Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke and US Ambassador Sue Cobb share a light moment before the signing of the debt-for-nature swap agreement on Friday at the Ministry of Agriculture in Kingston.

JAMAICA and the United States on Friday signed a US$16-million (approx J$1 billion) agreement under a debt-for-nature swap programme, aimed at supporting Jamaica's forest conservation activities.

Under the agreement, the Jamaican government, through the Ministry of Agriculture's Forestry Department, also launched the Local Tropical Forest Conservation Fund, with Jamaica giving a commitment to preserve the island's natural flora and fauna.

Minister of Agriculture Roger Clarke said the establishment of the fund promised enormous benefits for Jamaica.
"The two most obvious are the replacement of our US dollar obligation with that of local currency and the restoration and conservation of forest land in priority areas," the minister said at the signing at the agriculture ministry in Kingston.

Clarke said the process for the agreement, initiated by the Forestry Department, began in 2001, and the three signatories - Government of Jamaica, Government of the US and the Nature Conservancy, an international organisation with headquarters in the US - required three separate agreements in order to set up the local fund:
. a debt swap agreement which sets out the details of the debt reduction; that is, the loans to be retired and the conditions and schedule of payments;
. an agreement between the signatories which specifies the role of the Nature Conservancy and the US Government to cancel the eligible debt; and
. a forest conservation agreement between the Jamaican Government and the Nature Conservancy.

The agriculture minister, in the meantime, expressed gratitude for the debt-for-nature swap, and pointed out that the fund would be used to support local forest conservation activities. He noted that Hurricane Ivan just over a month ago devastated approximately 780 hectares of plantation forests across the island.

US Ambassador to Jamaica Sue Cobb, who signed the agreement on behalf of her government, said she empathised with the peoples of the region as her home state of Florida had also been ravaged and emphasised the need for greater protection of lands.
"The floods in Haiti and the recent wind damage to nearly 800 hectares of Jamaica's virgin forests caused by Hurricane Ivan serve to highlight the need to protect this fragile region.

".To ensure the health and safety of the Jamaican people, steps must be taken to preserve forests, prevent erosion, and to avoid serious flooding," Cobb said.
At the same time, country director for the Nature Conservancy, Terrence Williams, said there was a global mission by his organisation to protect biodiversity and that "there is no other place (with only three exceptions) that has a greater biodiversity than Jamaica".

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