Cayman Parrots - RarePlanet

Marine Parks legislation was conceived. Siltation from dredging in the North Sound,
runoff of fine particulates from coastal development, and sediment plumes from the
anchoring of cruise ships off GeorgeTown are some of the major stresses still acting on the
reefi &d lagoons of western Grand Cayman.
Terrestrial habitat conservation is a concept that has arrived late to the Cayman Islands.
Until the creation ofthe National Trust for the Cayman Islands late in 1987, the only non
marine conservation areas were a number of Animal Sanctuaries designated by the
Government under the Animals Law. These were all brackish water ponds of some
importance to migratory waterfowl, and included no dry land habitat. The Animals Law
has proved lacking in many aspects, several of these Animal Sanctuaries have been
deregulated by Government or otherwise violated, and enforcement has foundered on the
absence of any compensation offered to owners of property designated as sanctuary.
Significant areas of primary or near-primary lowland woodland still remain, largely
unrecognized when the islands' flora was first studied in detail, because of lack of access
through the inhospitable terrain. The human population was very low in the early 190OYs,
and it has been only in the last 30 years that development and the associated exponential
increase in human population has resulted in major encroachment into the interiors of
central and eastern Grand Cayman, and the central plateau on Cayman Brac.
Primary (undisturbed) dry woodlands and thickets of Grand Cayman are now mostly
fragmented by development and agriculture. Significant areas remaining include about 30
acres in south George Town, a large contiguous block of about 1,000 acres in "the
Mountain", and various fragments intersected with roads and agricultural development
in the Beach Bay area and in East End.
The mangroves on Grand Cayman can conveniently be divided into two blocks, the
mangroves west of Savannah, and the Central Mangrove Swamp. The Central Mangrove
Swamp (about 2,000 acres) is almost all in its original, natural state: the mangroves west
ofsavannah are all severely disturbed by mosquito control dyking, and approaching 50%
of these have been destroyed for development over the last 50 years. The rate of mangrove
destruction has accelerated greatly in recent years with the lifting of the moratorium on
dredging.
On Cayman Brac, the woodlands of the Bluff were extensively degraded by timber
extraction earlier this century, recovery has begun, but it will take many decades. A few
undisturbed areas are also present. Construction of roads throughout the Bluff in the
1980's has greatly increased the threat to these woodlands.