Peter Espeut THIS WEEK is Environment Awareness Week, and I really hope you are becoming more aware of how the quality of your surroundings is depreciating. Our coral reefs are dying, our forests and mangroves are disappearing due to deforestation, our rivers and the sea are being polluted with garbage, sewage and agricultural chemicals (fertilisers and pesticides), the air we breathe is being polluted by motor cars, by industry and by the many fires we light, our wildlife is becoming extinct, our fisheries are in decline, our beaches are eroding threatening our tourism industry, etc., etc.
This has been going on for decades now, and the situation is getting worse despite hundreds of newspaper articles and many voices speaking millions of words on radio and television programmes. Can we look back at the last year and see any progress?
Well, as with all things, there is both good and bad. In the last year there seems to be a new resolve to enforce environmental laws. I have been heartened at the number of arrests of foreign fish poachers in our waters, and the efforts to bestow the ultimate penalty: the seizure of their vessels and gear. Birdshooters who have breached the terms of their permit to hunt were also arrested and taken to court. And more recently, the government environment agency has charged another government agency - the Port Authority - with breaching the terms of its permit to dredge. This is a good sign! The degradation of our natural environment will never slow down - never mind being reversed - unless offenders believe they will be caught.
We have now had three Ministers of the Environment in three years, and the fundamental issue facing them is the tension between the legitimate and necessary drive for national economic development and legitimate and necessary concern about environmental health. A 1996-97 UNDP review of the technical co-operation needs of Caribbean small island states, noted that: "At the same time, differing points of view are expressed in support of policies favourable to expanding economic growth at the expense of environmental considerations, and on the other hand, in opposition to 'development activities' perceived to be detrimental to the environment". I appreciate the use of quotes by the UNDP, because activities detrimental to the environment should not be called "development"; agencies like JAMPRO need to learn this.
Where does the new Minister stand on this issue of the environment vs. "development"? He has been reported as saying that "priority will be given to maintaining a balance between protecting the environment and preserving the country's natural resources on the one hand, and facilitating and encouraging development on the other". This is not the same thing as sustainable development, which means never compromising the environment for economic gain. This "balance" seems to mean: a little environmental protection here, and a little environmental destruction for "development" there.
Our environment is in a disastrous state because in the past, decisions were taken which favoured "development" over the environment (we saw it almost happen in Hope Gardens). This refers not only to new projects, but also to ongoing ones. No Jamaican government has ever committed itself to sustainable development, to finding environmentally-friendly ways to grow economically. Money needs to be spent to change the technology used in the sugar industry, the mining industry, the rum industry, etc.
The UNDP report goes on to say "Today, very few developing countries have established a specialised environmental control agency or specialised prosecutors who devote their time exclusively to environmental matters. It is clear that much needs to be done, but the effectiveness of what is being done can also be questioned". Jamaica is one of the few developing countries which developed such an exclusive agency, the NRCA; but over the years this agency has been weak, and has not been able to prevent itself being the junior partner in one ministry after another: when it was with Health, the Permanent Secretary was from Health; when it was with Housing, the PS was from Housing; now it is with Land, the PS is from Land. And now the NRCA is being merged with other agencies which will increase the pressure to approve environmentally unsustainable projects. This is a victory for "developmentalists" over environmentalists, will further weaken and dilute the impact of environmental regulation, and will encourage sacrifice of the environment for a counterfeit development.
Over the years, the NRCA has prepared a large number of policy documents and action plans, but has not been able to attract the funding to implement any of them. The lynch-pin of Jamaica's environmental conservation strategy is its protected area system. Protected areas with proper regulations and management arrangements can allow endangered species and sensitive terrestrial and marine ecosystems to thrive, even with industrial activity and humans living nearby; indeed, protected areas can promote sustainable human prosperity.
The government's White Paper on Protected Areas is comprehensive, and proposes fourteen large protected areas and about one hundred smaller ones. The creation of these areas is way behind schedule, and in fact, the programme - already painfully slow and dilatory - has been suspended. The process of creating regulations for one protected area has been stalled at the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel for over two years and three months! And the arrangements for the funding and management of the protected areas already created have fallen apart. Believe it or not, a few years ago Jamaica was heralded as a world leader in protected areas because of its policy of delegation of their management to NGOs. All the delegation agreements have expired, and new agreements are stalled. Jamaica's system of parks and protected areas is grinding to a halt!
In my view what is really required is to place the environment in a Ministry where it cannot be overshadowed by other considerations, and, following the UNDP Report, to create a Special Environmental Prosecutor who will ensure that there is compliance with the NRCA standards and guidelines contained in its many official documents.
So in this Environmental Awareness Week, we are only too painfully aware of how weak and slow our environmental regulatory framework is, the real threats facing natural ecosystems, and how much work is left to be done. If there is any hope for our natural environment, we must find it in ourselves.
Peter Espeut is a Sociologist and Executive Director of an Environment and Development NGO.
