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Environment
and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Environment
and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Nothing for the environment
By Peter Espeut, Executive Director of the
Caribbean Coastal Area Management (CCAM) Foundation,
writing in the Jamaica Gleaner, 2 May 2001
THERE WILL always be many competing claims on the national budget of any country, and I suppose every sector will claim it did not benefit enough; but I think the environmental sector has special reason to complain about Jamaica's 2001-2 Budget, and the lack of political will which underpins it.
As far as national policy on protection of the environment is concerned Jamaica must have the most comprehensive set of documents of any country. We have a policy for every situation: to name a few we have a coral reef policy, a watershed protection policy, a wetlands (including mangroves) policy, a beach policy, a policy on marinas, one on mariculture, one for parks and protected areas, and the list goes on. And more are being written: one on coastal protection is under preparation right now. Not only do we have policies, but we also have action plans! You can't fault us for not having environmental policies and action plans.
The trouble is, this government has a tremendous difficulty moving from policies and action plans to action to implementation! The problem is not only budgetary, but that is a major part of it. Take coral reef protection, for example. Jamaica has both a Coral Reef Policy and a Coral Reef Action Plan (CRAP). We know what is to be done (mostly to do with sewage treatment), and what it will cost; but there is the lack of political will to do it. I suppose if there was the political will, the budget would be found. We found the money to bail-out the banks and the insurance companies. We could find the money to protect coral reefs, if we wanted to, and that is the problem.
Probably the greatest environmental injustice now being perpetrated has to do with our national parks, marine parks and other protected areas. Jamaica has decided to create 14 of these protected areas, and it is a matter of agreed policy (in the White Paper on Parks and Protected Areas) that the management of these areas will be delegated to non-government organisations (NGOs). The government has agreed to provide funding. A National Parks Trust Fund (NPTF) was established using "Debt-for-Nature Swap" money; Jamaica received debt relief, and signed a legally binding agreement to put $5 million each year into the NPTF in return. In breach of their solemn agreement, over the last 10 years the government has made only one payment! Shame!
The right thing the honourable thing - would have been for this 2001 Budget to make an instalment, and even pay off all or part of the arrears. But nothing!
All the NGOs who took up the government's offer to partner with them in the management of our natural heritage, are in financial difficulties. The Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust (JCDT), managers of the Blue Mountain/John Crow Mountain National Park, have had to lay off almost all of their staff. Monday gone was the last work day for more than half the staff at the Montego Bay Marine Park.
Both these entities had budgets agreed with the NRCA, and have suffered successive 60 per cent and 80 per cent budget cuts and then they don't even get the pittance which is left!
I expected that this year, the budget would have contained funds to pay the arrears owed to these NGOs, as well as sufficient funds for this coming year. There is nothing in this year's budget to manage our national parks, marine parks or protected areas! Shame! We NGOs are being called upon to bail-out the government!
About 10 years ago when our parks system was being set up, it was agreed that a regime of user fees would be put in place to assist with the financial sustainability of the system. Again a budget has come and gone, with no indication that the user-fees will be put in place.
The purpose of the National Park Trust Fund and the system of user-fees is to remove the cost of managing Jamaica's most sensitive and valuable ecosystems off the government budget. We are caught between a rock and a several hard places: the government will neither provide the funding through the budget, nor put in place user-fees, nor honour its legal obligation to capitalise the NPTF. Shame!
As Jamaica's economy is being driven to the wall by the WTO and our own political foibles, about the only thing we can expect to fall back on in 2025 when our bauxite reserves run out is tourism. Jamaica is advertised as a tropical paradise where the visitor can come for sun, sand, sea (sex and sensimelia). As we pollute the sea, and the beaches erode, and as the ozone layer is depleted intensifying the cancer-causing power of the sun, with what will we be left to attract visitors?
As we cut down our forests and mangroves and allow our reefs to be dynamited and damaged by sewage, why will the tourists come? These short-sighted policies will condemn us to become an international gambling saloon, brothel and drug den.
Even if the government does not care one whit about the environment (which is quite clear) at least it should care about the health of the present and future economy. I suppose there is always next year's budget speeches to look forward to.
But at least let us save some public money by not hiring expensive consultants to prepare policies and action plans we have not the slightest intention or the political will to implement.
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.
For more information, please contact:
Peter A. Espeut,
Executive Director,
Caribbean Coastal Area Management (CCAM) Foundation,
7 Lloyds Close,
Kingston 8
JAMAICA, W.I.
Fax: (876) 978-7641
