NEPA Gets $46 Million to Strengthen Protected Area System

Just over $46 million has been allocated to the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) to strengthen the operational and financial sustainability of Jamaica’s system of protected areas.

As contained in the 2014/15 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives, the project is being jointly funded by the Government of Jamaica and Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and is spearheaded by the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change.

The objectives of the project, which commenced in July 2010, are to: strengthen financial planning and revenue generation; increase the effectiveness of Protected Area Management; and rationalise and integrate the national protected area system.

For this fiscal year, the project will develop site level business plans for two Protected Areas; prepare management plans for Mason River and Seville; design public awareness strategy for decision makers; install project posters and billboards; define the structure and establish Board membership of the National Protected Areas Trust Fund; as well as draft regulatory framework for protected areas management.

The project has so far seen the establishment of a project management unit, legal and financial working groups; and a Project Steering Committee, which has convened several quarterly meetings.

It has also seen the installation of mooring buoy in the Negril Marine Park, and 32 signs/labels in the Mason River Protected Area.