National Consensus Needed on Protecting the Environment – Minister Morgan

A national consensus is needed on the protection of the environment, says Minister without Portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with Responsibility for Information, Hon. Robert Morgan.

“What it means is that we need a wide cross section of allies in the environmental fight. We need people in civil society, we need students, we need members of the opposition (and) we need members of the government,” Mr. Morgan explained.

He was speaking at the Kingston Harbour Eco-System Adaptation Measures (KHEAM) Conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Downtown, Kingston, on November 18.

The Minister, who delivered the keynote address, encouraged environmentalists to take an inclusive approach in their advocacy, thus ensuring that the ordinary citizen is appropriately engaged as well as members of the House of Representatives.

He pointed out that individual efforts will not redound to change as “without people who are supporting the idea, supporting you and pushing you, you will not succeed”.

Mr. Morgan highlighted some of the initiatives the Government has put in place to safeguard the environment such as the Kingston Harbour Walk Project, which involves the establishment of a 25-kilometre linear park and public space with associated coastal protection and restoration features along the Kingston Harbour, extending from Downtown Kingston to Port Royal.

In addition, the National Tree Planting Initiative, which was launched in 2019 with a goal of planting three million trees, has seen over two million trees planted so far, ahead of the March 2023 deadline.

Mr. Morgan also pointed to efforts leading to 78,024 hectares of the Cockpit Country being declared a protected area.

This is now the island’s largest terrestrial protected area and overall, the second largest protected area after the Portland Bight Protected Area which spans 187,615 hectares of both terrestrial and marine areas.

The KHEAM project, which is aimed at boosting the defence of the vulnerable low-lying areas of the city of Kingston against climate risks through mangrove restoration, rehabilitation, and conservation, was lauded by Mr. Morgan for assisting in revitalizing Downtown, Kingston.

The project is executed by Mona GeoInformatics Limited, in partnership with the Centre for Marine Sciences, the GraceKennedy Foundation and Newer Worlds Limited.

This initiative is funded by the Caribbean Bio-Diversity Fund in the amount of US$990,000 and is co-financed by the International Climate Initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature, Conservation and Nuclear Safety through KFW Development Bank (Germany).

“While we celebrate our attempts to fix Kingston Harbour to make it a better place, the urgency of our current crisis requires a unified, collaborative and coordinated approach to dealing with environmental issues that affect our country,” Mr. Morgan said.

He also called on stakeholders to find as many allies as they can and help to determine whether future Jamaicans will be “debtors or beneficiaries” of current actions.