Jamaica Giants – A Massive Environmental Conservatory

In 1987, long before environmental conservation became a global buzzword, Negril businessman Ricky Jackson acquired Jamaica Giants, a vast estate tucked away in Moreland Hill on the border of the parishes of Hanover and Westmoreland.

Instead of using the property for housing development or other types of construction, as many would have done, the only thing the nature lover did for the first 15 years was to plant trees on his 4,000-acre property, a decision many people thought at the time to be extremely weird.

Little did they know that Jackson, who is a multiple award-winning champion farmer, was simply fulfilling his vision of owning a rainforest one day, one that would preserve that side of Jamaica for generations to come. Thirty years later, his dream has been fulfilled. Jamaica Giants has flourished to become “Ricky Jackson country”.

Jamaica Giants is unique to sustainable tourism development and has already won pride of place when it outpaced several tourist attractions recently and copped the second-place award in the Sustainability Pitch Competition at the annual Seatrade in Miami, Florida.

Over the last few decades, Jackson, whose roots are in Orange Hill, Westmoreland, has planted hundreds of thousands of trees on the property, among them tropical fruits, ornamental, as well as lumber trees such as cedar and mahogany.

“We actually call it a natural reserve. To date, he has planted about half a million trees, and he is not done yet,” Maxine Gawron, manager of the property, told Hospitality Jamaica.

The property not only overlooks, but extends towards the legendary Georges Plain. An unending mass of trees, forming a closed broadleaf forest, serves as home to birds and other wildlife. Jackson has made it a point of duty to keep the property free of pesticides, fungicides and other chemical-free to protect his bird friends as he is a staunch environmentalist who believes that “the birds have to eat, too”.

The great house, which is one of two dedicated art galleries, is perched on the highest point of the property and was restored by Jackson when he acquired the estate. In fact, extensive rebuilding and restoration work was carried out as everything except the building’s foundation was in ruins.

The upper floor of the great house offers a panoramic 360 degree view of the surrounding lands. From there, in the distance, sections of the Caribbean Sea, Negril, Orange Hill, Little Bay, Savanna-la-Mar, Paradise, and Frome Sugar Factory can be clearly seen and are absolutely picture perfect.

The gallery hosts a plethora of paintings by Jamaican artist Bruce Allen, a St Elizabeth native and Jamaica School of Art graduate who grew up in March Town in Hanover who is commissioned to paint for Jamaica Giants by Jackson, who has been an avid art collector for more than four decades.

Allen’s work on display features more than 150 paintings, including a musical giant collection featuring reggae legends such as Bob Marley, The Heptones, Jimmy Cliff, and Judy Mowatt, as well as more contemporary ones such as dancehall artiste Sean Paul.

Among the most recognised paintings are those Allen has done of the Lucea town centre, which, according to Gawron, “our guests recognise it right away because they are usually stuck in traffic in Lucea”.

According to her, there are plans afoot to open a bar and offer other amenities to enable Jamaica Giants to be able to facilitate retreats, cultural events, wellness events, and artist retreats.

“We will start with Sunday brunch. We have our own cows and our own sheep on the property, and it is as organic as it gets. So we want to be able to give you that kind of feel when we start serving food,” she said.

“The visitors who have come here have been repeat visitors to Jamaica because we are really off the beaten path, so they don’t really have a problem with venturing out. A lot of persons when they hear we are kind of far away, they are not fully convinced that they can take a trip,” she explained.

Another amazing, almost indescribable feature of the property is the sculpture garden featuring carvings by sculptor Fitzroy Russell, who used a power saw to create masterpieces out of the huge rocks that occur naturally on the property.

The first sculpture was carved in 2015 and was that of a temptress. The more than 40 pieces include those dubbed ‘The protector’, ‘The fertility’, ‘The Power’, ‘The Trying Man’; ‘Wishing Well’, and the highly erotic “Temptation Garden of Earthly Delights”.

A beautifully built boardwalk, with photo and yoga spots, leads to the great house and is flanked in one area by two giant silk cottonwood trees, which are estimated to be about 250 years old.

The property is perfect for retreats and is ideal for lovers of nature, artists, and creative people. In the short run, it will be fully solar-powered and completely off the JPS grid. Currently, it supplies its own water through the application of water-harvesting techniques.

In terms of its history, the property, which dates back to approximately two and a half centuries, was originally known as Moreland Pen and was home to a cattle farm, pimento, and a sugar cane plantation. However, Jackson chose to look to the future, and instead of dwelling on the days of slavery, opted to differentiate and focus on his passions: art, the environment, and agriculture.

The trek up the hill to Jamaica Giants, to be enveloped in nature, is well worth it.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com