Map of the Cayman Islands (click to view full-size)
Background information
Legislation regarding biodiversity and impact assessment
International legislation and conventions
The Cayman Islands are included within the UK's ratification of the following:
- World Heritage Convention
- Ramsar Convention
- Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
- Convention on Migratory Species
- Convention on Biological Diversity
- International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling
- Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region (Cartagena Convention) Protocol on Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW)
and ratified(?) the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocols in 2005. Ramsar sites in the Cayman Islands implement the Ramsar Convention; more information is available through the protected areas section.
Further information on the relevant texts of these conventions is available on the international conventions page.
A list of Parties to the conventions can be found through this link.
National legislation
Cayman Islands national legislation regarding protected areas and biodiversity is as follows:
- Marine Conservation Law 1978 (revised 1995)
- Marine Conservation (Marine Parks) Regulations 1986, amended 1986, 1988
- Animals Law No. 8 1976
- Animal (Sanctuaries) Regulations 1980 (Cayman Brac)
- Animal (Sanctuaries) Regulations 1982 (Little Cayman).
Details of these laws can be found through the legislation section of this site.
Other relevant legislation appears to include the following: National Conservation Bill? National Environment Policy? National Tourism Management Policy? Vision 2008 strategy 11: Environment, strategy 10: growth management? (all according to Ebanks-Petrie 2005)
Key development areas and issues
As with so many of the Caribbean islands, the prime economic driver is tourism, so pressure on the environment is intense, and affects the very resources which attract many people to the islands. Two of the three islands - Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac - are heavily settled, whilst the third - Little Cayman - is relatively undisturbed, with only ca.100 people resident.
Tourism produces around 900,000 visitors per year to the islands, many of them arriving in large cruise ships. The islands have a 'sun-sea-sand' appeal, and the reefs are popular with divers - particularly the area known as 'Stingray City', where large numbers of stingrays gather.
One of the key constraints to development on the islands is that freshwater supplies are obtained through desalination, natural freshwater resources being extremely scarce on all of the islands.
Biodiversity interest
The three islands are flat and low-lying, surrounded by extensive coral reefs. The primary terrestrial habitats are mangrove swamps (found on Grand and Little Cayman), and dry evergreen woodland and thicket (all three islands). The slow growth of the evergreen tree species means that visible impacts of logging on the islands in the early 1900s are still evident. Little Cayman is the least disturbed of the three islands. Grand Cayman is dominated by inland mangrove swamp, extending to over 50% of the island, making it the largest area of inland mangrove in the Caribbean. The integrity of these swamps is considered crucial to a number of natural processes on the island, ranging from rainfall patterns to retention of groundwater for surrounding agriculture.
The Caymans are relatively well-known in terms of species. Comprehensive work has been carried out to inventory and map (?) species on the three islands. 24 endemic vascular plants can be found, eight of which are vulnerable or endangered, and one is thought probably extinct. Terrestrial invertebrates are probably the least well-known group, having only good studies on snails and spiders available. Of the 133 terrestrial invertebrate species recorded, a third are snails, and another third spiders. There may perhaps be 30 endemic snail species, with perhaps another 30 endemic insect species. Obviously, much work remains to be done on the invertebrate fauna of the islands.
Of the vertebrates, some 21 herptile taxa are considered endemic, whilst three marine turtle species occur in coastal waters - only one breeds, however. The only endemic bird - the Grand Cayman Thrush Turdus ravidus is now extinct, and several of the resident species are in decline. Thirteen subspecies of bird are endemic to the islands, but genetic work on birds in general is frequently showing that isolated island subspecies often deserve recognition as full species. As a group, the islands are considered a 'secondary endemic bird area' by BirdLife International: they support more than one restricted-range bird species, in this case the now extinct Grand Cayman Thrush Turdus ravidus and four other species, but less than two of them are restricted to the islands.
With the extinction of the Hutia (Capromys sp., Geocapromys sp.), West Indian Shrew (Nesophontes sp.) and Caribbean Monk Seal (Monachus tropicalis), native mammals are now restricted to bats and cetaceans, with one endemic bat taxon recorded; a yet-to-be-described subspecies of the Brown Bat Eptesicus fuscus (Cayman Is National Trust, Stoddart 1980).
The lack of detailed research into biodiversity of the islands can be illustrated clearly by the discovery of no less than 24 species of plant previously unknown on the islands during the biodiversity survey conducted by the Cayman Islands National Trust: results of this survey are designed to improve biodiversity knowledge for decision-makers, and further information can be obtained from the Trust.
A total of 48 species considered to be threatened with extinction can be found on the Cayman Is, as shown on this page.
Introduced plants and invertebrates out-compete and predate native species; cats and dogs in particular have been shown to have serious impacts on the 3 native subspecies of Blue Iguana (Cyclura nubilis) (Varnham 2006).
More information on the important species of the Cayman Islands can be found here.
Protected Areas
Protected areas in the Cayman Islands fall under the categories listed in the following table.
| Type | Number of sites |
|---|---|
| Animal Sanctuary | 4 |
| Environmental Zone | 2 |
| Grouper Spawning Site | 8 |
| Marine Park | 10 |
| Nature Reserve | 1 |
| No Diving Zone | 2 |
Other area | 1 |
| Replenishment Zone | 16 |
| Reserve | 4 |
In addition to these, one 82ha site is designated under the Ramsar Convention: Booby Pond and Rookery, with another four proposed sites (as of 1999): Barker's Wetland; Central Mangrove Wetland, Little Sound, Ponds and associated Marine Zones; Little Cayman Crown Wetlands and Marine Parks; and Salina Reserve. Total area covered by these proposed sites is 9,652ha.
Further information on the protected areas of the Cayman Islands can be found here.