Environmental policy and administrative management

Since the commencement of bauxite mining operations in 1969, various communities in central Clarendon have benefited from minimal employment for skilled residents and some improvement to infrastructure and utilities. The residents in the area have been subjected to episodes of serious flooding that has damaged or destroyed many houses and posed significant threats to life and property. Faced with the prospect of increased heavy unseasonal rainfall and to forestall the environment threat of persistent land degradation in the area, the Clarendon Parish Development Committee has decided to embark on a reforestation programme to restore tree cover and establish economic crops on the mined-out properties. These plantations will be managed sustainably for wood and non-wood products. The project is to initiate a community-based forestry development programme on mined-out lands so as to complete the restoration of the lands and thereby reduce the risk of further land degredation, minimize the local impact of climate change, demonstrate the benefits of appropriate land management and crop production systems and provide sustainable benefits to residents of local communities.

Jamaica