Letter of the Day | Environmental protection should be a non-negotiable national priority
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THE EDITOR, Madam:
It would appear, at times, as though Jamaica considers itself immune to environmental degradation, as though climate change is a distant abstraction. As though this island was not battered by one of the most powerful hurricanes to impact the Caribbean in recent times.
And yet, here we are again.
In 2020, I wrote to this newspaper in response to the prime minister’s decision to grant a mining permit to Bengal Development Limited, despite the recommendations of the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA). Six years later, Jamaicans are once again confronted with a court ruling that has voided another permit decision. It raises the same troubling question: to what end are these decisions being made?
What is most concerning is the pattern. When environmental regulators advise caution and political leadership proceeds regardless, it signals not development, but disregard. It suggests that the stewardship of Jamaica’s natural resources is being treated as negotiable. The Dry Harbour Mountains don't only consist of thriving biodiversity, but that which can be found nowhere else in the world. Plant and animal species endemic to Jamaica. But, clearly, those facts mean nothing to Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness.
We do not have to search far for lessons on the impact of environmental degradation from the impact of mining. Jamaica’s own history with bauxite mining has demonstrated the long-term environmental costs (pollution, human illness, loss of biodiversity) that far outlast short-term economic gains. Nor must we look only inward. In Brazil, efforts to open protected areas of the Amazon rainforest to commercial mining under former president Michel Temer were halted, not by political foresight, but by court action. This court action evolved from sustained resistance from activists and Indigenous communities who understood what was at stake and how their environment and lives would change for the worst.
In Jamaica, it increasingly appears that citizens, courts, and civil society must serve as the final line of defence for the environment, rather than those elected to protect it. If recommendations from NEPA can be disregarded, and if it now requires judicial intervention to halt environmentally questionable decisions, Jamaicans are left to question whether the protection of our natural resources can safely be entrusted to political discretion alone.
How many of our beaches remain freely and publicly accessible? How many of our forests, rivers, and coastlines must be placed at risk under the banner of “development” before we question who truly benefits?
This is no longer simply a matter of one permit or one project. It is a matter of political accountability and environmental sovereignty. Jamaicans must recognise that safeguarding our environment cannot rest solely in the hands of political leaders whose priorities may not align with long-term national well-being. The public must become more vigilant, more vocal, and more engaged in demanding environmental protection as a non-negotiable national priority.
Because, what we do to this island, we ultimately do to ourselves.
DELTA WRIGHT AND JUVELLE TAYLOR