Dawn Ritch, Contributor
I AM grateful to my colleague Peter Espeut for the information that "The Hellshire Hills are the best example of a dry limestone forest left in Central America and the Caribbean".
Mr. Espeut is a highly respected environmentalist, who is also a sociologist. I hope therefore that he will one day get masses of people concerned about the preservation of the environment. A certain utopia if ever there was.
In the meantime, however, he has my own undivided attention because he is prepared to make blanket assertions about Jamaica of a kind sure to infuriate those who are unfortunate enough to live elsewhere. To his I'd like to add another. Jamaica ranks fifth in the world for topographical diversity, and were the criterion extended to "...in the least amount of total square miles", I have every confidence that we would have ranked first.
A fondness for measurement can be tiresome however, and it is a chief preoccupation of residents in the developed world. Nothing can be taken as read, it seems, unless they know how long, how wide, how fast, how many or how much. Thus when one can say as Mr. Espeut did, "The only known population in the world of the Blue-Tailed Galliwas (Celestes duquesneyi) is found (in Hellshire)", it is a deeply satisfying experience at all kinds of levels.
Callipers
Perhaps it will help persuade some of our visitors to put away the callipers and just enjoy the scenery. Assuming of course that the Jamaican Commissioner of Mines can be persuaded to rescind that licence he gave to the Jamaica Public Service Company to remove the limestone from the Hellshire Hills. And this despite the fact that it is part of the Portland Bight Protected Area.
Environment threat
JPSCo intends to put up a cement factory powered by coal in Hellshire. In short this utterly amazing ecosystem will become the industrial sludge of a state company of dubious repute. Having laid waste consumers of electricity without hindrance, JPSCo now turns its malevolent gaze upon the environment.
There are 271 different species of plants in Hellshire, 53 of which are found only in Jamaica. A PNP Government has nevertheless given a licence for its spoilation.
The Long Mountains are a catchment area, a watershed as well as the site of a major reservoir for drinking water and the location of Taino artefacts. Nevertheless, a PNP Government has given its permission for concrete to be poured all over it in housing development down which will slide the detritus of human habitation into the Mona Reservoir.
This crude and repeated dereliction of duty is all the more shocking when one remembers that it was a PNP Government which recognised the value of a healthy environment in the first place. The late Allan Isaacs was PNP Minister of Mining and Natural Resources in the 1970s, and he caused to be established the National Conservation Authority. This was the forerunner of the NRCA.
The PNP were the ones who milked the cow, and now they kick over the pail. I know that money is hard to come by and vitally necessary, but surely not at the cost of making the fairest isle of all just another toxic dump. One PNP administration was the first to protect the environment. Now ironically another destroys it.
Development on the south coast, including Hellshire, should be careful and limited. From Bluefields to Manchioneal should be declared a National Park. And now when there is so very little work to go around, we should all be under a shady tree enjoying what is free.
We live in an island the beauty of which is a source of constant amazement. It is the only reason to continue living in a country which otherwise offers nothing but the threat of bankruptcy and random death.
Unable to restore either law and order or a healthy economy, a rudderless Government now runs aground on the last coral reef. Their excuse will doubtless be that they only meant to tax it.
