The National Trust for the Cayman Islands has received Darwin Plus funds to undertake a three-year project on Grand Cayman to protect endemic threatened species.
The Trust, in partnership with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, is using the £439,897 (CI$429,311) in funding to help protect the habitats of local wildlife, including the Cayman parrot and the blue iguana.
According to a press release issued by the National Trust, the Darwin-funded project, which began in April, will strengthen on-island capacity “to support effective management of the key sites through staff development, community engagement and a trained volunteer/student network, ensuring that the legacy of the grant work goes on far longer than the duration of funding”.
Blue Iguana Conservation Manager and lead author of the grant, Luke Harding said in the release, “We are extremely excited to have been successful with this application and now have a unique opportunity to develop staff, volunteers and students through training to help them play an essential role in the protection of these important wildlife areas and increase the expertise and experience for future roles and positions on Island.”
The report noted that essential research and monitoring, proposed throughout the three-year grant, will fill knowledge gaps, including key endemic wildlife population sizes, threats, habitat use and establishing sustainable invasive species management, to target actions and outcomes that effectively safeguard these important wildlife areas”.
Harding said protected areas, such as the Colliers Wilderness Reserve and Salina Reserve, provide “vital habitat for so many important species and we need to better understand these areas and how species use them to ensure we can expand and protect these important areas and others like them across our islands”.
The Darwin Plus grant for the National Trust is one of several awarded to Cayman and other British Overseas Territories over the years. The funds are provided by the Darwin Initiative and the UK’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to support environmental projects in the Overseas Territories.
In recent years, Cayman has also received funding to tackle threats to the local coral reefs; to assess the impact on the reefs and of fish population due to reduced activity on the water because of COVID-19 restrictions; and to protect the Sister Islands from invasive species, such as cats and green iguanas.
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