Land Habitat
Activist groups aim to create future vision
(CNS): A number of increasingly active community groups engaging in campaigns and stirring public discourse on environmental and the socio-economic issues are hosting a public awareness community event later this month with the view of creating a new 2020 vision for the country. Save Cayman, Save Barkers, Saved the Cove and the Cruise Port Referendum […]
Iguana cull on track as 300k taken to dump
(CNS): In the nine-week period since the green iguana cull began at the end of October on Grand Cayman, 302,326 iguanas have been exterminated, which researchers at the Department of Environment believe equates to around a quarter of the population at the time the island-wide cull began. The numbers show that the $5 bounty is […]
Conservation law makes it to five years intact
(CNS): The National Conservation Law marked its 5th anniversary on Thursday still intact, despite ongoing concerns over government plans to review and water down the legislation, which was originally steered through the Legislative Assembly with unanimous support on 13 December 2013. Wayne Panton, the former environment minister, the only minster to ever hold the portfolio […]
Premier: UK should plug EU environment fund gap
(CNS): As current president of the Political Council of the United Kingdom Overseas Territories Association (UKOTA), Premier Alden McLaughlin stood up for all the British Overseas Territories in London on Monday, as he called on the UK to ensure that specialist technical assistance as well as funding for environmental research and protection remains available for the […]
DoE seeking to protect 20% of Cayman’s environment
(CNS): Five years after the historic passage of the National Conservation Law, the Department of Environment said that so far it has managed to designate 3,477 acres of land across the three Cayman Islands as public protected areas. Another 634 acres on Grand Cayman are pending for protection, which accounts for just over 6% of […]
DoE keeping close eye on cull numbers
(CNS): The need to ensure that the cull of invasive green iguanas across Grand Cayman keeps pace with the target is at the forefront of the Department of Environment’s agenda, as the numbers began to drop below the 6,000 daily target last week. For the first time since the cull began at the end of […]
Green iguana cull tops 100,000 in first two weeks
(CNS): Invasive green iguana cullers on Grand Cayman have already managed to remove well over 100,000 of the pesky reptile in just the first two weeks of the island-wide cull aimed at reducing the population to a less harmful level. With more than 1.6 million believed to be on the island at the start of […]
Dangers of wetlands pollution exposed
(CNS): The National Roads Authority (NRA) conducted tests on samples of waste dumped into areas of wetlands around George Town, and a laboratory in Florida found that they contain carcinogens. The NRA was caught on camera by the TV news this summer dumping the sludgy material it cleans out of stormwater wells into the wetlands, which may have […]
MRCU to stop releasing GM mosquitoes
(CNS): The Mosquito Research and Control Unit has admitted that it has stopped the release of Oxitec’s genetically modified male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Grand Cayman, claiming that it is moving into a monitoring phase just a few months after it entered a deal with the bio-engineering firm in May.
New threat emerging from another invasive reptile
(CNS): The discovery of a Knight anole (Anolis equestris) at Vigoro Nursery in Lower Valley last week is ringing alarm bells for the Department of Environment as this green lizard is an invasive species that could threaten local ecosystems. Like the green iguana, this smaller reptile is a prolific breeder. It has been spotted locally on […]
Cull surpasses 2017 numbers in first week
(CNS): The Department of Environment says more than 53,000 green iguanas were culled during the first week of this year’s island-wide cull, which is almost double the 28,985 bagged during the underfunded and limited efforts last year, demonstrating that this time the research has paid off. DoE Terrestrial Resources Unit Manager Fred Burton said improvements […]
