Turks and Caicos Islands

5.7.4. Policy
Across the Caribbean policies to adapt to and manage climate change impacts are becoming more
common. The strong relationship between disasters and climate change create a policy arena where both
issues can be managed under similar governance mechanisms. The National Development Plan from 2008
set out several targets for socio-economic development which address environmental management,
including disaster management and climate change. However, the absence of DRR legislation inhibits the
power of the Department. TCI is in the process of adopting the Regional Model Disaster Management
Legislation which then also provides a budget allocation for DRR activities (Department of Disaster
Management and Emergencies, 2010). Furthermore, a disconnect between monitoring reports on hazards
and vulnerabilities and the policies and plans for action has prevented the findings from fully being
integrated into the planning process (Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies, 2010). Once
local government has been restored, the Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies can start
to move forward on these issues, which they are aware of, and progress in DRR can commence.
Environmental Impacts and Development Planning
As a region, relevant groups are working hard toward the development and application of a Caribbean
Building Code or Building Standards using the International Code Council (ICC) codes as the primary base
documents with additional input from the Caribbean Uniform Building Code (CUBiC) and earlier
assessments on wind load and seismic considerations. The Code has already been prepared and the next
step is for each of the 15 states involved to review the documents and prepare their own Caribbean
Application Document (CAD). This document will most likely be prepared by specialists who will determine
how the regional code should be applied given each country’s own peculiarities, for example some
countries will focus more heavily on flooding and less on seismic considerations. The CAD will then be
reviewed by all of the relevant stakeholders on the National Stakeholder Subcommittee who will provide
comments before it is submitted to CARICOM (Personal communication - Jonathan Platt, Barbados National
Standards Institute. May 4, 2011).
The TCI Department of Planning and other related ministries determined in the National Development
Strategy that efforts would be made to review current Physical Planning regulations and legislation in
addition to establishing a monitoring and enforcement unit (Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands,
2008). While it is unclear whether this will include consideration of hazards and climate change and how,
regular review of planning procedures and policies is a good practice and given that this process is listed
within environmental management efforts, it is likely that high risk areas would be a basic component of
planning controls. The establishment of a monitoring and enforcement unit is also positive as it will help
control growth and ensure regulations are adhered to throughout the islands. The creation of better land
use maps by the Department of Survey and Mapping, including basic household information, is also an
important part of development planning and hazard risk reduction (Government of the Turks and Caicos
Islands, 2009b). Once these maps are available, they would complement the Hazard and Vulnerability
Assessment maps (as referenced in ECLAC, 2008) in informing DRR decision making and planning through
the islands of Turks and Caicos.
As reported in the HFA Progress Report, TCI does have good capacity in some areas, including political will,
and areas where more progress on DRR is needed have been outlined. The links to disaster management
are not explicitly made within climate change projects, however, EIAs and integrated planning efforts are
indirectly benefitting DRR goals (Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies, 2010).
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