We are weak in all four categories of “Species, Sites”, Development control” and “Accountability” in the first-ever analysis of environmental laws across all of the UK’s 14 Overseas Territories.

The report, “Environmental Governance in the UK’s Overseas Territories”, was published and presented to the UK Government last month by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and assessed the priority policy areas of biodiversity protection and development planning against criteria of environmental governance.

The report was written in conjunction with the Foundation for International Environmental Law & Development.

We are so “weak” we are used as a case study with a photograph of Grand Cayman taken by air that bears the caption “ In Grand Cayman, mangrove forests, key defences against storm surges and sea-level rise, are being lost to development.”

“The analysis revealed that while there are important areas of good practice in many Territories, most notably in Gibraltar, The British Virgin Islands and St. Helena, many Overseas Territories still have significant gaps in their environmental governance.

“Major improvements are within reach and much of this can be achieved within existing budgetary constraints. ”

We attach a copy of the whole report.

Any future Cayman Island Minister of the Environment should read the report and all the other ones that have been recently published including our own Islands Government Environmental warnings. They have all been ignored.

In contrast we have published today in iNews Cayman a story under the headline “Tourism continues focus on coastal awareness”. It is about Grand Bahama and the Director of Tourism there, Karen F Seymour, emphasized her Ministry’s ongoing focus on coastal awareness, “Because as an archipelago, the Islands of The Bahamas are all coasts, and rely heavily upon the coastline for tourism, and upon the waters for sustenance.”

Well said and her theme is “Yours. Mine. Ours… Let’s Protect Our Coast… It Needs Us Most!!”

To date I have not heard one of our Candidates for Election push environment protection. Not one!

Every one of them are most definitely “weak, weak, weak, and weak!”