Dr. Karl Aiken (left) accepts the Silver Pen Award and a citation for the Letter of the Day from The Gleaner's editor-in-chief, Garfield Grandison, at the newspaper's North Street office in Kingston yesterday. Dr. Aiken and a team from the Life Sciences Department at the University of the West Indies' Mona campus won for their letter which addressed the dangers of bauxite mining in the Cockpit Country. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

WHEN AGRICULTURE and Lands Minister, Roger Clarke, announced last November that Government would grant licences to Alcoa and Clarendon Alumina Production to start mining for bauxite in the Cockpit Country, it caused an uproar, especially among environmentalists.

They were not the only ones concerned. Five lecturers in the Life Sciences Department at the University of the West Indies' Mona campus also believed mining would destroy the sanctity of the region.

In January, the academics put pen to paper and expressed their fears in a letter that was published in The Gleaner in January.

Captioned 'Preserve the Cockpit Country', it won the newspaper's Silver Pen Award, given to the writer or writers of The Gleaner's Letter of the Month.

The award was presented to Dr. Karl Aiken on behalf of his team yesterday, at the publication's North Street office.

Dr. Aiken said the team, which wrote the letter addressing the importance of preserving the region's wildlife, toyed with the idea of tackling the issue in December but Christmas break at the University of the West Indies prevented this. Early in the New Year, they once again took up the cause.

"I drafted a 'skeleton' that my colleagues would add their aspects to and edit, but we could not get anything together until the second week of January," Dr. Aiken said.

More than qualified

The writers are more than qualified to speak on the Cockpit Country which covers the parishes of St. Ann, Trelawny, St. James, Manchester and St. Elizabeth. It is also home to 1,200 types of plants, 289 species of birds and an acquifer that supplies five of Jamaica's largest rivers.

"We strongly urge that the proposed mineral prospecting in the Cockpit Country be indefinitely postponed as, if implemented, permanen of the delicately balanced ecology of the area will occur. In the meantime, we encourage the review of the biological information of the area as part of a comprehensive approach for its consideration as a World Heritage Site or National Protected Area. We also strongly recommend the consideration of long-term sustainable options for the economic development of the area," the letter read, in part.

Following threats of protest, Mr. Clarke temporarily suspended the mining licences. In January, Information Minister Donald Buchanan said Government would hire a consultant to determine the boundaries of the Cockpit Country before making a final decision on whether mining would proceed.