Tag: National Conservation Council

Gov’t warned EIA needed for road extension
(CNS): Government is pointing the finger at the National Conservation Council for delaying the start of the East-West Arterial Extension, despite knowing for five years that if it wanted to press ahead with this road it would need to conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIA). A screening report from the Department of Environment for the […]

EIA concerns still unfounded
(CNS): The Department of Environment reviewed 140 planning and ten coastal work applications in May, June and July, but did not require any developers to conduct an environmental impact assessment. Government has pointed to this element in the National Conservation Law as one of the reasons why it created a committee to review the legislation, […]

NCC seeks to protect unique Brac plant
(CNS Local Life): The National Conservation Council is about to embark on a public consultation to create a species conservation plan for an endemic Cayman Brac plant. Sybil’s crownbeard (Verbesina caymanensis), a small shrub unique to the Brac, was listed in 2013 as critically endangered as it is found nowhere else in the world other […]

DoE defends conservation law
(CNS): The public is being urged to learn about and understand the National Conservation Law so that they can properly contribute to the current review and make the most of the law itself, which also provides for considerable public input in various areas. Taking to the radio waves last week, officials from the Department of […]

NCC rejects Turtle Centre plan
(CNS): The chair of the National Conservation Council, McFarlane Connolly, has said the NCC will not be accepting a document put forward by the Cayman Turtle Centre because it is not, as claimed, a species conservation plan but a tourism plan, made for the benefit of the Turtle Centre. In a clash between the council […]

NCC aims to save endemic flower from extinction
(CNS): The National Conservation Council has issued an interim directive to protect the critically endangered Grand Cayman False Foxglove (Agalinis kingsii) ahead of a conservation plan for the endemic flower on the brink of extinction and now threatened by development. The Department of Environment said this small flower is “a habitat specialist with an extremely […]

People urged to lobby MLAs over NCL threat
(CNS): At an educational meeting hosted by the National Trust for the Cayman Islands Wednesday night, attendees were urged to contact their MLAs and lobby them about concerns over mounting threats to the environment, especially from development, and to offer their support for the National Conservation Law. Many people in the audience felt that there […]

Cull off target as iguanas set to breed
(CNS): Cullers have exterminated almost 450,000 green iguanas since October, when the nationwide initiative to get the exploding population of pests under control was launched. But the early targets set by the Department of Environment are now falling off just as the summer breeding season approaches. From an estimated 1.5 million greens roaming Grand Cayman […]

DoE to spell out safe handling of marine life
(CNS): With increasing reports of the mishandling and abuse of marine animals, such as starfish and stingrays, the Department of Environment is introducing definitive guidelines to help tour operators protect the species that are under increasing stress. Mishandling them could spell trouble for tour operators, who could lose their licence or face prosecution for the […]

NCC presses on with land protection
(CNS): The National Conservation Council has recommended another ten environmentally important sites, nominated by the community, be protected under the conservation law, following a public consultation period. The ten sites cover all three islands and include a diversity of natural habitats, from wetlands to primaeval forest. Following Wednesday’s meeting, the council voted to present 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 […]