National Mangrove Management Plan pushed back to August

WESTERN BUREAU:

Jamaica’s Forestry Department has announced that its National Mangrove Management Plan, which was slated for completion earlier this year, will be ready by the end of August, even as the organisation’s Chief Executive Officer Ainsley Henry is acknowledging that the nation has an ingrained pollution culture.

“In terms of the National Mangrove Management Plan, it is a bit delayed, though we had hoped to have it completed already. We now project its completion for the end of August, and hence we will be able to have further deliberation at that time,” Henry said on Thursday while addressing the virtual launch of the Participatory Budgeting and Financial Management for the Forest Sector in Jamaica Project.

“Environmental management is actually people management. We have to confront and actively do the things we know will ultimately, if not immediately, result in the kind of culture change that we wish to see,” Henry added. “That is part of why our partners like the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust [JCDT] are actively involved in educating and building awareness in all aspects about all the various things that can result in environmental degradation.”

The update regarding the National Mangrove Management Plan comes eight months after the project, which aims to facilitate collective action for management and protection of Jamaica’s natural mangrove resources, was initially announced last September.

Prior to that announcement, in 2019, the Forestry Department undertook an assessment of approximately 7,000 hectares of mangrove forests across Jamaica, as part of its plan for the management of the resource, which provides a number of economic benefits to communities.

CONCERNS

However, concerns were later raised by the Jamaica Environment Trust [JET] regarding reports that mangroves within the Palisadoes Port Royal Protected Area had been removed by a state agency without the required environmental permit, while mangroves were reportedly being removed to facilitate the expansion of Falmouth, Trelawny.

On the issue of environmental awareness, Henry said that Jamaicans continue to illicitly dump garbage and burn sections of land, despite numerous efforts over the years to curb environmentally harmful practices.

“I was recently at an event and I heard a very poignant statement made there, that culture eats strategy for breakfast every day. Frankly, that is a part of what we are a victim to here. We have, for whatever purpose and whatever reason, gotten into the culture of burning and of dumping in inappropriate places,” said Henry.

In the meantime, the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute’s Executive Director Nicole Leotaud told the meeting that the Participatory Budgeting and Financial Management for the Forest Sector in Jamaica Project, which is expected to run until November 2023, will seek to include the protection of forests and mangroves in its mandate.

“The project is looking at enhancing stakeholder participation in decision-making. Mangroves and coastal forests are extremely important, so we will be trying to look at how decisions are made about financing that includes management, restoration, and so on,” said Leotaud.

“Certainly, I think the aim of the project is to enhance participation in decision-making. This is a critical issue and we do need to ensure that the forest ecosystems of Jamaica are conserved, sustainably used, restored, and well managed.”

The project, which will be funded through the European Union at a cost of 290,065 Euros (J$48 million), will seek to engage Jamaican civil society organisations, public sector forest managers, policymakers, and persons who directly use the local forests in the ongoing discussion on how to preserve forested areas and empower the local forest sector.