THE Forestry Department recently formally launched its website, which is aimed at improving public awareness of the country’s forests and the need to protect the natural environment.

The launch took place at the department’s Kingston office.

Director of technical services at the Forestry Department, Keith Porter, said the site provides “scientific and physiological information” on the country’s forests, gave a history of the department and its work to protect, preserve and conserve forests. The website’s address is www.forestry.gov.jm.

Porter said the website gives regular updates on news from the department, including the recently reviewed National Forest Management and Conservation Plan.

“It also provides general information on the department’s enforcement activity in terms of how it goes about enforcing the provisions of the Forestry Act and training forest officers,” he added.

Calling on Jamaicans to visit the site, he said it provided information in a style everyone could appreciate, including children.

“We target children by giving background information on forests, trees and the environment, and we have pictures of trees such as the lignum vitae, that they can see,” he stated.

For the more intellectual person or those doing research, there is a section that has papers on the state of deforestation in the country and there is a socio-economic study on the Buff Bay/Pencar Watershed.

Also provided is a feedback section, where members of the public are invited to send questions and concerns to the department. The site will be updated every quarter.

“We are going to add a Geographical Information System (GIS), which will contain spatial information that users can download and use,” Porter stated.

The GIS should be in place by the end of September.

Launching the site, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Aaron Parke, said it would provide much needed information on the work of the department and the government’s efforts to sustain the environment.

He also lauded the department’s use of information technology to highlight its programmes, noting that this would “engender greater public participation in conservation efforts”.