Government yesterday agreed to suspend all licences granted to explore sections of the Cockpit Country for bauxite and limestone deposits, pending consultation with environmentalists.

Speaking on Power 106's Perkins Online, Agriculture and Land Minister Roger Clarke said he would meet urgently with environmentalists, scientists and representatives from ALCOA and Clarendon Alumina Partners, to whom exclusive prospecting licences have been granted, to discuss the issue.

"Right now as we speak nobody can tell me exactly what they mean by Cockpit Country. I have a different concept and [others] have overlapped. I think we can sit and talk and deal with it," Mr. Clarke said.

He said that once a definition of the Cockpit's boundaries has been established, mining will not be permitted within the boundaries.

Reacting to the minister's announcement, spokesperson and head of the Cockpit Country Stakeholders Group (CCSG), Diana McCaulay, said she was pleased and ready to meet with the minister. Executive director of the Southern Trelawny Environmental Agency, Hugh Dixon, shared similar feelings.

"We have been trying hard to have dialogue with Government and we welcome a chance to state our reasons for the boundaries we think are important and discuss what kind of economic activities should be allowed in the Cockpit Country," he said.

On Thursday, environmentalists threatened to take the Government to court over the granting of the licences after Government announced that a prospecting licence, previously granted to the companies, had been renewed.

But the Government is maintaining that it has no intention of mining the Cockpit Country.

"They can prospect yes, but there is no guarantee that they will get the mining licence," Minister Clarke told talk show host Wilmot 'Mutty' Perkins.

No threat to environment

The Government also insists that exploration will not pose a threat to the environment, because the method being used by the entities is harmless.

"We insist that it be done in a certain way. You can't cut tracks into the hills to find out and explore. It is basically an inventory," said Clarke.

But environmentalists argue that a prospecting licence implies there is an intent to mine the area, and can be used by the entities as a defence in court. They also contend that the licences granted to the companies do not specify the methods of exploration they can use, and so the Government cannot compel them to stick to the proposed methods of exploration. If the entities cut roads through the Cockpit, they say, it could cause climactic imbalance in the forest and lead to the eventual extinction of endemic flora and fauna in the region. Particularly the giant swallowtail butterfly which now only lives and breeds in the core sections of the Cockpit Country.