Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
McCaulay: The Cockpit Country is Jamaica's heart and soul, it should not be mined. - file
DURING a tour of Kingston with Pan-American Health Organisation official Omara Silva in 1991, Diana McCaulay said she was struck by the high levels of pollution in the Jamaican capital.
"He took me around to places I'd never seen. The two main sewerage plants which don't work, and the dumps," she recalled. "I was really shocked and ashamed in a way," she added. "I took pictures and showed all my friends and business colleagues, and that's how Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) was formed."
High-profile cases
Since its formation, JET has launched educational programmes to improve the environment and championed several causes. This year, it is safe to say, JET came of age by helping successfully to argue two high-profile cases.
The most recent involved the Government's granting of licences to Alcoa and Clarendon Aluminium Partners to mine for bauxite in the Cockpit Country.
On December 8, after threats of protests and 'civil disobedience' by JET and fellow environmentalists, the Government suspended the licences to the bauxite companies.
Agriculture Minister, Roger Clarke, recently met with the parties and said there would be a follow-up meeting in January to decide the next step.
Victory
For McCaulay, 53, it is a victory for environmentalists. They claimed that mining would destroy the sanctity of the Cockpit Country, a nature expanse where 73,000 people live.
It is also home to 80 species of birds and various forms of endemic plants. Its aquifer supplies five of Jamaica's largest rivers.
"In a real way, the Cockpit Country is Jamaica's heart and soul, it should not be mined," she said. "Mining brings some short-term benefits, but it's ultimately unsustainable. There are other economic opportunities for the area such as organic farming, ecotourism, villa development and beekeeping."
McCaulay was one of the leaders of the environmental charge to keep bauxite companies out of the Cockpit region which covers the parishes of Trelawny, St. Elizabeth, Manchester and St. James.
Vocal
She was just as vocal in April when challenging construction of the Bahia Priņcipe Hotel in Runaway Bay, St. Ann. Environ-mentalists said the state-run National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) granted Spanish developers, the Piņero Group, a licence to build the US$200 million resort without consulting residents of nearby communities.
In May, Justice Bryan Sykes quashed a permit from NEPA which gave the Piņero Group permission to start construction on the 754-room hotel in October 2005.
One month later, Sykes overturned his decision and gave the go-ahead for construction to resume.
The public's support for environmentalists in the Bahia Priņcipe and Cockpit Country cases has surprised McCaulay.
"I understand the situation in Jamaica where you have lots of difficulties competing for attention," she said. "We have crime, unemployment and economic issues, but I am firmly of the view that if you pay attention to environmental issues some of the other issues are affected," she reasoned.
Crime wave
"Look at the crime wave in St. James, I think it is directly related to poor planning arrangements that allowed squatter communities to build up."
Kingston-born, McCaulay has ties to the Cockpit Country as her paternal great grandparents were born there. She remembers visiting the region and other nature spots, as a child, with her parents and two younger sisters.
Although she gained early exposure to the outdoors, environmental awareness came into the picture late for her.
A graduate of St. Andrew High School, McCaulay earned a degree in business at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus. Later, she got a second degree, in environmental policy, from the University of Washington in Seattle.
Cockpit country policy
Helping to outline a policy to maintain the serenity of the Cockpit Country is one of McCaulay's priorities for January when she and fellow environmentalists meet again with Minister Clarke.
That, and expanding the environment school programme that JET started in 1994.
"We hope to build a generation of young people who are more aware of environmental issues than my generation," she said. "They need to know that they can go into nature and enjoy the simple things, like sitting by a river, under a tree and relax."
