Environmental research

The project will involve two communities, namely, Woodford and Cascade. Woodford is a hillside community of about 1,800 persons in northern St. Andrew, just below the Holywell Recreation Area in the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (BJCMNP). The majority of the community members are farmers growing mainly cash crops primarily bananas and Blue Mountain coffee. This community is located in the mid-reaches of the Wag-Water watershed which feeds the Hermitage Dam, an important water supply for Kingston. Cascade is a community of about 800 persons located in the upper Buff Bay Valley, just outside the BJCMNP. As in Woodford, the majority of the community members are farmers growing cash crops again, primarily bananas and Blue Mountain Coffee. Cascade is located north of Holywell in the Buff Bay Valley. Both communities are very close to Holywell, the main recreation area of the National Park. These communities farm on steep slopes, often using unsustainable agricultural practices such as slash and burn. These communities are already at risk from soil degradation which is reducing the productivity of their farms, but as Jamaica s CBA Country Programme Strategy indicates, with climate change, there is likely to be an increase in soil erosion and landslides, as more rainfall of high intensity is expected to fall, increases in severe weather are projected, and longer and more intense periods of drought make soils more susceptible to these increasing erosion pressures. Increasing temperatures and reduced rainfall driven by climate change and exacerbated locally by unsustainable land management practices that alter the local microclimate are now, and are projected to continue to reduce the cool and moist microclimate that favors cool-adapted crops, particularly coffee. Based on this threat JCDT is concerned that climate change may lead farmers (particularly coffee farmers) to move further up the mountains seeking the cool, misty conditions that favour Blue Mountain Coffee and other crops. Agricultural encroachment is an existing pressure on the park, and baseline measures are not likely to be sufficient in preventing further encroachment when additional climate change pressures are taken into account. As it is currently, farms border the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park/Forest Reserve, and any upward movement of the farms will cause them to encroach on this protected area that is of international significance for its biological diversity. The project objective is to increase the capacity of the targeted farming communities on the slopes of the Blue Mountains to adapt to climate change. The above stated objective will be achieved with the following project outcomes: (1)Agro-technical capacity for applying soil conservation techniques that will become necessary in steep slope environments increased (2)Alternative livelihood practices promoted (3)Forest and tree cover (with appropriate species) promoted on slopes that are vulnerable to climate-driven increases in erosion and landslide risks

Jamaica