By Zadie Neufville
KINGSTON, Mar 20 2001 (IPS)

Success does not taste too sweet for John Maxwell these days. In 1999, the veteran journalist single-handedly thwarted the Jamaican government’s efforts to build houses at Hope, the nation’s oldest and best known botanical gardens.

His campaigning earned him first prize in the 2000 Sandals Resort’s annual Environmental Journalism Competition, the region’s richest journalism prize.

But the government is planning to build those same houses in what scientists say is the last remaining piece of dry tropical forest this side of the world.

On Jan. 12 last year, one day after shelving the Hope Gardens project, Prime Minister Percival Patterson gave developers the consolation prize: Long Mountain. The choice sent shock waves through the environmental and naturalist communities. Less than two years earlier owners of the property, the state-owned National Water Commission (NWC), had fought to prevent development in what they called the capital’s last remaining green space.

Since 1997 the area has been earmarked for two projects under the government’s poverty alleviation programme, Operation Pride. A total of about 85 hectares (just under a square kilometre) of the estimated 15 square kilometres Long Mountain was to be carved up to provide over 550 housing lots.

NWC, the main distributor of potable water said the developments threatened the water supply for Kingston, the island’s capital. The company said that the Long Mountain watershed contributes to the recharge of four of its wells.

They feared the projects would cause damage to and contaminate the 3,564 million litre Mona Reservoir located on the eastern side of the ridge. It is for this reason that the area was zoned as Public Green space, a factor that should have prevented its selection for development.

A requested Environmental Impact Assessment (EAI) found residential properties too close to the Mona Reservoir could cause contamination by sewage. Furthermore, the EIA noted, active faults in the area makes it vulnerable to earthquakes and construction pressures could cause the reservoir to leak. The Mona Reservoir is one of the main water storage areas in Metropolitan Kingston.

After more than a year campaigning, Maxwell and his Movement for Environmental Sustainability and Human Development (MESHD) seem to be running out of time. The developers, Selective Homes, are moving fast to complete the roads that will serve the Long Mountain communities.

Maxwell has had some success. The amount of land set aside for the Selective Homes development has been reduced. Robert Cartade, the man behind the project, has also agreed to a four-hectare protected zone within the 23.9 hectares he has now been given.

To satisfy an EIA and biological study, he has also written rules governing structural expansion, green space and garden development into the residential terms of his sale agreements.

But this is not enough for MESHD. “We want every development stopped,” said Maxwell, who not only continues to campaign, but is also looking to environmental and legislative solutions to fight the “war”.

He has vowed not to give up even though the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) says its approval for Cartade’s project was handed down in mid-February this year. Government is also intent on carrying out its relocation and housing project.

“The Operation Pride projects will be completed as soon as the people put enough money into their Provident Society accounts,” said Minister of Water and Housing’s spokesman Christopher Castriota.

“This country is being sold out to developers,” Maxwell said angrily. He and MESHD are doubling their efforts at finding a solution, fearing that public pressure will not do the job this time.

MESHD is a Who’s Who of Jamaican natural scientists, journalists and environmentalists. They say Long Mountain must be preserved for its historical and biological importance.

“Any development in Long Mountain should be the construction of a biological lab for collecting and preserving the country’s biological diversity,” said Eric Garraway, MESHD member and a senior biologist and researcher at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies.

He noted that only a small portion of the biological species at Long Mountain or any part of the country for that matter, has been catalogued or studied. The survey of Selective Homes’ site by the Plant Conservation Centre at Hope Gardens found 10 endemic species of trees including three rare and one new species.

This was the first official study in over 20 years; all others were done on weekend and holiday jaunts by members of the Natural History Society, a group of students, scientists, naturalists and university science lecturers.

“The country does not train enough scientists to study its ecology because the low salaries don’t attract people, and even if there were scientists, there are no collection and preservation facilities,” he said.

He noted that Jamaica could be losing large numbers of unknown plants and animals.

Jamaica’s bio-diversity has placed her fifth among the islands of the world, but she has not done well in recording and tracking the biological treasures. In a 1990 public education programme to protect the endangered Giant Swallowtail Butterfly, organisers placed the wrong insect on publicity and educational material. And at least two mammals thought extinct were later rediscovered.

“For almost 50 years we lost the iguana although the reptile grows to over 3 feet (just short of a metre) and the coney previously thought extinct was also re-discovered in recent years,” Maxwell said.

Government is not concerned with preserving the country’s natural heritage, Maxwell said. He pointed to the fact that the iguana’s natural habitat, Hellshire Hills north west of Kingston Harbour, is still being developed. Several mining quarries operate in an area protected under the Environment Protection Act.

Aside from being a virtually unknown biological treasure, Long Mountain is a documented bird-watchers’ paradise and an important archaeological site. David Lack’s well-known book ‘Island Biology’ in 1976 recorded its importance as a breeding site for migratory birds. At least one declining species, the Black Throated Warbler, is known to breed there.

President of Jamaica’s Natural History Society Dr Trevor Yee said Long Mountain is also home to the remains of one of the largest Taino villages ever found on the island. Tainos or Arawaks were the first inhabitants of Jamaica.

“If for nothing else, the Long Mountains must be preserved for its historical value and the large amounts of artefacts there,” he said.

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