Caribbean Tree Planting Project protects Indigenous Trees

As part of the Caribbean Tree Planting Project, our members joined with Protect Our Future students from a variety of schools to remove more than 85 indigenous trees from a plot of land that is being primed for development in Westbay.

They teamed up with members of the National Trust, including Environmental Coordinator Cathy Childs to identify key trees and remove them with care so that these species can be preserved and propagated on other properties. The students would like to see more developers reach out to local farmers and community members prior to simply bulldozing their land. The students believe that a more sustainable model for clearing Cayman land should be enacted and enforced. Several of the students including the Cayman Ambassadors of the Project, Yasmin Elise, Marleigh Smith and Matt Gilmour coordinated the event in the hopes to educate other youth and to also obtain donated trees that can be planted at local schools, churches, and businesses.

Projects such as these can help make Cayman more sustainable and also help mitigate climate change. Every time a piece of land is cleared, we lose important species that are part of our heritage and culture. By protecting our trees, we protect our future.