Editorial | Save the mangroves

This newspaper is glad that Alric Campbell, a local government councillor in Portmore, has alerted the council to land reclamation in mangrove forested areas of the municipality and the dangers thereof.

Now that they know, and assuming Mr Campbell hadn’t disclosed the situation before last week’s meeting of the council, we hope that that municipal authority has moved aggressively to end these acts of environmental vandalism by issuing cease and desist orders on the perpetrators, rather than waiting on enforcement by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), or the government’s Forestry Department, if those bodies are, or have been, slow to act.

In making these observations, we make two other assumptions: that, given the area where it is taking place, the individuals and/or companies doing the land reclamations have no permits from NEPA; and that their projects haven’t been the subject of environmental impact assessments.

Which makes intervention even more urgent, especially since the land reclamation runs counter to a 10-year project (2023-2033) to conserve more than 11,000 hectares of Jamaica’s mangrove forests and wetlands and the restoration of another 1,000 hectares of degraded mangroves and swamps.

Wetlands are habitats for flora and fauna, while mangrove forests are not only important breeding areas for some species of fish, but offer important protection from the sea. That is especially crucial in this time of global warming, resulting in rising sea levels.

While the precise amount is difficult to determine, Jamaica has, over the decades, lost much of its mangrove forests and wetland, largely to coastal development, especially for tourism, and for farming.

According to the island’s National Mangrove and Swamp Forest Management Plan (NMSFMP), the island has four protected sites – Black River Lower Morass, Mason River Protected Area, Palisadoes/Port Royal Protected Area and the Portland Bight Wetlands and Cays – designated as wetlands of international importance, and governed by global conventions. These sites cover 37,487 hectares of land and sea.

Additionally, there are 5,828 hectares of mangroves and swamp forests gazetted for protection under various domestic laws.

But much of this remains under threat.

PRESERVE GOVERNMENT WETLANDS

Explained the conservation project document prepared by NEPA: “In Jamaica, mangroves and swamp forests … are experiencing continued natural and human-derived threats. In 1989, the swamp forest cover in Jamaica was 2,358 ha, and by 1998, 111 ha was lost, leaving the total swamp forest cover at 2,247 ha…

“Regarding mangrove forest cover in 2013, 9,800 hectares (ha) of mangroves were recorded in Jamaica, mainly along the south coast …. Data suggest that over 770 ha of mangrove forest cover in Jamaica has been lost over the 1996-2016 period.

“Forested wetland ecosystems are threatened by coastal development (planned and unplanned), changes in land use leading to clearing and land degradation, and extraction (timber, small-scale farming uses), compounded by climate change.”

The preservation project, which was formally launched in January, aims over the decade, to, in addition to the areas now under gazetted protection, preserve 4,340 hectares of wetland owned by the government, plus another 1,300 hectares which are privately owned. Another 1,000 hectares of “degraded” mangroves and swamps are to be restored.

There are also research, data-gathering and public education components to the project.

Mr Campbell, the Portmore municipal councillor, didn’t mention this initiative when he addressed last week’s council meeting. But it is pertinent in the context of the land reclamation, including the destruction of mangrove forests, which he disclosed was taking place in the municipality.

“I am primarily concerned about the dumping of the mangroves along Fort Augusta Drive, an area known to us as ‘Back Road’,” said Mr Campbell, who is also deputy chairman of the council. “Persons, for various reasons, including to extend the perimeters of their properties, continue to dump in prohibited areas.”

Dotted with small, spare ‘hotels’ and rustic bars and restaurants, ‘Back Road’ is often labelled as a redlight area of the municipality, which is just west of the Kingston/St Andrew area.

DEBILITATING EFFECT

The removal of mangroves is also happening in other Portmore communities, Mr Campbell said.

“Evidence of mangrove reclamation is having a debilitating effect on the ecosystems that are there, so we are looking for the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) to step in at this stage,” he added.

NEPA, indeed, should have already stepped in, given the statement by Stephanie Linton-Shield, the agency’s local branch planning manager, that the organisation was aware of the issue.

Ms Linton-Shields preferred to defer to her boss, NEPA’s executive director, Leonard Francis, to give the agency’s response at the Portmore council’s next meeting in a month’s time. The matter can’t wait.

NEPA may indeed have ultimate authority in these issues given its oversight of the Natural Resources and Conservation Act. But Portmore, Jamaica’s only municipality with a directly-elected mayor, isn’t without power.

Moreover, among the functions of the councils is the “development, implementation and monitoring of plans and programmes to maintain civic order” within their jurisdictions. They can also develop, adopt and implement “local sustainable development plans”.

The issue, therefore, is how expansively does the Portmore council interprets its mandate and how far it is willing to go in embracing and testing its powers. A serious council would push the envelope in the interest of its citizens – and for all of Jamaica.