The environment as Cinderella

I don't believe the size of a shadow Cabinet is an indicator of the size of the governing Cabinet should that Opposition party come to power. After all, shadow Cabinet members have their regular occupations, and may prefer having smaller portfolio chunks to monitor. So, even if agriculture and fisheries may eventually fall in the same ministry, one may appoint a shadow Cabinet member for each portfolio separately for in-depth focus. It is also an opportunity to assign to each area someone with real expertise.

When I look at the new shadow Cabinet announced by the oppo-sition leader on Tuesday, with 68-year-old party stalwart Robert Dixon Pickersgill shadowing the portfolios of lands, water, environment and climate change, I am more than a little concerned.

I have to question the expertise of Mr Pickersgill in these areas. He is a lawyer by profession, so he will know the mechanism for the conveyancing of land, but hopefully he will know that the lands portfolio is more than the distribution of land: part of it has to do with the setting aside of lands for environmental conservation.

And Mr Pickersgill has been a Cabinet minister with the portfolio responsibility for public utilities, which presumably included the capture, treatment and distribution of domestic water; but with declining water resources because of deforestation, the water minister must be committed to watershed protection and restoration. My abiding memory of Robert Pickersgill, minister of public utilities, mining and energy (1993-1995) is when he removed the subsidy on kerosene, driving poor people to use charcoal for fuel, which fuelled massive deforestation as coal-burners rushed to meet the increased demand. When I and others tackled him on it in a meeting at his Ministry, he promised (but didn't deliver) a programme to distribute gas stoves across Jamaica, to redirect the poor away from charcoal. I believe I gave him the award that year for Environmental Enemy Number One!

knowledge deficit

But seriously: What does Robert Dixon Pickersgill know about the environment and climate change? Before he qualified in law, Mr Pickersgill obtained a bachelor of arts, and a diploma in education. He does not have a background in science or ecology. The closure of Jamaica's railway service in October 1992, which led to more trucks and buses on the road, and more greenhouse-gas emissions, came under his watch as minister of public utilities and transport. Surely, the opposition leader could have found a more environment-friendly person to put in the environment portfolio?

With their abysmal environmental record over 18 years in power, might they not have tried to signal a change of course? Clearly, the growing numbers of Jamaicans concerned about environmental degra-dation have little to look forward to from a new PNP government.

But the corner in which the natural environment has been shoved is dark indeed, for rumour has it that in the Cabinet reshuffle about to take place by this JLP government, the environment is again to be married to Housing. Does not Prime Minister Golding remember the conflicts of interest which that unholy marriage produced under the PNP?

Remember Kennedy Grove in Clarendon, a joint venture under the Housing Act? Remember the pressure brought to bear by the Housing side of the ministry on the Environment side of the ministry to approve the scheme? Remember the sight of the 16 houses under water after the rains? Remember the plan to build houses in Hope Gardens which lost the minister his job, and caused the Ministry of the Environment and Housing to be split? Remember that, in the end, the houses were built on Long Mountain, in a declared watershed area?

The 2007 JLP election manifesto promised a "standalone National Environmental Authority with statutory powers to protect the environment and regulate activities that impact thereon" (26.1). Surely, this means the environment portfolio demands its own ministry, because of the huge potential for (and reality of) conflicts of interest with other portfolios? The environment ministry must stand above the others, free to regulate in the best interest of sustainable development and the national patrimony.

Other countries do it. A quick Internet search of a dozen countries shows that four (New Zealand, Canada, Sweden and Brazil) have a dedicated Ministry of the Environment, and three have a Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Mexico, Malaysia and the Philippines). The others have Environ-ment and Water Resources (Singapore), Environment and Disaster Management (Japan), Environment, Nature Conser-vation and Nuclear Safety (Germany), Sustainable Population, Communities, Environment and Water (Australia), and Environment and Women's Development (Pakistan).

The environment does not have to be Cinderella.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and an environmentalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.