TALK is cheap' is the overwhelming sentiment of players in the local environmental lobby who have come on record to itemise their list of needs from the political party that will form the next government.

Topping that list is the requirement for less chatter about being committed to environmental preservation and more action to demonstrate same.

"I want some action to protect the environment instead of a lot of words and good intentions," noted Diana McCaulay, chief executive officer for the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET).

She suggested that a good starting point for the next administration — whether formed by the Jamaica Labour Party or the People's National Party — would be to complete work on environmental policies that have existed in draft for some time now.

"There are several policies that would govern important natural resources, for example, beaches, wetlands, protected areas and environmental impact assessment legislation — all of which are in draft. Some have been in draft for 15 years. I would like them to be promulgated," McCaulay told Environment Watch.

But she did not stop there.

"I would like there to be identified on the island areas where there can be no development, other areas where there is low-impact development allowed and areas where commercial or high-impact development is allowed," said the JET boss, who is credited as being one of the island's more vocal advocates for the environment.

"I would like something done about open burning, which is an everyday public health menace. And I would like the environmental laws of the country enforced without fear or favour," she added.

McCaulay alluded also to the need to have non-functioning sewage plants repaired and for the island to honour its obligations under the various environmental conventions to which it is a party.

"I want Jamaica to really live up to the international conventions it has signed and not sign things like the Ramsar Convention for the protection of wetlands and then allow the destruction of wetlands. That is just one example," she said.

"I would also like both political parties to stop this rhetoric that says pro-environment means that you are anti-national development, anti-people and anti-jobs. I would like to hear from our leaders some understanding of the importance of natural resources," McCaulay said.

John Fletcher, past president of BirdLife Jamaica, said he would be satisfied if the next administration demonstrated a commitment to the environment by first and foremost appointing a portfolio minister with a real interest in and understanding of the sector.

"It has been a long time since we have had one. The environment is always tacked on to another thing — housing, water, health... And there is always this decision to be made on how much of the environment do we need to give up to facilitate development," he told Environment Watch.

"(What the island needs) is just to bring it (the environment) up on the agenda, to have an environment minister who genuinely believes that the environment is worth protecting and somebody that the environmental groups can talk to. Right now, we don't think that there is anybody in either this government or the previous one who we could talk to," Fletcher added.

He noted, too, that there are currently a number of areas in Jamaica that have been advertised for sale — including sections of coastline that represent the last remaining public access to certain beaches — and this must be addressed.

"If they are going to sell off everything like that, then they are not concerned about the environment..." Fletcher said.

He was referencing areas such as Font Hill in St Elizabeth — home to the American crocodile and other species — which were among a list of places identified as available for investment opportunities on the island at the third annual UK-Jamaica Investment Forum in London earlier this year, according to Environment Watch sources.

"We just have to be a bit more concerned about the country, a bit more concerned about the long-term prospects of living in this country. But we never are; we are always concerned with short-term decisions."

Robert Stephens, chairman of the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust (JCDT), said he wants priority given to supporting his organisation's effort to have the Blue and John Crow Mountain National Park given status as a heritage site by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

Earlier this year, the committee deferred Jamaica's application to have the site so designated, giving them until February of next year to do more assessments and provide more information on the park, which will be thereafter be re-evaluated.

As a world heritage site, the Blue and John Crown Mountain National Park would be a recognised location of international cultural diversity and natural wealth, and therefore eligible for preservation funding, as well as a comprehensive management plan -- complete with measures for preservation and monitoring.

"Secondly, I think that it is important that we begin to put a lot more emphasis on the protection of the environment... Development must take place in an environment where we are ensuring that the natural environment is protected," Stephens said.

Like Fletcher, he also wants the appointment of a minister of environment who will not have his attentions divided.

"We would like to see that there is no conflict between environment and any other areas he has responsibility for. We believe the environment is too important to be put into conflict with any other thing in the society, especially in light of climate change and all of that," Stephens said.

Dr Byron Wilson, a zoologist and lecturer in the Department of Life Sciences at the University of the West Indies, has himself called for the preservation of the Goat Islands and the Hellshire hills — home to, among other things, the Jamaican Iguana and forest cover that dates back 400 years.

