they are placed into collection bins which will be available until January 30, 2022.

"Every year, hundreds of enthusiastic residents participate in the Natural Christmas Tree Recycling Programme aimed to reduce the amount of waste entering the George Town Landfill. The trees will later be shredded and free mulch will be made available to members of the public," explained DEH Director, Mr. Richard Simms. Read the whole story here.

Solar entrepreneur takes key energy role

Cayman Compass
27 December 2021

James Whittaker, the new chair of the Energy Council.

Renewable energy entrepreneur James Whittaker aims to accelerate Cayman’s conversion to green power, after being appointed chair of the National Energy Council.

Whittaker, founder of GreenTech Solar and the president of the Cayman Renewable Energy Association, has been a long-time advocate for swifter adoption of renewable energy technologies.

He said Cayman is currently not even close to meeting ambitious goals set out in the National Energy Plan to wean the islands off fossil fuels. That plan sets a goal that 70% of Cayman’s power should come from renewable sources by 2037.

Whittaker’s appointment was confirmed by Cabinet last month, along with the appointment of sustainability advocate Eden Hurlston and former legislator Winston Connolly, a staunch advocate for renewable power, on a new-look Energy Council.

“I think the new members that are coming in are like minded and want to see our national energy and CO2 emissions targets met. We are way behind schedule and I don’t want that to be the case in the next five years. I want us to be ahead.”...

...Tension remains over the right balance between rooftop solar and large-scale energy farms, which can produce electricity at a lower cost. But Whittaker said the National Energy Plan calls for a mix of both.
CUC is understood to have at least one utility scale solar farm in the planning stages.

Whittaker argues that distributed generation, which includes smaller installations, creates more jobs and eats up less land space.

“There has to be a balance,” he said...Read the whole story here.

Environment, accountability and crypto dominate CIIPA’s annual conference

Cayman Compass
13 December 2021

Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountability Chief Executive Officer Rob Whiteman addresses attendees during his session on Reporting Public Sector Climate Impacts at Momentum on 9 Dec. at the Kimpton Seafire Resort.

Combatting climate change, the importance of public sector accountability and evolving digital assets were the main topics at the Cayman Islands Institute of Professional Accountants’ annual summit held at the Kimpton Seafire Resort on 9 Dec.

Capital markets and the environment“The inconveniences that we have suffered in the last year-and-a-half because of COVID are just a very easy dress rehearsal for the much bigger show that will be the disruption caused to the global economy by climate change,” said Rob Whiteman, chief executive officer of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountability.

“I do think if we’re going to stem the temperature rise and try and hold it back to one-and-a-half degrees, actually the profession and accountancy will play an absolutely vital role – as indeed will the capital markets – for the type of investment in technology that is needed.”

A session featuring KPMG’s Anthony Cowell, Jodie McTaggart and Staci Scott examined the results of interviews with 90 endowments and pension plans with nearly US$35 trillion of assets under management, which concluded that the capital markets can play an important role in the transition to a low-carbon emitting world.

“We really do have a once in a generational opportunity now to embed sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) into all of our financial service frameworks, into everything that we do,” Cowell said. “We’re seeing at KPMG a massive reallocation of capital towards ESG in the capital markets and Cayman can really be at the forefront and lead this to really build a better world.” Read the whole story here.

POF activists step up call for plastic ban

Cayman News Service
13 December 2021

George Town landfill (photo by Protect Our Future)

The two tonnes of plastic trash that volunteers picked up from Grand Cayman’s shoreline for World Cleanup Day in September represents the total amount of plastic the island consumes in just over four minutes, according to activists from Protect our Future. This finding has prompted the young environmentalists to start another campaign to urge government to act now to ban single-use plastics.

The previous government had made a commitment to ban single-use plastic by January this year and blamed COVID-19 for the failure to achieve this. But during the four years since Dart was selected to build the waste-to-energy facility, government has failed to roll out any of the policies that were meant to be part of an overall rubbish management plan.

“The urgency of our island’s problems is often met with stalled policy and inaction,” the young activists said, as they explained why they have been targeting this critical issues with dozens of different environmental campaigns.

They have now launched the ‘Our Future is NOT Single-Use’ campaign, which the group said was a statement that speaks for itself and is intended to address the “grievous problem” of plastic pollution as well as Cayman’s wider problem of over-consumption.

“Whether it is a call to action to protect our mangroves, reefs and seagrass from destruction or to limit our plastic consumption, this campaign aims to shift Cayman’s narrative,” POF activists Thomas Dickens, Chloe Bentick-Lalli and Nic Corin said in a press release. “It is also a call to action for the consumer and the developer, for the politician and the small business owner, for the fisherman and the student. We all have our part to play.”

