IN AN effort to address the level of deforestation in the island, the Government is moving to amend the 1996 Forestry Act, according to Roger Clarke, Minister of Agriculture and Land.
Figures presented by the Forestry Department indicated that some 30 per cent of Jamaica's approximately 335,900 hectares of land are classified as forest land. Approximately 88,000 hectares of this forest land is classified as closed broadleaf forest, with minimal human disturbance. However, most of the remaining forest is "disturbed broadleaf", showing varying degrees of human disturbance.
"The level of deforestation that is going on in the world, if we don't do something (about it), the global warming situation will overcome us," Mr. Clarke said while speaking to reporters after the opening ceremony of the 13th biannual Caribbean Foresters' meeting held yesterday at the Hilton Kingston hotel, New Kingston.
He added: "We have already seen the regularity and the severity of hurricanes and they are going to get worse and worse and it is a direct result of the damage that we have done to our environment".
STEPS TO ENSURE COMPLIANCE
The current legislation extends protection status to four types of land classifications: Forest reserves, forest management areas, protected areas and the forest estate. The act mandates the Forestry Department to take steps to ensure compliance with its provisions.
Mr. Clarke said however that the law needs more teeth because there has been a problem with compliance.
The Land Minister also announced yesterday that his ministry has started the process of removing hundreds of people from some 500 squatter settlements across the island. He said that, while they are yet to physically remove anyone, the dialogue has begun with the squatters and the Land Ministry is working in collaboration with the Ministry of Housing, Transport, Water and Works to find housing solutions for them.
Just last week, the Government established a Squatter Management Unit to bring informal and illegal settlements islandwide under control.
Mr. Clarke told reporters that his ministry would begin removing squatters who live in the most critical areas first. He said the first two areas are Roaring River in Westmoreland and the area behind Hope Gardens in St. Andrew, stressing that those areas are a danger even to the squatters that are settling there, in terms of mud slides and erosion.
The four-day Foresters' meeting is being held under the theme: "Possibilities and Approaches to Idle Lands in the Caribbean".
