from a future development area on Providenciales
(Photograph courtesy of B Naqqi Manco).
This project, funded for two cycles with a contribution from the United Kingdom Government’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee, aimed to safeguard specimens of plants of special status from development areas. The original goal of the project was to safeguard 10 species, but DEMA’s Native Plant Nurseries now cultivate 113 species.
Target plants were selected for the status of “endangered” either by their International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessment status, or by their listing on the Appendices of the Washington Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES). Plants for this project were first classified as “endemic” to the Turks & Caicos Islands, but was soon expanded to plants endemic to the Lucayan Archipelago (TCI & Bahamas) and to TCI and nearby islands, and then to the Caribbean Basin Biodiversity Hotspot.
Plants (or their seeds or cuttings) are collected from development areas by DEMA staff and members of the TCI Environmental Club, and re-homed to public or private native plant gardens where they will be safe. The project has supplied hundreds of plants to community beautification projects as well as to the Turks & Caicos National Museum’s Botanical & Cultural Garden.
Links:
Turks & Caicos National Museum’s Botanical & Cultural Garden