Turks and Caicos Islands

2. NATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES
2.1. Geography and climate
The Turks and Caicos Islands are essentially two groups of islands separated by a deep water channel that is
22 miles wide. They are found to the north of Haiti and south-east of The Bahamas and the capital is
Cockburn Town, found on Grand Turk to the east (BCQS International, 2010; Kairi Consultants Ltd, 2000).
There are 40 different islands and cays that make up the Turks and Caicos Islands and only 8 are
inhabited(Turks and Caicos Tourist Board, n.d.). There are two values widely reported for the country’s land
area, 948 km 2 and 417 km 2 . Although no definitive source could be found that explains the difference in
these numbers it is believed that the smaller number relates to actual land area and the larger number
includes marshes and possibly wetlands.
The Turks Islands lie to the east of the deep water channel and consist of two inhabited islands, Grand Turk
and Salt Cay, and six uninhabited cays (Kairi Consultants Limited, 2000a). Grand Turk is 7 miles long and 1.5
miles wide(Grand Turk Cruise Center, 2011). The Caicos Islands form a bank and consist of six islands, four
of which are inhabited. The largest of all the islands is Middle Caicos and each island in the chain is
separated from one another by shallow passages (Kairi Consultants Limited, 2000a).
The islands are all limestone platforms and therefore low-lying, with the highest point being Flamingo Hill
on the East Caicos island at 48 m above sea-level (Kairi Consultants Limited, 2000a; Lime Turks & Caicos
Islands, 2011). There are extensive sandy beaches and shallow water with coral formations (Kairi
Consultants Limited, 2000a) as well as extensive mangroves and marshes. Grand Turk has a well-earned
reputation as one of the finest diving destinations in the world with an outstanding protected coral reef
that drops to 7,000 feet along the west side of the island(Grand Turk Cruise Center, 2011).
The Turks and Caicos Islands have several species of interest that include rare, threatened, endangered and
endemic species as well as significant populations of flora and fauna, range-restricted species and rare
habitat types (SWA Ltd., Blue Dolphin Research and Consulting Inc., EDSA, 2010). A habitat mapping
exercise has taken place recently under the aegis of the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources
that shows the diversity of ecosystems that exist in the islands. The mapping found that 47% of the area
surveyed (430 km 2 ) was estuarine, 22% palustrine (the large land areas at or just above sea level that are
flooded with seasonal rains and provide critical habitat for waterfowl species), 16% upland, 10% coastal
and 6% human altered landscapes (SWA Ltd., Blue Dolphin Research and Consulting Inc., EDSA, 2010).
According to the Tourist Board the Middle and North Caicos represent the best of the environment, with
lush green woodlands, the biggest cave network in the Caribbean on Middle Caicos, cottage pond and
flamingo pond in North Caicos and a vast range of plant life and birdlife. South Caicos is the centre for
fishing, with lobster and conch exports, the historic Cockburn harbour and the natural phenomenon of the
boiling hole (Turks and Caicos Tourist Board, n.d.).
Other than fishing there is little land available that is suitable for agriculture. The islands receive limited
rainfall and are occasionally stricken by drought. The Caicoses receive more rainfall than the Turks Islands
and can support agriculture that is not possible in the Turk (Kairi Consultants Limited, 2000a).
The Turks and Caicos Islands have no national meteorological service and receive their forecasts and
warnings through the Bahamas Meteorology Department. As such there is no long-term climate data for
the Islands (Climate Change Committee, 2011). In the absence of site specific climatology from a national
meteorological office, the gridded data from the climate modelling is presented here to describe the
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