Letter of the Day | Cockpit Country needs protection now

THE EDITOR, Madam:

This is a letter written to Peter Knight, chief executive officer of National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).

I sat through the presentation of the Environmental Impact Assessment Report presentation staged jointly by NEPA and Noranda regarding the mining of bauxite in an area of the Cockpit Country and I am more convinced than ever that we must protect the area from further degradation and destruction and abandon the plans for mining in the area.

The presentation was preceded by a public relations film by Noranda pointing out all the positive and wonderful things they and their antecedent bauxite companies have done for Jamaica to set the tone for the actual environmental impact assessment, which can best be described as a sham or ‘snow job’, presented by consultants hired by Noranda to highlight all the positives and downplay all the negatives of bauxite mining in the area.

In the final analysis, the positives from mining bauxite are incomparable to the benefits of protecting the entire Cockpit Country area and managing our natural and human resources in a more sustainable fashion, which does not include strip-mining the beautiful land to extract bauxite to generate profits for a handful of beneficiaries and forever remove the beauty of the area.

Let us preserve the area and enhance the potential for long-term benefits to the people in the communities surrounding by undertaking the following:

Declare the area protected and properly define the boundaries to include the proposed area slated for mining;

• Form a joint public-private-NGO, community-based non-profit organisation to develop and manage the area sustainably.

• Move to get the area recognised as a World Heritage site worthy of recognition for its natural and cultural heritage, as Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust has done for the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park.

• Develop the heritage, cultural and ecotourism, as well as the agricultural and nutraceutical economic potential of the area to provide jobs and enhance the economic potential of the area.

Bauxite mining in this area, in particular, must not be further considered and the Government of Jamaica must now move to protect and preserve this treasure of nature and history of our ancestors for the future generations of Jamaicans and the world to enjoy.

ROBERT STEPHENS