EKOS Communications, Inc.

Yesterday was an awesome day! With the business meetings associated with the biodiversity curriculum project completed, I spent the day exploring the Hollywell Recreation Area within the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park with Susan Otoukon, executive director of the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust, the ngo charged with the responsibility of managing this protected area.

In addition to hiking a trail in the recreation area and taking a look at some of the facilities provided there, we also hiked down a steep trail to the tiny community of Cascades where the JCDT is working with some local youth in starting an eco-tourism business based on the natural amenities of the area. One of these being a picturesque waterfalls. If this venture can get off the ground, it will serve as a vital demonstration of how local communities can derive economic benefit from the park in ways that don’t destroy it. Currently, one of the serious threats to it is deforestation caused by local people clearing and burning the forests for various forms of agriculture, mostly coffee.

There are many other threats to the park and JCDT struggles to find community-based solutions to them; however, it receives next to no support from the Jamaican government either in terms of financial or logistical. Indeed, except for the Ministry responsible for tourism, which is a relatively weak ministry, the government bureaucracy is quite obstructionist. It does not provide clear guidance as to what JCDT’s rangers can enforce nor will it make decisions as to what authority the ngo has to regulate atv’s that have begun to enter the park.

I came away from the day with a profound sense of admiration for the dedication of Susan and her group. The challenges that they and the park face make those confronting Canada’s national parks and provincial park systems look almost trivial.

If you love and cherish the web of life as much as I, please consider making a donation to the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust to enable them to be more effective in protecting the Blue and John Crow Mountain National Park. You can find their address on their website: http://www.greenjamaica.org.jm/content/home/