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(CNS): Since the start of this year, the Central Planning Authority has heard applications for development projects and sub-divisions that threaten well over one hundred acres of primary natural habitat, including mangroves. Despite mounting public support for conservation and significant concerns that development is destroying the environment, in less than two months the CPA has either already granted planning permission or is considering approval for projects that place unique flora at risk.
Despite the PACT Government’s stated commitment to sustainable development, nature continues to be under attack from plans such as Dart Realty’s application for a subdivision on 60 acres of mangroves in Rum Point and the Gun Club’s request to relocate to a 38-acre site of tidally flooded mangroves along the North Sound coast.
It appears from an examination of the minutes of CPA meetings published by the planning department that the board is still granting planning permission on wetlands and other primary habitat based almost entirely on the dated development plan. There is very little evidence that the extensive submissions made by the Department of Environment are being considered.
DoE’s technical experts regularly submit detailed information ahead of CPA meetings on all planning applications where the proposed project is not on previously developed or man-modified land. The submissions range from the very rare use of the National Conservation Council’s powers to order an environmental impact assessment or advise about mitigating threats to the natural environment.
On just two occasions, both of which were challenged by the CPA, the NCC has directed the CPA via the DoE to refuse planning permission.
Of the dozens of applications approved each month, the DoE will advise on the best use of land or how the loss of important habitat can be reduced. It often spells out why the CPA should impose conditions or even refuse an application. The advice is mainly about reducing the destruction of untouched habitat and preserving as much of the natural resources on a given site as possible. The DoE will also warn about the consequences of certain types of development and the loss of natural habitat.
Despite the limited powers to direct the CPA, the advice given by the DoE is still supposed to be considered by the board in the same way it considers the comments from other agencies, such as the fire service or the National Roads Authority. But the CPA rarely details its consideration of the information it receives from the DoE in the minutes. And where it is shown to be considered, it is regularly dismissed.
There has been a massive loss of wetlands and other important habitat on Grand Cayman over the last five decades. In 1976, the western end of Grand Cayman was largely composed of wetlands, with about 5,300 acres of mangroves and sedge marshes from Prospect to West Bay. By 2013, that number was just 1,600 acres, a 70% loss to residential and commercial development.
Since 2008 an estimated 184 acres of mangrove has been lost. But in less than three months, the CPA is weighing decisions on almost half that amount of land that is not man-modified and either all or partial wetlands and untouched primary habitat such as dry forest.
Just over 864.5 acres of wetland are currently protected, and only 11% of all land across all three islands is protected by either the government or the National Trust. The rest, around 89%, remains at risk. While much of that is already developed, the rest is disappearing under the bulldozers far quicker than the NCC or the Trust can acquire and protect the land.
The latest report from the Office of the Auditor General, which looks at Cayman’s adherence to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, points out that even though mangroves are now protected, the protections are removed as soon as planning permission is granted. The result is more and more wetlands are lost every month.
Meanwhile, the OAG was only able to find data relating to dry forest habitat that was a decade old. In 2013 dry forest habitat accounted for around 7,000 acres, or about 10% of the Cayman Islands’ total land area. At that point, just 10% of that habitat was protected.
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