The ban on single-use plastic is more urgent than ever, and in his budget address to Parliament last month Premier Wayne Panton said the PACT Government was ready to move forward with the ban. “We do not believe in reinventing the wheel and will therefore resurrect the work previously done on that and move forward,” he said. Read the whole story here.

RIC to host climate change webinar

Loop Cayman
1 December 2021

The Regulated Industries Commission (RIC) will be hosting a free webinar on the theme, “Why are our days getting hotter? – Climate Change, COP26 and You” on Friday at 9am via Zoom.

The Webinar will feature remarks from Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales, RIC Chairman Dawn Callender, presentations by distinguished speakers and a panel discussion by local and regional industry experts on climate change, energy efficiency, electric vehicles and renewable energy.

Presenters include representatives from the Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE), the University of Trinidad and Tobago and the Regulated Industries Commissions.
The presentations will cover a range of topics including:

• “Energy security for the Caribbean – present and future activities and initiatives to address climate change” – Representative from CCREEE
• “Climate change – Electricity conservation present and future” – Retired Chief Technical Officer at T&TEC Courtenay Mark
  
• “Climate change and the energy and transportation nexus” –  Assistant Professor, Utilities Engineering, The University of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Curtis Boodoo
• "Actions towards GORTT's climate change commitments" – Senior Tariff Analyst, Regulated Industries Commission Leah Goddard-Pierre and
• "Advancing energy efficiency and energy conservation in Trinidad and Tobago” – Standards Engineer, Regulated Industries Commission Victor Rodriguez

Interested persons can register for the RIC Webinar at the RIC’s website www.ric.org.tt or the RIC’s Social Media pages. Read the whole story here.

Governor Roper: Throne speech and his final year as Cayman governor

Loop Cayman
28 November 2021

Governor Martyn Roper delivering throne speech

A few days ago, Governor Martyn Roper gave his third throne speech in Parliament.  He covered several topics, including the challenges introduced by COVID-19, the relationship between the UK and overseas territories, Cayman’s role in global climate change efforts, changes in senior public servants (including the Chief Medical Officer), the growth of the Cayman Islands Regiment and the next year's planned celebrations for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s seventieth anniversary on the throne...

...Looking at Cayman’s efforts in respect of climate change, Governor Roper acknowledged the Premier’s establishment of the Ministry for Sustainability and Climate Resiliency and the Premier’s recent attendance at the 26th Conference of the Parties on climate change in Glasgow.

Regarding this, Governor Roper said:

"By prioritising his time to attend this event the Premier demonstrated leadership to show the world that he is dedicated to doing what he can to tackle the issues around climate change - of particular significance to low lying islands such as ours.

Although our global impact is small, I salute the Premier’s and this Government’s intention to ensure Cayman can put its own house in order and set a good example in the region."

Governor Roper also noted that, in Glasgow, the HRH the Prince of Wales personally congratulated the Premier on Cayman’s newly established Commonwealth Climate Growth Fund. He said that the Prince had taken an interest in the fund since his visit to Cayman in 2019. According to Governor Roper, the fund will contribute to raising private sector climate finance for the region and the Commonwealth for investment in Blue/Green projects. Read the whole story here.

Panton: ‘Sustainability is everybody’s business’

Cayman Compass
18 November 2021

The destruction of coral reefs and more storm activity are part of the existential threat that rising global temperatures pose for small island nations.

Climate change is an existential risk and countries, including Cayman, must do more to halt the rise in global average temperatures, Premier Wayne Panton said during the virtual Caribbean ESG Financing Summit on Wednesday, 17 Nov.

Speaking about his experience at the United Nations’ COP26 climate conference recently held in Glasgow, Scotland, Panton said Cayman had to make the necessary changes itself to be part of the solution.

“But the rest of the world, which is contributing the vast majority of the greenhouse gases, need to get on board and they need to make the moves necessary,” he said.

The target remains to limit global warming to a 1.5 degrees Celsius increase from pre-industrial levels. Without the necessary measures, a 2.4- to 2.6-degree Celsius rise is projected until the end of the century.
“Effectively, that means we’re failing, and we need to have a paradigm shift,” the premier said. 

Even at 1.5 degrees Celsius there were already impacts such as in increase in storms. Panton noted that 2020 was a record year for storms and 2005 was the record year for Atlantic hurricanes.

In fact, 10 of the 15 most active hurricane seasons in the last 150 years have occurred since the year 2000.

Panton said these weather events have major socio-economic impacts on countries in the region. Anything from agriculture to tourism was heavily impacted by storms as well as by the changes in the environment, such as sea-level rise, ocean acidification and higher ocean temperatures. Read the whole story here.

Cayman Eco is a non-profit group based in the Cayman Islands whose mission is to educate & motivate people of all ages to become more environmentally conscious.

Thanks to theNational Trust for the Cayman Islands for their continued support!

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