AMIDST THE brouhaha surrounding the Portmore leg of Highway 2000 and its toll charge, several thousand mangrove seedlings are quietly growing. The contractors for the construction of the highway, Bouygues Travaux Publics (BTP), with the blessings of the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), have set up a mangrove nursery to provide seedlings for the replacement of mangrove trees destroyed during site clearance for construction. This, in an effort to ensure the restoration of the disturbed natural habitat.
The hard reality is that development work carries an environmental cost. And environmentalists and developers are locked in endless battles over the environmental costs of development. Environmental impact assessments are intended to provide fair cost-benefit analyses. But how those are conducted and by whom with what vested interests are causes for further battles.
The original causeway construction, at a time of less concern for the environment, generated fundamental changes to the Hunts Bay harbour. Increased siltation has been one very visible consequence with an impact on fisheries in the area. The construction of a major new highway spanning the harbour will have its own negative environmental impact. It is, therefore, encouraging to see that the company responsible is taking some corrective action with the blessing of the country's chief environmental watchdog agency NEPA. NEPA's manager for Integrated Watershed and Coastal Zone Management, Wilson Kelly, says, "it is early days yet, but NEPA is happy that the Highway 2000 project team has taken the step to first experiment and see what is the best method of replanting the mangroves and it has seemingly found a niche." NEPA granted permission to clear the site for the highway.
The BTP approach is a departure from the ingrained Jamaican tradition of depending on natural growth. Outside of limited government action, we don't readily plant fruit trees, or timber, much less mangrove which is more usually regarded as just being there naturally and serving no immediate personal purpose.
Mangroves protect the shoreline by preventing erosion. They serve as barriers to storm surges and filter out pollutants in water and so improve water quality. And mangroves are an important nursery for fish and other marine life. For other reasons besides highway construction, there has been substantial loss of mangroves around the Jamaican coasts with the accompanying degradation of other aspects of the environment. Mangrove replanting in the BTP project area will be done on several sites and will be completed before the end of this year. But monitoring with environmental audits will continue until the new growth is properly established.
The example set by the highway construction company and the lessons learned in mangrove restoration should now be replicated around the coastline, led by NEPA. It is one thing to sing the praises of mangroves and to lament their loss; it is another thing, and the more useful and responsible thing, to restore them.
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