NAME OF FEATURE | THE GLEANER | MONDAY, MAY 30, 2022 11 FORESTRY CONTINUED FROM 9 agricultural practices. “We arebigon food security.When it comes to war ... So, you need to help secure food so you can help persons with the economy,” Tamara Fullerton, rural sociologist for the WesternZone, said. It is not just about cutting down trees, it should be about how the food is grown andmarketed. Technicians from the FD also teach parishioners to“produceproperly”by learning the different farming technologies that are not the traditional farming techniques, such as slash-and-burn. They are also given timber and fruit tree seedlings. “We are trying to maintain what we have, and this area of Trelawny is known for its greenery, butwehavealso realised that people haveneeds, and theywill cut the trees inorder tosatisfy their needs.Weareencouraging them to replant, so it’s a continuous cycle,”Ann-Marie Bromfield, forest manager for the southwest region, explained. One of the challenges in the zones is the lack of interest in farming among the youth, so there are efforts to incorporate them into sustainable activities. And since youngpeople love electronic technology, the FD is using just that toget theminvolved. It has just completed a training programme in digitisation and marketing at Northern Caribbean University, in whichmany youth had participated. “Weare trying to findother areas inwhichwe can incorporate them so that they can have a livelihoodoutsideof yamfarming, which they donot find attractive. Eachperson that is able tomake a livelihood outside of the forest also works for us. It also helps to maintain forest reserves, and helps to maintain Jamaica as a land of wood andwater,”Bromfield said. The incorporation of the people in the communities is very important, so the FD works through the local forest management committees whose duty is to create a link between thepeopleand the forest-dependent areas inwhich they live. It has tomake sure that thepeoplewho liveoff the forest arenot doing so with destructive practices. In a symbiotic relationship they take care of the forest while it is providing for them. Bromfield said, “You can still earn, you can still take care of your family, and at the same time you are being sustainable.” It is a win-win situation. Embedded in the work of the FD there is the concept of social and community forestry, which is about “sustaining life and the environment”. Someof thepartners in this thrust are theSocialDevelopmentCommission, RADA, Jamaica Agricultural Society, HEART/ NSTATrust, andNorthernCaribbeanUniversity. They collaborate to bring opportunities to communities, such as Troy, that are seldom heard of. Paul H. Williams/Gleaner Writer JAMAICA IS made up mainly of limestone, and inareaswhere the rainhas significantly drained minerals from the rock, a karst scenery is created. Fissures, tunnels, underground caves, chambers and sink-holes are thus to be found all over the country, moreso in the Cockpit Country, a unique and distinctive topography that straddles parts of Trelawny, St Elizabeth, St James, St Ann and Manchester. More of it is in Trelawny than in the other parishes. The entire region has a hill-and-gully appearance where steep-sided basins (cockpits), some very expansive and deep, are surrounded by conical hills and hillocks of various sizes. There are not many extended flat pieces of land. The mounds are connected bynarrowridges, alongwhich towns have been established. The longest ridge extends from Flagstaff in St James, through Windsor in Trelawny, and ends at Campbells. The region is heavily forested, and consists of Jamaica’s largest remaining block of wet, limestone forest, including 22,327 hectares of forest reserves. There is an abundance of endemicplant speciesmanyofwhichare found only in Jamaica; others are found only in the Cockpit Country. Fruit trees andmedicinal herbs areeverywhere, and soare floweringplants that are not easy to access, because of the terrain. It is also the home to rare and endemic species of insects andother creatures, andwhere there are trees, there is much water. It rains inabundance in theCockpit Country, a majorwatershed region.Therearemany surface and subterranean rivers, streams, and lakes, the sources of 40per cent of Jamaica’s underground water. It is an important supplier of freshwater for thenation, providingabout 40per cent of the water needs ofwestern Jamaica.TheRioBueno and Martha Brae rivers in Trelawny, the Great River inSt James/Hanover and theYS andBlack rivers in St Elizabeth are just a few of the water sources that originate in the Cockpit Country. It is in this same place that enslaved Africans in central and western Jamaica found refuge. TheMaroons, as they came tobe called, learned about the geographical complexity of the Cockpit Country and used that knowledge to launchguerillawars against the colonisers.They lived, workedandplayed in their own space, and time, andwhen their freedomwas threatened, they resisted. Defeated and frustrated, the colonisers calleda truce, and in1738 a treaty of peace and friendship was signed. The Maroons had gained their Independence and received lands on which to live in peace. The Cockpit Country then represents an incomparable symbol of resistance, and, by extension, an indelible part of our heritage. In this rugged wilderness the soil is very fertile making it ideal for farming, which is the main source of income in the region. At the bottomsof thecockpits andvalleysbetween the mounds, even on the steep inclines, there are great deposits of terra rosa (red soil), someof the most productiveon the island. Embedded in this red soil is bauxite, which is actually sedimentary rock consistingmainly of aluminiumminerals. Becauseof its verynature, theCockpit Country is ideal for bauxite mining and limestone quarrying. And, over the years, there has been much resistance to mining and quarrying within and near the Cockpit Country. The very vocal anti-Cockpit Country miningmovement is maintaining that such practices will, in the long run, destroy the ecological balance of the region, therefore, putting human lives and the environment at risk. The attorney-general andbauxite companies are being sued by the Southern Trelawny Environment Agency and a farmer named Clifton Barrett over the mining of sections of St Ann andTrelawny. The trial is set for October 24 - 27 and31. But the claimants are requesting, through an injunction, that the SupremeCourt prevent Noranda Jamaica Bauxite Partners II and New Day Aluminium (Jamaica) Limited from conducting any mining activity until an official court decision is made. The hearing for a restraining order is set for tomorrow. And somepeople regard the ideaof overseas interests mining bauxite in such an important region in Jamaicaas abetrayal of our sovereignty andstatus as an Independent nation. It gives the impression that we cannot live without their economic intervention, albeit the negative impact that such interventions might have on the people and the environment. The Cockpit CountryWarriors is one of the groups fighting to protect the region from practices that undermine the Cockpit Country’s integrity and sustenance. On one of its Facebook pages it says, “This group seeks to provide a forumwhere we can discuss issues that pertain to the imminent mining plans by Noranda, to mine bauxite in Cockpit Country. Our primary aim is to have the Government accept the Stakeholders map of Cockpit Country and to cease and desist from any plans to mine SML 173 (designated mining area).Our long-term goal is to provide information and programmes that will foster indigenous sustainability in our communities. Bauxite [mining] is not the only negative thing in Cockpit Country.” The Cockpit Country is one of Jamaica’s national treasures, on the same page of importance as eastern Jamaica’s Blue and John CrowMountains National Park, which is a WorldHeritage Site. It is an essential part of the heartbeat and lifeblood of this independent nation. It has great environmental, economic, medicinal, social andhistorical value. However, its sustainability is being compromised by deforestation and other destructive practices. A typical Cockpit Country landscape. This view is from the Good Hope Great House in Trelawny. CONTRIBUTED jamaica at To preserve or to exploit? TRELAWNY’S COCKPIT COUNTRY: JAMAICA T 60: TR LAWNY
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