Peter EspeutPeter Espeut
THE SPECULATION is over! Now we have it from the mouth of a senior Cabinet Minister: the Government is not genuinely committed to sustainable development.
Well, he didn't say those exact words, but what he said amounts to the same thing. Minister Phillip Paulwell and I were on Cliff Hughes' award-winning evening news talk-show discussing the possibility of an oil strike on Walton Bank fishing grounds off the coast of Luana, St. Elizabeth, where the old oil refinery scheme is being resurrected. No assessment of the environmental impact of either the oil exploration process or the actual extraction of crude oil has yet taken place, yet the project has been announced as a fait accompli. Whereas the promising seismic and other data have been shared with all sorts of foreign investors, local environmentalists have been kept in the dark. In response to a question from Cliff, Mr. Paulwell assured him and the country that all the impact studies would be done in due course, and that the Government was committed to seeing the project through to the end.
OBJECTIONABLE
Every citizen politician or resident within the Jamaican environment needs to know how objectionable that answer is. Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) are the foundation upon which sustainable development is based. Fundamentally, what an EIA does is predict the range of impacts of the project on the health of the environment as well as on the social and economic well-being of human beings. EIAs suggest mitigating measures which may be taken to minimise or eliminate negative impacts, but there is a common myth that has crept into local practice like a virus, infecting how Jamaica does development. The myth encouraged by government agencies themselves is that every negative impact can be mitigated, which is simply not true. Many can, but not all; some negative impacts are so severe that the project cannot be allowed to go ahead. Because of this possibility, judgement on every project has to be reserved until the EIA has been properly completed.
TERMS OF REFERENCE
But Jamaican ministers of government are in the habit of doing "development by announcement", announcing projects as done deals with no caveats before the terms of reference for the EIA are even drawn up. This puts pressure on the firm hired to do the EIA (if they recommend against it, they may not get any more work), and on the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) to issue a permit for the project. (Civil servants who ask too many uncomfortable questions, or insist on rigour and thoroughness, may find themselves transferred, or retired early).
What was objectionable about Mr. Paulwell's words and his approach was that as far as he was concerned, the environmental concerns were hurdles to be crossed, not factors in decision-making. No matter what the EIA finds, this project is going ahead. It is this kind of thinking that has plunged Jamaica headlong down the path of unsustainable development.
APPROVAL
In practice, as long as an investor comes with enough money, the project will be approved, and a permit issued, no matter what the damage. Evidence is not lacking for this assertion: viz. the Long Mountain housing scheme, the dumping up of the wetlands adjacent to the causeway, the limestone mining in Braziletto Mountain, and the shrimp farming in Longwood, Clarendon. The list is even longer.
As for this project to prospect for oil on Walton Bank, and if oil is found in commercial quantities, to drill oil-wells to pump it out: I don't know for sure whether it will harm the environment or not; and I won't know until the EIA is completed. Until then I encourage the Government to follow its own policies re EIAs and to adhere to the international treaties it has signed, and not to start prospecting until the procedures to ensure sustainability have been followed.
It would be great, and I honestly would be overjoyed if we found oil in commercial quantities in Jamaican waters, and could sustainably extract it. But what I fear will happen is that the Government, with its fiscal thirst, will quickly sell the prospecting concession to foreign investors, and when challenged about environmental propriety, will announce that following the proper procedures will breach the agreements signed.
So much for sustainable development!
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is
executive director of an environment and development NGO.
