Peter Espeut | Home sweet home: zones of environmental protection

As The Gleaner recognises Peter Espeut's 25 years as columnist with this publication, today, we continue a special series of articles from the natural resource manager and rural development scientist.

All of Jamaica deserves and needs environmental protection, but some areas are in more urgent need than others. You might think I am referring to degraded areas, where human impacts have reduced the capacity for ecosystems to perform their important functions. But I actually have in mind geographical areas that still have intact animal and plant communities performing their ecosystem functions for the benefit of Jamaica and Jamaicans.

Some degraded areas are lost causes in terms of resuscitation, but most relatively healthy

areas are worth protecting to ensure that their ecosystems remain healthy. An islandwide conservation effort may dissipate resources and effort over such a wide area that nowhere gets nearly the attention it needs. Defining areas worthy of special natural resource management interventions, conducting assessments of precisely what is there, preparing detailed management plans, and focusing human and financial resources there may lead to long-term ecosystem integrity and health, at least in those few spaces.

A GOOD STRATEGY

In 1991, Parliament approved the Natural Resources Conser-vation Authority Act, which empowered the Government to create national parks (terrestrial), marine parks, and protected areas (land and sea) to do precisely this, and several of each have been promulgated. Rather than create a National Parks Service to manage these zones of environmental protection, the Government decided to contract interested environmental NGOs to do the job.

This has turned out to be a good strategy. The only drawback has been the Government's failure to provide the promised resources, regulations, and enforcement power to allow the ENGOs to do an optimal job.

There is no doubt that creating the Blue and John Crow Mountain National Park and the Portland Bight Protected Area, for example, has protected the wildlife and ecosystems contained therein and has empowered local residents to take care of their own backyards. The announcement last year by the Government of its intention to create a Cockpit Country Protected Area holds great promise.

But there is much more that the Government can do in terms of legislative enactments and support for the ENGOs and their work. And a little more money wouldn't hurt.

- See also 25 Years of Espeut in NEWS