The Editor, Sir:

I read in another newspaper today (November 21) an article entitled 'Develop the Cockpit Country', in which the author states, "I am worried that environmentalists are hijacking the future of Jamaica."

Let us define 'environmentalists'. We are simply people who are too forward-looking to feel good about our land, sea and air being rapidly destroyed for short-term interests.

Bauxite mining has gone on here for years and we have paid the price of that 'development'. Check the people who live in and around these devastated landscapes. Ask them about their health, the health of their crops, their children, their animals. Now it is being contemplated that we allow the destruction (for that is what it would be) of the very heart of Jamaica: our Cockpit Country, a world-famous environmental treasure that is ours to cherish and protect.

The delicate system of plant and animal life in this precious and irreplaceable part of Jamaica is to be preserved for our future generations, that there will be something for them besides crime, concrete and cuss words. The preservation of this place is uncompromisingly vital.

One day soon, we will have to choose between tourism and mining. Mining is always destructive to our environment and the life in it; tourism, properly planned and sensitively, intelligently and creatively executed, can be richly rewarding for both the visitor and the host. So what will it be for the future? Rafting on the Red Mud, or Hiking in the Cockpit Country?

Environmentalists are not "hijacking the future of Jamaica": we are trying, in the face of concrete monstrosities, gouging machines and short-sighted politicians, to preserve it.

I am, etc.,

L. DUPERROUZEL

33 Waterloo Mews

Kingston 10.