"The number-one priority should be some sort of ministerial decree that the Goat Islands and Hellshire hills are completely off limits to any development plans until a management plan — of which there have been many submitted — is actually in place," he told Environment Watch.

Wilson noted that the best option would be for the Goat Islands to be turned into a reserve for the iguana and other species — in line with recommendations that have been made in the past, following assessments done on the area.

"This idea of having this protective reserve has been around for the past half a century... (and) could really be meaningful for preventing species extension," noted the man who is also head of the Jamaica Iguana Recovery Group.

The idea, Wilson explained, is to rid the islands, certainly Great Goat Island, of mongoose and cats — both of them iguana predators — as well as the goats that compete with them for food.

"Then you leave the iguanas... Once you have that, you introduce the Jamaican Coney and every threatened dry forest species could be set up there. However, the one major point that can't be lost is that the government would say the iguana is safe, we can develop the Hellshire hills," he said.

But that, too, Wilson said should be a definite no-no.

"(The area has) trees there that are 400 years old... some of the last few pockets of natural forest left... Dry forest is most threatened on the planet," he said. "Internationally, people know about the Hellshire Hills and it is something special. People would come to see that and as we speak it is burning down from charcoal (makers)."

Wilson has also put on the table the need for a moratorium on the development of large hotels "on the few remaining beaches that sea turtles and crocodiles still use to nest", while calling attention to the species that are under threat from not only the illegal pet trade, but also from those who kill them for their meat.

Wendy Lee, executive director of the Northern Jamaica Conservation Association (NJCA), like McCaulay, said that finalising and implementing plans for protected areas will be critical.

"This goes hand in hand with the broader need for physical planning in general. We need to have proper planning and provision for protecting our important natural areas before they just go headlong into all kinds of development," she told Environment Watch.

At the same time, Lee said that there existed among local environmental lobbyists, concern over plans to sell off many of the islands natural assets — including "many areas that are of ecological importance".

"They are actively seeking investors to develop these areas," she said, adding that there also exists the need to for "more transparency in the way the government makes plans" for the island's natural assets, "particularly with respect to the coastal areas".

"What I would like to know is how the next government is going to address the long-term environmental conservation requirements, given all of the critical environmental issues that they recognise, as noted in the State of the Environment Report; we need to hear some concrete plans about how they are going to maintain the long-term sustainability of the country," the NJCA boss said further.

"Our natural resource base is really important to our economic well-being and our quality of life so we would like to see creative, low-impact, sustainable economic solutions that are also environmentally friendly and good for our long-term well-being. The solution cannot be to sell off our assets to foreigners for our development; it is not going to be sustainable," Lee added.

Dr Susan Koenig, director of research at the Windsor Research Centre, noted that among the things that should form priorities for the next administration are:

* the declaration of the Cockpit Country, whose ecosystem services are "extremely important and irreplaceable", should be declared "closed to mining"; and

* the overhaul of all stages of the environmental impact assessment process, which is critical to, among other things, the preservation of biodiversity.

"Two important gaps (in the EIA process) are the failure to account for cumulative impacts and the failure to integrate landscape planning into the EIA and permitting process," Koenig said. "Jamaica's National Ecological Gap Assessment Report establishes a framework for landscape planning, but its integration is noticeably absent in Government of Jamaica policies, like Vision 2030."

Like other environmentalists, she has also urged the enforcement of existing legislation and associated regulations and adherence to international conventions, such as Ramsar.

"I believe existing legislation is generally adequate, but enforcement is poor. For example, breaches are 'regularised'; areas that are altered without approved permits are not restored or, if restoration is impossible, ecological processes must be rehabilitated by those responsible for the damage," Koenig said. "In the absence of restoration, others then follow the example, damage expands, and natural areas are slowly 'nibbled' to death by unlicensed activities."

Further, she said it is also important that the auditor general's (AG's) recommendation that the portfolio minister with responsibility for the environment be removed from the appeals process when an application for an environmental permit is rejected should be implemented.

"As recommended by the AG, an appeals committee with technical expertise should be established to maintain accountability and transparency," she said.

The AG's recommendation followed a review of the performance of the National Environment and Planning Agency over the past decade and made a slew of other suggestions for improvement, which Koenig said also need to be addressed.

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