Earth Today | A call to enrich environmental advocacy

AS JAMAICA teems with development while staring down the barrel of climate change, pollution and nature loss, environmental advocacy is being seen as a key safeguard for sustainability.

Local stakeholders are anticipating that the recent publication of Beyond Boundaries, which documents the years-long effort to preserve the island’s ecological gem, the Cockpit Country, will provide inspiration.

“The [Save the Cockpit Country] Movement has contributed to awareness of the existence of the Cockpit Country with its natural and cultural heritage. Many Jamaicans at home and abroad paid attention for the first time,” Eleanor Jones, sustainable development professional and head of the consulting firm Environmental Solutions Limited (ESL), told The Gleaner.

“It served as a driver for declaration of the Protected Area status and challenged the decision-making process for use of areas with valuable ecosystem services. It also drew attention to conflicting land use,” she noted.

In doing so, Jones said the movement has also been instructive for advocacy, which is now more important than ever.

“For environmental advocacy, there is a wide range of issues that go beyond natural resources. There is air pollution … You also have issues of environmental health that need advocacy. Environmental advocacy keeps the issues on the front burner,” the ESL boss said.

“It also does not always need to be adversarial. All too often environmental advocates are perceived as confrontational, and we want to change that. You want to put forward the issues so that you sensitise and increase awareness for a better life. And we want to remember that the environment is both built and natural,” she cautioned.

Beyond Boundaries is the result of collaboration between the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) and its partners who have been engaged in the movement to save the Cockpit Country and its diverse ecosystem services.

SERVICES INCLUDED

Those services include its supply of an estimated 40 per cent of Jamaica’s underground and surface water and its support of the largest number of globally threatened species of any key biodiversity areas in the Caribbean Islands Hotspot, among them 11 amphibians and 40 plant species.

The movement, which was started in response to the threat of bauxite mining, led, in 2017, to Prime Minister Andrew Holness presenting to Parliament two boundaries – a geomorphological boundary to describe Cockpit Country (which excluded Accompong, Maroon Town, ‘The Cockpits’ cited in the 1739 Peace Treaty and the ‘windward Cockpits’ of eastern Trelawny extending into western St Ann); and a boundary for a Cockpit Country Protected Area.

Indi Mclymont Lafayette, long-time climate justice advocate and advocate for participatory and gender-inclusive processes, agreed with Jones on the value of the new publication and the need to give attention to environmental advocacy.

MILESTONE

“This publication is a milestone for Jamaica’s environmental movement as it documents the fight to save this invaluable part of our country. It is outstanding for me because Jamaica and many other Caribbean islands tend to tell our stories orally and anecdotally, but we don’t often stop to write it down,” she said.

“I applaud JET and all the supporters for taking the time to document the fight for the Cockpit country so far. The lessons documented are ones we must never forget as we push on to preserve our environment sustainably for our children,” added McLymont Lafayette, who is also the managing director for Change Communications.

“A key lesson from this is the relevance and importance of environmental advocacy. Jamaicans are increasingly joining forces to fight for the environment and this is a good thing. Documenting it creates a Blueprint for other areas outside of Cockpit country that need to be preserved,” she said further.

Dr Theresa Rodriguez Moodie, chief executive officer of JET, herself indicated that the publication, which brings together the writings and reflections of key figures from the Movement, “namely Diana McCaulay, Hugh Dixon, Esther Figueroa, Susan Koenig, and Wendy Lee” is intended to provide useful insights.

“This historical record preserves the story of one of Jamaica’s most significant environmental justice movements while also providing lessons to guide future advocacy for the protection of our natural resources and constitutional rights,” she told The Gleaner.

Among the documented lessons are that financing is key to sustained and effective advocacy; the need to prioritise meaningful and ongoing community engagement and empowerment; as well as the importance of “robust, credible scientific data” to support the cause and storytelling.

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