Alarm! Land for Sale on ‘Carbon Eating’ East Caicos; Caribbean’s largest uninhabited island

By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, May 2, 2023 – As one of the largest uninhabited islands in the Caribbean, East Caicos is an invaluable environmental space but it may not stay uninhabited for long as real estate developers are now listing plots of land, on the island, for sale; a development that is ringing alarm bells for some residents.

At least one Real Estate broker has advertised a chunk of the island, some 1,402 acres with over 6,000 feet of oceanfront, at a $25 Million value.

Significantly, East Caicos which is sandwiched by North Caicos and Middle Caicos, is what is known as a carbon sink.  A carbon sink is essentially a place that absorbs more Carbon from the air than it releases; oceans, plants, trees, soil can all act as carbon sinks.

This would be due to the fact that there is zero development on the island.

In fact, East Caicos is known as the least major ‘human disturbed’ island in the country according to the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), and is only second to neighbouring Middle and North Caicos in sheer habitat extent. It is covered in vegetation from shrub land and forest to coral reefs and surrounded by water, acting as a large efficient carbon eating machine.

Magnetic Media has reached out to Josephine Connolly, Minister with responsibility for the Environment to learn more of the development plan for the island.

Attempts to develop the island have met major pushback before and many feel it is too important to the environment to introduce large scale development.

Overseas Territories Conservation UK says “East Caicos represents the largest continuous landmass in the Turks and Caicos Islands un-fragmented by development and, as such, is a critical reservoir of biodiversity on a community, genetic and species level.”

A 12-month research project carried out by the Turks and Caicos Reef Fund in 2017 had warned, that without immediate and significant protection efforts, East Caicos’ fragile resources would remain “at risk from uncontrolled land-based development.”

TC Reef Fund had recommended the creation of conservation zones across the island to protect the reefs and beaches.