…one of these days, we’ve got to get organized

The idea of protected areas in Jamaica has been with us for a long time.  Since the early 1990’s, regions that contained valuable but fragile natural resources have been singled out for special treatment, to keep them from being destroyed forever.  The Montego Bay Marine Park is one of those areas.

There has been a continuing struggle to find the right system for managing these areas effectively.  How much protection do they need?  What are the costs and benefits of protecting them?  Who should be in charge?  Who should pay?  As Government’s priorities shifted, there was never enough money to meet conflicting demands or enough certainty to make long-term plans.

Twenty years down the road, the protected areas haven’t had much protection and we are going through another round of management planning.  A NEPA press release on February 9 announced that “Jamaica’s protected areas efforts will get a needed boost” from a new six-year “capacity strengthening” project, to be launched with a workshop on February 10.

The project has an impressive list of sponsors, but its budget is modest – just US$7.8 million over the six years.  Its aim is ambitious – to make the “national system of protected areas” into a real system, with better planning and funding and more effective management.

At the same time, NEPA is inviting public comment on proposed regulations for “managed resource protected areas”, specifically including Portland Bight.  System organization and regulation are good and necessary things.  They let us all know who’s in charge and what is permitted (or forbidden), but they need to be done right to have a positive effect.

The approach to managing protected areas has to start from the bottom up, making conservation of habitats and wildlife the first priority.  If other uses can be allowed without danger they should be, but only under careful supervision.  The important question is “How can we allow some tourism (or fishing or farming or shipping) in this area without troubling the things we need to protect?”, not “How can we protect these resources without troubling the business that’s already going on?”

Also, stable and sustainable funding for protected areas has to come from those who reap the benefits.  Some of these – fishing, farming, wood-cutting, tourism -- have a market value.  People who are allowed to use the protected areas for these purposes can be charged for the privilege.  Other benefits – including better public health and safety – are enjoyed by us all without restriction, and Government on our behalf (with the taxes it collects from us) must pay for this privilege.

Finally, any good system plan has to recognize that managing a protected area is labour-intensive, and has to be locally driven.  It needs people who know the area on the ground (or in the boat), keeping a watchful eye, enforcing the regulations and educating the public.  We are in serious danger of having too many generals, leaving no budget for soldiers.  Too many local managers have to spend most of their time writing reports and attending meetings, leaving no time for work in the field or in the community.  And Portland Bight, Montego Bay and Negril can’t be effectively managed from a boardroom in Kingston.

This may be our last chance to put a workable management system for protected areas into operation.  We need to get it right soon, before there are no resources left to manage.