Green celebration honours Prince Charles

CNS Editor | 01/04/2019

(CNS Local Life): A diverse group of people gathered at Smith Barcadere Thursday, 28 March, to hold a “community beach celebration” organised by Sustainable Cayman in honour of the visit to Cayman of Prince Charles and Camilla, and to raise awareness of local environmental initiatives and challenges.

Several dozen people – young, old, visitors and residents – took part in the celebration, which was also intended to welcome Prince Charles and thank him for his commitment to environmental causes, said Linda Clark of Sustainable Cayman. The gathering featured many signs supporting both the environment and the royal visit.

“Thursday at Smith Barcadere was a beautiful day and it was wonderful to celebrate the royal visit with members of the community at such a special beach,” Clark told CNS. “Visitors and residents alike enjoyed taking photos with the signs commemorating the occasion and supporting the prince’s environmental advocacy.”

During the event, the community group also sought to raise awareness of ongoing challenges such as plastic pollution and wider waste management issues, the proposed coastal development and seagrass removal at Barkers Beach and the ongoing threat to George Town Harbour reefs from the proposed cruise berthing facility, she added.

Sustainable Cayman also issued a statement after the prince’s visit, noting the environmental tone of his speech at the farewell event for the royals at Pedro Castle Thursday, 28 March.

On behalf of the group, Clark said the prince’s speeches during his Caribbean tour “placed great emphasis on the need to protect our environment and take action against the ever-increasing threat and reality of climate change, especially for small island states like the Cayman Islands.

“It was extremely heartening to hear the prince voice on Cayman soil the need for our leaders to take decisive action to protect the very sectors which bring economic revenue into the country.”

She also welcomed the announcement by Minister of Environment Dwayne Seymour that Cayman’s protected marine parks would be expanded, which Prince Charles noted in his speech at Pedro Castle. “We continue to support the Department of Environment’s persistent efforts to fully implement effective marine protected areas rather than merely ineffective ‘paper parks’ and trust they will be given the adequate financial resources to do so in the upcoming budget,” Clark added.

The group also called on Cayman’s financial sector as an “untapped resource of bright minds” to help companies rethink how they do business to ensure “social and environmental responsibility”.

Clark advocated “harnessing the Blue Economy”, working with rather than against the environment and having both the public and private sectors fully integrate the UN Sustainable Development Goals into their strategic plans. By doing that, she said, “Cayman could certainly honour the prince’s aspiration of becoming a beacon for the Commonwealth to lead the world as true stewards of our environment for current and future generations.”