By Anonymous

Copyright caymannewsservice

(CNS): At the first meeting of the National Conservation Council since the new line-up was appointed after the elections, its new chair, Ian Kirkham, stressed how important it is for Cabinet to enact the remaining provisions of the National Conservation Act, which relate to the Environmental Protection Fund and how it is spent.

At the NCC meeting on Wednesday, Kirkham told the members that the goal is to persuade Cabinet to roll out the outstanding sections so that the EPF can only be used as intended, which is to protect unique habitat and threatened species, and not for general operations.

There is around $40 million in the fund, as noted at a recent Public Accounts Committee meeting. Some of it was recently used to buy land on Cayman Brac’s Bluff that could become a national park, which is the type of acquisition that fits the original bill. However, past governments have used it for other things, such as work at the dump and even funding the Department of Environment’s general operational budget.

But if sections 46 and 47 of the NCA had been in force, the government would likely have stuck to the original intention of the law and only used the fund for buying land or other things directly related to environmental conservation.

Although Cabinet, and ultimately parliament, will still be the bodies that approve the spending, enacting these provisions would ensure that the government of the day acts on the advice of the NCC and the DoE’s experts on how to spend the money, most of which is collected through a tax on visitors.

Catherine Childs, the NCC member who represents the National Trust for the Cayman Islands, noted that this is especially important because the first function of the council is managing and making recommendations on the use of the fund. But twelve years on, those sections are still not enacted.

Kirkham put the issue to a vote and the members supported him. He explained that the motion was a direct recommendation to Cabinet to bring the sections into force this year after the budget. The Conservation Council Guidance Note on its use should be the guide for what activities are to be supported by the fund.

“The impetus here is that we would like Cabinet to basically agree with us that the EPF be used for protected areas, not for other budgetary operational matters that has happened in the past, and we want to pre-empt that from happening again,” Kirkham said. If these sections were enacted, this would take care of “all the remaining business”.

DoE Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie stressed that enacting these sections is not a huge change. “Finance Committee will continue to be the body that appropriates the money,” she pointed out, noting that the aim was not for the NCC to control the money, just to advise Cabinet on how to use it.

Kirkham said the name of the fund makes it clear what it’s for. “This is an Environmental Protection Fund; the name implies what it is for,” he said. “This is very easy for Cabinet to approve… and it will bring some much-needed structure to how the EPF is used,” he added before the council gave its support to the motion.

See the proceedings of the meeting on CIGTV below