SAVE COCKPIT COUNTRY

FACT SHEET

 

Background

 

Cockpit Country is an area of outstanding ecological and cultural significance located in the north west of the island of Jamaica. It is an island-within-an-island and contains specially adapted plants and animals found nowhere else in the world.

 

Moreover, the biodiversity of Cockpit Country is of global significance. Cockpit Country is the largest remaining intact primary wet limestone forest in Jamaica and is the home to what is likely to be the only viable population of the globally endangered Giant Swallowtail Butterfly. Many of Jamaica’s threatened birds are found there, including the endangered Jamaican Blackbird, and 95% of our endemic Black-billed Parrot population.

 

Cockpit Country also replenishes the aquifers of five major rivers: Black River, Great River, Martha Brae, Montego River, and Hector’s River. These rivers supply water to St. Elizabeth, Trelawny and St. James.

 

Cockpit Country is recognized internationally as the type locality for cockpit karst and has been created by the action of erosion over the last 15 million years. The word karst means that the limestone bedrock has been dissolved and eroded by rain, since rain is slightly acid due to the dissolved carbon dioxide that it contains. Cockpits average in depth from 100 - 120m and walls generally slope from 30 to 40 degrees. Drainage of the cockpit bottoms occurs via percolation or by sinkhole.

 

There are various areas that make up Cockpit Country. Areas A and B on the map below are anthropogenically defined as being within the “ring-road” going through Maroon Town, Jackson Town, Albert Town, Troy and Maggotty. The concept of the ring road dates from about March 2000 when Dr. Susan Koenig was preparing a report for a World Bank project. This was a convenient boundary for a community-based Cockpit Country Conservation Project, which was aborted because the Government of Jamaica would not commit to not mining bauxite in the area. Area C (Covey Mountain and Litchfield Mathesons Run) is included in Forestry Department’s definition of Cockpit Country, is properly cockpit karst and is functionally integral with the core; it is the aquifer for Rio Bueno. Area D is also cockpit karst and is south of Appleton Estate.

 

Due to its remoteness and inaccessibility, most of Cockpit Country has been insufficiently studied.

 

Cockpit Country is also of historical significance, as Maroons living here were able to force the British into signing a peace treaty in 1738.

 

 

Location

 

 

 

The Threats

 

Cockpit Country and the unique flora and fauna it shelters are threatened by a range of human activities. Snakes are often killed on sight because of the mistaken belief that they are poisonous (no snake in Jamaica is poisonous). There is illegal hunting of birds, extensive harvesting for yamsticks and conversion of forest to agriculture in accessible areas. Such clearing not only reduces the overall size of the forest, but the associated fragmentation facilitates the spread of harmful non-native plants and animals. Illegal plant collectors caused the Extinction-in-the-Wild of Cockpit Country’s one endemic cactus, Mammillaria columbiana. Most significantly, however, Cockpit Country is now threatened by bauxite mining.

 

Furthermore, Cockpit Country is also invaluable for many endemic Jamaican plants and animals as their last large undisturbed refuge – in a country which loses every day more green land and forest to suburban sprawl, poorly planned tourism developments and unplanned small subsistence farming.

 

The Legal Framework

 

Relevant legislation: -

The Mining Act, 1947

The Mining Regulations, 1947

The Natural Resources Conservation Authority Act, 1996

The Natural Resources (Prescribed Areas (Prohibition of Categories of Enterprise, Construction and Development) Order, 1996

The Natural Resources Conservation (Permits and Licences) (Amendment) Regulations, 2004

 

Alcoa Minerals of Jamaica and Clarendon Alumina Production have applied for the renewal of a Special Exclusive Prospecting Licence, which was first granted in May 2004. This allows them to exclusively prospect for bauxite within a specified area in Cockpit Country.

 

An application for renewal of a Special Exclusive Prospecting Licence is made to the Minister of Agriculture and Lands through the Commissioner of Mines. The duration of the Special Exclusive Prospecting Licence and the extent of the area it covers is determined by the Minister.

 

Although 22,327 hectares of Cockpit Country is a designated Forest Reserve, prospecting or mining bauxite can be done within a Forest Reserve, once the required prospecting licence or mining lease is obtained. Few lands are excluded from mining or prospecting under the Mining Act and notwithstanding these named exclusions, the Commissioner of Mines may consent to mining or prospecting in those areas.

 

Although an environmental permit from the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) is required for mining, there is no such requirement for prospecting.

 

The holder of a prospecting licence is entitled to apply for a mining lease. However, the Minister may give permission to an applicant for a mining lease to mine an area prior to the grant of the actual lease

 

The Minister has the power, under the Mining Act, to declare an area closed to prospecting or mining. However, this does not apply to an area for which a prospecting licence or mining lease was granted and is subsisting. In addition, the Minister can re­open the area to mining or prospecting after declaring it closed.

 

 

What will happen if mining is allowed?

