Palisadoes road construction danger

Karl Aiken and Mona Webber, Contributors

The construction of a stretch of roadway on the Palisadoes peninsula is an undertaking which, though aimed at improving the access to and from the Norman Manley International airport in Kingston, is possibly going to cost us dearly in the ecological sense, if not now, later.

Most persons perhaps do not realise that the Palisadoes peninsula is a relatively unique portion of the Jamaican environment. It is classified as semi-desert, and there is precious little of that in that part of Jamaica. The Palisadoes, some might know, once consisted of a number of tiny islets separated by short stretches of water up to around the start of the 20th century.

Access to Port Royal up to that time was strictly by boat. Around that time, the colonial government decided that it would be useful if there was a road and water supply to Port Royal where it had an important naval supply base, and began a programme of using convicts doing hard labour to fill in the gaps between the little islands with rocks and other fill material mainly from the Rockfort area.

This was done over about a five-year period, and the present road is the modernised version of this early roadway. The islets were crowned with acacia thorn bush, stunted lignum vitae, cactus, and other sand-loving and salt-tolerant vegetation. These old islets were largest in the area of the present airport, and at Port Royal.

Old passageways

Interestingly also, it is over the old passageways between the islets that the sea overtops during the strongest storms, as the reefs have ancient gaps at these places allowing surf to come right up to the roadway. These gaps are still there today, as can be seen in aerial photographs.

The construction of the four-lane highway comes at a rather bad time, as we are now in the more active part of the 2010 hurricane season. It would have been more prudent to find a way to construct the new highway and leave the large dunes that protect the Royal Jamaica Yacht Club and ultimately, the Norman Manley International Airport. This is important to note as the construction involves the removal of the existing vegetation lock, stock and barrel, and even if it is to be replaced later with similar vegetation, this will take time to become firmly rooted in the sandy loose soil which dominates the entire area.

The giant sand dunes which mark the position of some of the former islets near the old Gunboat Beach are being altered in a fashion that makes the area vulnerable to both water and wind. The vegetation is not there for decoration. The rooting systems have always been what holds the ancient dunes together and prevented them from blowing away in the strong daytime sea breezes. This specialised semi-desert vegetation has taken thousands of years to develop in the locations where it is found today, and so we ought to be careful not to remove the dunes and their vegetation without having other fortifications in place, especially during the most active part of the hurricane season!

There is another issue. The University of the West Indies with funding from the Forestry Conservation Fund/Jamaica Protected Areas Trust, has been developing a programme of mangrove replanting along the Palisadoes road, especially between Harbour View and the old Gunboat Beach, using seedlings of key species produced in the mangrove seedling nursery at the Port Royal Marine Laboratory. The purpose of the replanting programme was to restabilise the sand on the harbour side of the road.

The new four-lane highway will completely destroy the two years of work of mangrove replanting. There are plans to have the seedlings relocated to another part of the Palisadoes, but will the mangroves be put back once the new highway is completed? Otherwise, how will the sand and mud on the harbour side of the expanded Palisadoes road be stabilised? We are uncertain of this at the time of writing.

Benefits

It is our considered view that the benefits of the new highway may be useful to some, but we feel that the ecological damage that is being wreaked on the environment in this special area is considerable and rather risky and may have significant medium-term negative effects. We speak of the effects on the stability of the giant sand dunes protecting the roadway near the airport, and of the effects of the removal of vegetation, resulting in a severely altered habitat. Even if the benefits are relatively immediate, there may be considerable negative ecological effects in the medium term which our children and grandchildren may have to deal with. We say this in light of the developing patterns of stronger hurricanes and steady sea-level rise. Have these issues, especially sea-level rise, been taken into consideration, and if so, exactly how? By the way, where is the EIA for this roadway development?

The Palisadoes roadway forms part of the Palisadoes and Port Royal Protected Area which is also a Ramsar site, having been designated a wetland of national and international importance in 2005. Why has there been no discussion of the EIA for this particular development before it began? Is this portion of new highway really so important that no thought is to be given to the over 300 species of animals and plants, many of which are endemic or endangered, that live in this area? Is this really how we wish development to proceed in Jamaica? We are not against well-though-out development, but we ask that you think on these things.

"We have lost wisdom. We do not ask how our decisions today will affect future generations tomorrow." - Jane Goodall, primatologist.

Karl Aiken is senior lecturer and Mona Webber is head of the UWI, Life Sciences Department, Mona.