Conservation council hits back at critics
(CNS): The chair of the National Conservation Council has hit back at criticisms levelled at it by a local newspaper and defended its position on the port issue and against a number of other misleading comments made in opinion pieces. Christine Rose-Smyth said that the main function of the council is to promote biological diversity, conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Having spoken out about the destructive cruise port project, she explained why the NCC had highlighted governance issues surrounding the process and progress of the controversial project.
“The recent statements by the Council in relation to adherence to performance standards and good governance for assessment and conduct of the environmentally sensitive infrastructure proposal for a cruise berthing facility were issued because, in the Council’s view, it is in the public interest that such standards are followed and further the environmental assessment should continue to be managed by the Environmental Assessment Board that was formed for such purpose,” she explained, as she defended the need for the NCC to speak out about the question marks surrounding government’s decision to press on in the face of warnings against it from environmental experts.
The letter also addresses a number of other unfounded criticism made against the NCC, including the decision to spend money on addressing the green iguana problem. “Invasive species pose a grave threat to the biodiversity of the Islands,” Rose-Smyth pointed out. “The green iguana is a grave threat and a committee of the Council is now tasked with running a pilot project towards control and possible eradication of this threat.”
In a recent edition of the DoE magazine Flicker, researcher Jane Haakonsson spelt out quite clearly the genuine danger the iguana poses and the speed with which the numbers are growing. With the population increasing 60% in just one year, the green pest poses a massive threat to local, unique bio-diversity. Numbers grew from around 127,000 counted in August 2014 to more than 200,000 a year later, the experts have found, and the need to find a comprehensive way to control numbers is now a major priority for environmentalists.
The NCC is an important element of the historic National Conservation Law, which was steered through the parliament by Minister Wayne Panton despite opposition from his own party. Cayman’s terrestrial environment as well as its marine habitat remains under major threat from a variety of sources, including climate change and other global pressures that are hard to address. But the NCC was formed in part to play a fundamental role in helping to mitigate the local environmental threats that can be controlled, such as coastal development and the preservation of mangroves, among many others.
Category: Land Habitat, Marine Environment, Science & Nature
Any other way but killing?
So, how did that interview work out for you?
Canned green iguana soup soon come…
It is taking the NCC a hell of a long time to get off the ground with the culling of the nuisance iguanas. By the time they hit the ground running, Grand Cayman will be overrun with them. Stop procrastinating, get your act together and forge ahead. Tired of hearing about what needs to be done and no one is getting it done.
NATO – no action, talk only. Start the ACTION now.
I am not from the island but for 15 years I have watched the government do what needs to be done 5-10 years ago. I have never figured out, why?
To try to pin the green iguana problem on the NCC is completely unfair. The council has only been around for some 15 months, (not 2 years as the Compass suggests), and this issue goes back decades.
Until fairly recently Green Iguanas were essentially protected by sloppily written legislation designed to protect the Blue Iguanas. Now the newly formed NCC are trying to do something about this problem and the Compass (and some comment posters) mock their efforts.
In the Compass Editor’s opinion, this is not a serious environmental problem, not comparable to the Lion Fish invasion. However, Green Iguanas eat native bird eggs and chicks, and undoubtedly the eggs and young of other native animals, along with their main diet of plants.Their numbers and range are expanding almost exponentially.
In my opinion as a qualified biologist,these iguanas represent the most critical threat to native terrestrial wildlife. I challenge David Legge to find a single credible biologist to support his mocking assertion that this is not an important ecological focus.
I ask the previous poster to suggest what measures he thinks that the fledgling NCC should have instituted, without any studies, without access to significant funding, without an existing regulatory framework, and without the freedom to undertake known effective safe culling measures such as the use of air rifles.
Green Iguana suggestion: let anyone kill them for $5 per head. This wide based cull would need to be announced to happen over a short time without previous warning.
For example, on a Thursday announce that starting the following Monday, and for the next 3 weeks, every person bringing a green Iguana head to a specific location will be paid $5 per head.
The DoE or NCC could administer the funds & record the payments. The short span of time prevents persons breeding them, etc. The out-of-work persons could make some quick, easy money if so desired. Lots of these pests could be removed for a relatively small amount of funds, e.g. every $100K = 20K iguanas.
This process could be repeated at unannounced intervals until the problem is under control.
Brilliant 2.43! Once we have tested it on Iguanas can we move on to drug dealers? Might need $25k a head for those…
A former Cabinet Minister’s brother was killing them for $10 dollars a head but then he got bored and gave up.
Got bored as opposed to thinking he was underpaid and should be get $200,000 a year and be the Managing director?
Why not…the CNCF gets more than that for just 2 salaries…waste of money..? not really,they have lots of cocktail parties.
Or you could just do your part as a good citizen and kill them for free when they are on the road (run them over in your car), in your yard (use machete, coconut, rock, let your dog loose, sling shot, spear gun, lopsta snare), sunbathing by your pool (see same for when in your yard) instead of just looking at them?
It never ceases to amaze me that Caymanians need to be paid to tidy up their own yard when they can just do it for free as part of their duty of good citizenship.
If the amount of green iguanas everywhere are any indication on how successful this NCC is, then they should all be fired.
But it isn’t, therefor your premise has no basis. The numbers of Green Iguanas were multiplying rapidly long before the NCC was even constituted.
Fair enough that the NCC only started 18 months ago, can they say when they will be putting into action the eradication of these pest?
If she had any sense, she would know that there is no possibility of eradicating the green iguanas now that they are everywhere and would not be spending any money on a useless study. Spend the money on the blues or doing something for the parrots or the orchids or repairing reefs. Their view of the port issue is just another opinion among many and the decision is not theirs to make..
12.27 and your qualifications in this subject are? A full Frontal Lobotomy at an early age perhaps leading to delusions of importance and knowledge?
My qualifications are as good as theirs (degrees in biology and law) but it ain’t rocket science we’re talking about.
I happen to think she has a great deal of sense. The “possible eradication” is quoted out of context and refers to the possible eradication in the Sister Islands. Good enough?
YAAWWNN! I’ll take the NCC seriously when they open up their activities to proper scrutiny. Right now it looks a bit like a rather exclusive little think tank with a lot of vested interests but no actual public accountability.
Hang on a second! Isn’t that what all these various committees and councils are?