Every day should be a day when we concern ourselves about the integrity of the natural environment, which supports all life on the planet, including our own.

There is never a day when our bodies fail to interact intimately with its surroundings. We bring into our bodies air, water, various chemicals and certain live organisms, and we dump into the environment certain gases, waste, solids and liquids, and other refuse. We have a personal interest in the environment with which we are in daily intimate contact.

Yesterday was marked globally as Earth Day, a special day for bringing environmental issues to the fore.

Damaging

Jamaica's natural environment is very much in the local news, but for the wrong reasons. The mudslides in Ocho Rios last week underscore the fact that our approach to what some call 'development' leaves much to be desired.

This operates on the individual level, the corporate level and the governmental level - no sector is innocent.

If we are frank, we will have to admit that of the three sectors, over the last decades, the government has been the most damaging to Jamaica's environment. And this is true in terms of commission and omission.

By logic and statute, the government has the responsibility to take steps to conserve the little natural environment which remains and to approve only those projects which will lead to sustainable development.

Over the years, Jamaica has been so governed that we have the dubious distinction of having the most overfished waters in the Caribbean (and probably the world); and at one time we had the highest rate of deforestation in the world; and we had one of the highest rates of coral reef death in the world; we were judged to have the second-highest proportion of plant species in danger of distinction.

This is nothing to be proud of, and should have led to urgent action, but instead, the inaction continued and decisions were taken which made the situation worse.

A story in last Saturday's Gleaner is instructive. Senior Tourism Writer Janet Silvera wrote that Pablo Pinero, president of Grupo Pinero, says he is being blocked from investing US$200 million into the expansion of his Bahia Principe resort in Pear Tree Bottom, St Ann, by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).

Making promises

"I am very angry with Jamaica because the promises to us were not kept", the hotelier told The Gleaner at his offices in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, earlier this week. "The attraction to invest in the country came with the agreement that I could build three hotels amounting to 1,800 rooms."

He added that if he had not been promised, he would not have come to Jamaica.

It is completely out of order for any government official or department to promise any investor that an environmental permit will be granted for any project.

There is due process to be followed, including the conducting of an environmental impact assessment (EIA); and one option which may come out of any EIA is that the project is not recommended if it is judged to be unsustainable.

To promise in advance that a permit for 600 or 1,200 or 1,800 hotel rooms to be built in one place will be granted is to make a mockery of the EIA process and to court the sort of disaster which took place in Ocho Rios last week.

I have it from an impeccable source that promises were also made to investors that there would be no problem from labour unions. When environmentalists like myself criticised the last government for environmentally unfriendly behaviour, we were vilified as being anti-development and against poor people getting jobs.

I personally and my organisation were victimised by the government for the criticisms I made of them, but that is a long story for another time.

It is still too early to be sure whether this new government is more environmentally friendly than the last one; action speaks louder than words.

90-day assessment

Environmentalists are worried about the government's promise that if after an application is made for a permit, and 90 days pass, if the applicant has not received an answer, they can presume permission to go ahead.

Some assessments take more than 90 days to be done properly. This is a recipe for many more Ocho Rios disasters.

As we mark Earth Day, let us recommit ourselves to sustainable development - and lots of it. For we need jobs, jobs, jobs - and we also need a healthy environment. And the future of our tourism industry and our own quality of life depends upon it.