Peter Espeut
You have to read very carefully politicians and senior civil servants, or you might be misled. On November 27, 2006 the executive director of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute, Dr. Parris Lyew-Ayee, issued a statement: "I would like to categorically state that there are no plans now or in the future to mine bauxite in the Cockpit Country." What do you get from this? That they will not now or in the future mine bauxite in the Cockpit Country? Hardly!
Further down the same statement: "Not only is there no plan to mine the heart of the Cockpit Country, but another important point is that there are no imminent plans to begin bauxite mining in Trelawny. If the results from this exploration work are favourable, the earliest time foreseen for any mining there is almost 20 years from now" (JBI emphasis). And so there are no plans to mine the heart of the Cockpit Country now, but they foresee that they will mine it "almost 20 years from now". And so for the earlier quote to be consistent with the latter, what Dr. Parris Lyew-Ayee must be saying is they just haven't prepared the bauxite mining plans yet.
So don't be misled: the sights of the Government and the bauxite industry are carefully trained on the Cockpit Country!
The Jamaica Environmental Advocacy Network got wind that the prospecting licence was coming up for renewal, and formed the Cockpit Country Stakeholders Group to lobby against it. Several letters were written to the Minister starting months ago asking for a meeting to discuss it, but no reply or acknowledgement was received. Then to our surprise, we learn that the licence was granted without even paying us bad mind! What disrespect! No, Minister Clarke! That is not how you treat the public!
To his credit, the Minister has suspended - not revoked - the licence pending future consultations. He claims he was advised that since the licence was for prospecting (not mining), and since he was advised that prospecting the way they will do it will not damage the environment, and since it is just a renewal of a long-standing licence, he was advised to go ahead and sign it.
Bad advice
I have to question the quality of Minister Clarke's advisors. Citizens of Jamaica write and ask for a meeting to discuss the renewal of a licence, but your advisers push documents in front of you, and you sign without even hearing what the citizens have to say? Shame on you, Minister Clarke! It reminds me of the lovely old guango tree which used to be in front of what is now Wendy's in Liguanea Plaza. Minister Clarke gave the order to cut it down on advice that the space was needed to construct a bus stop. There was a howl of public protest, and Minister Clarke apologised. And then it turns out that that spot was never good for the bus stop, which was then built far away down the road in front of the Post Office! The tree could have been saved! Bad advice again!
Strong points
One of our strong points is that the granting of a prospecting licence creates a reasonable expectation in the mind of the licensee that should commercial grade bauxite be found, a mining licence will be granted. The ministry says no to that! The Government will not mine bauxite in the Cockpit Country. They just want to know the status of the reserves there. They want us to believe that the bauxite companies who spend millions to prospect for bauxite in the Cockpit Country, know they will never be allowed to mine, and are just doing the government a favour. In other words, they are wasting the bauxite companies' time and money. Come now! Don't take us for fools! The "almost 20 years from now" statement proves that our concerns are real and not "hysterical" as Mr. Lyew-Ayee claims!
If the government wants to know the status of the resources then let it do its own prospecting! No bauxite company should be allowed to prospect for bauxite or limestone in the Cockpit Country!
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.
