KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — The Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport will be mounting a third gateway sign to the Blue and John Crow Mountains in Port Morant, St Thomas.

Other signs have been installed at access points to the World Heritage Site in Papine, St Andrew and in Port Antonio, Portland.

Principal Director, Creative Industries Policy Division, Dr Janice Lindsay, said that the ministry has been working closely with community members and the St Thomas Parish Council on the initiative.

She said the ministry has also engaged key stakeholders such as the National Works Agency, National Solid Waste Management Authority, Social Development Commission, Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, the police, community-based organisations and schools.

“They are going to be actively involved in the unveiling ceremony. It will be a community initiative,” she noted.

Lindsay said the mounting of the sign is part of activities to mark World Heritage Day on April 18 under the theme: ‘Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Tourism.’

She said the theme “calls into prominence the role of our local communities in protecting and safeguarding the cultural heritage of diverse cultural groups.”

“It really is focusing on how to engage our communities to be very practical in how they go about ensuring that the assets around them, the resources that are unique to their communities are protected for our present and future generations,” she said.

The Blue and John Crow Mountains was inscribed on the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCOs) World Heritage List in July 2015. It is one of only 32 mixed world heritage sites and the first such in the Caribbean.