Cash from the Environmental Protection Fund is unlikely to be available until after the next government budget – and even then only for “big ticket” projects like land purchases or one-off surveys of endemic species.
The Department of Environment says it would not be appropriate to use the fund for ongoing expenses such as stationing a full-time officer at Stingray sandbar, where tour operators have highlighted a host of concerns.
Using the cash to help remediate the George Town landfill site would not be possible either, under provisions outlined in the National Conservation Law.
There is more than $40 million in the fund, collected in taxes from tourists since 1997.
Once the National Conservation Council is set up, it will accept proposals from the public and make proposals itself, before applying to government through the annual budget process for the release of funds for specific projects.
But the fund, at least according to the Department of Environment’s understanding, cannot be used for any and every environmental cause.
Its principal function is likely to be buying up land to create national parks or protected areas.
John Bothwell, senior researcher at the DoE, said: “The fund was initially created in recognition that the only way to make protected areas is to buy the land and that that would take significant funds and could be best handled through a dedicated fund.
“The Department of Environment has always advised that the Environmental Protection Fund should be used that way and that it would be unsuitable to use it for recurring expenses such as paying salaries.”
It has previously been suggested that the fund was being frozen to enable government to meet is obligation to the U.K. to have a certain amount of cash in reserve.
But Finance Minister Marco Archer has said it cannot legitimately be used for this purpose. It has been used in the past for projects including a parrot reserve in the Brac and to purchase land in Barkers in West Bay, but also, controversially, for infrastructure projects and hurricane recovery efforts. The vast majority of the money, however, remains untouched in government coffers.
The new National Conservation Law, which passed in December but has yet to be gazetted, established, for the first time, a clear process for utilizing the fund.
It states that it should be used “for the acquisition and management of protected areas and for measures to protect and conserve protected species and their critical habitat.”
But for practical reasons, it is unlikely that will happen in the immediate future.
The first step towards turning the law into reality will be to establish a National Conservation Council, which the Department of Environment believes will happen in the coming months.
Mr. Bothwell added, “We don’t expect that the fund will be accessed right away, even now that the law has passed, as there will have to be some lead time as the council puts in place procedures to garner proposals for projects to be supported by the fund, reviews proposals and advises cabinet. Then we expect the disbursements to go through the budget process.”
The failure of successive governments to utilize the fund for its stated purpose was highlighted in a recent report by the U.K.’s environmental audit committee.
The report lamented, “An Environment Protection Fund, which is currently worth more than £40 million, has been collected by levying an environmental tax on visitors to the Cayman Islands. To date, almost none of this has been used for environmental protection and the vast majority of the fund remains unspent.
“We regret the lack of action by the U.K. Government to persuade the Cayman Islands Government to use this fund for its intended purpose.”
The report suggested that if Cayman used its own funds properly then the U.K. could divert funding the island currently receives through the Darwin Initiative to poorer territories.
Environment Minister Wayne Panton, speaking at a press conference last week about the Darwin Initiative-funded study on marine parks expansion, said government would be looking at appropriate uses for the Environmental Protection Fund ahead of the next budget.
According to the Treasury Department, there was $42,613,02 in the Environmental Protection Fund at the end of last year. Government collects $4 per airline passenger, $3.20 per seasonal cruise ship passenger and $1.60 per year round cruise ship passenger.
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