Turks and Caicos protected areas get EU funding
Written by fp staff
Thursday, 16 September 2010 08:28

The Turks and Caicos National Trust has received the first installment from the European Union to support sustainable use of the country’s Protected Areas.
Three major islands and cays will receive much needed infrastructure that will promote and encourage sustainable use of Protected Areas, which include national parks, nature reserves, sanctuaries and areas of historic interest. The spinoffs will create job opportunities for Turks and Caicos Islanders.

Construction of a modest and appropriate visitor lounge for Little Water Cay (Iguana Island) Nature Reserve should commence soon. It will be the first of several activities designed for the project.

The focal point of the trust’s project will be 111 acres at Bird Rock Point on the eastern most tip of Providenciales.

Over a three-year span, Bird Rock Point will be surveyed demarcating the boundaries for a nature reserve, a sanctuary and areas set aside for picnicking, camping and other recreational and commercial activities which would contribute to the sustainability of this venture. In the second year of the project, the trust hopes to complete construction of its educational resource facility which will also serve as a visitor centre in this area.

The Cheshire Hall Plantation site in Providenciales will be upgraded with a visitor centre and general enhancement, including trails, landscaping and interpretative material through this special project.

The community of Kew on North Caicos and the wider community of the TCI stand to benefit in the short- and long-term from the redevelopment of the Wade’s Green Plantation, another activity within the three-year project. This particular heritage site will also receive a visitor lounge, enhancement to field roads, restructuring of the maintenance programme, additional interpretative panels and literature as well as redesigning of the guided tour.

With the first installment of $83,618, the three-year Management of Protected Areas to Support Sustainable Economics Project is 58 percent EU financed. It is a regional project involving three U.K. overseas territories — TCI, Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands.

The National Trust is relieved that the project has finally come to fruition having been in the embryonic state for more than three years. The management council of the trust expressed gratitude to the EU delegation for working through the bureaucracy to bring the project on stream.

At the completion of the project, the TCI and the National Trust would have benefitted from more than 900,000 Euros.

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Turks & Caicos Free Press