 

There are three phases to any mining operation – the exploration or prospecting phase and the mining itself, and post-mining reclamation. As stated above, under current Jamaican law, prospecting does not require an environmental permit. However, considerable damage can be done in the prospecting phase, because roads are needed to bring drilling equipment in. Roads into Cockpit Country will allow access to illegal loggers and poachers, and will also alter the microclimates by opening up corridors to sunlight and airflow. The flora and fauna of Cockpit Country are adapted to the high humidity conditions, and it is important these conditions be maintained.

 

The mining phase would require a more extensive road network and all the vegetation on the surface of the land where bauxite deposits occur would be removed. With the removal of bauxite deposits there exists the possibility of increased surface run-off as infiltration becomes impeded. This will result in an altered flow regime and over time drainage may become modified as recharge becomes reduced and overland flow becomes more dominant. The consequences: flooding of heretofore “safe” areas may occur or the volume of the major rivers flowing from Cockpit Country may be affected, putting at risk the water supplies for Jamaica’s north and south coasts. Other potential risks to water quality include increased turbidity (decreased clarity) from erosion of cleared and excavated land, hydrocarbon contamination through fuel spills from vehicles and machinery, and pathogen contamination (e.g. coliforms) due to increased human activity in the area or through the relocation of communities into low-lying areas closer to the aquifer. With the reduced “natural filtration” of the limestone aquifer, the cost of providing clear, potable water to consumers may rise.

 

In whatever way the land was to be restored after mining, the biological diversity would be lost forever.

 

 

Couldn’t they mine just a small piece of it or at least do some prospecting?

 

The Cockpit Country Stakeholders Group (CCSG) is seeking information - we want to know exactly what is planned for Cockpit Country and where. We fear that if any mining is allowed, this will be used as a reason to mine extensively. We are concerned that investors will require an adequate return on their investment, and will therefore want to mine as widely as possible.

 

We are also concerned because Cockpit Country is the largest remaining Primary Forest in Jamaica. It is a last refuge for animals and plants displaced by 500 years of human-associated development

 

We believe that Cockpit Country in its totality is an independent, self-contained and self-regulated ecosystem, which will be impacted on, altered or possibly destroyed in its entirety by even small amounts of bauxite mining or indeed by prospecting for bauxite mining alone. This is why no prospecting should be allowed before the relevant biological studies and inventories, socio-economic studies and independent, transparent and publicly accessible Environmental Impact Assessments have been completed.

 

 

Bauxite mining brings important economic benefits to Jamaica – what is the benefit of keeping Cockpit Country intact?

 

Cockpit Country sits over one of our largest aquifers. Protecting Cockpit Country means protecting our water supply.

 

The biological diversity and cultural heritage is of irreplaceable value nationally and internationally. The CCSG is working with scientists from the University of the West Indies and from abroad to explore and assess the biological resources of Cockpit Country to Jamaica and the world.

 

The people living in and around Cockpit Country will probably not profit from bauxite mining. In fact, it is not clear that the population of the entire island will profit from mining in Cockpit Country and the destruction of this unique landscape.

On the other hand, ecotourism, health tourism, exploration and careful harvesting of natural products for nutritional and medicinal purposes – if intelligently planned – are sustainable. These activities can be undertaken by the local people assisted by professionals from Jamaica and elsewhere. The people of the communities in and around Cockpit Country will make a living and a profit from these activities, and the people of Jamaica and the foreign visitors (who already know of the area) will enjoy themselves whilst contributing directly to the local economy.

 

Tourism is already Jamaica's no.1 earner. Jamaica is known and appreciated the world over as a prime tourism destination. Tourism – if carefully planned and executed – is renewable and sustainable. Bauxite mining is non-renewable, final and therefore not sustainable.

 

We have the choice between Cockpit Country as a world-class tropical forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site enjoyed by thousands of locals and visitors every year for generations to come – or an annihilated wasteland with so-called restored pits (napier grass and goats and cows under the scorching sun), destroyed forever.

 

 

What else is CCSG doing?

 

We have written to the Commissioner of Mines, the Chairman of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute and the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands requesting information on what is planned for Cockpit Country. We have so far not received a definitive reply. We have also copied our letters to the Minister of Local Government and the Environment, the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA), and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA). We request a proper stakeholder consultation and Environmental Impact Assessment before the Government considers issuing any prospecting licences or mining leases.

 

We have also embarked on public education campaigns on Cockpit Country. So far this issue has been covered by local radio and the print media, and there have been several articles about the biological assets of Cockpit Country in the Miami Herald.

 

We are preparing a legal opinion on the legal and regulatory framework and hope this will be completed the end of November 2006. We have sought information under the Access to Information Act as to the track record of the bauxite companies in restoring mined out lands.

 

WE ARE APPEALING TO THE GOVERNMENT OF JAMAICA TO CONSIDER THE IMPORTANCE OF COCKPIT COUNTRY CAREFULLY BEFORE PERMISSION IS GIVEN FOR PROSPECTING AND/OR MINING. WE ALSO REQUEST A COMPREHENSIVE STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION AND AN INDEPENDENT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT BEFORE ANY AGREEMENTS ARE CONCLUDED.

 

Cockpit Country Stakeholders Group

October 24^th, 2006