The Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) recently signed a 10-year legal delegation agreement and a 25-year lease agreement with the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust to manage the Hollywell Recreational Area in the Blue and John Crow Mountains.

NRCA is one of the entities that merged to form the National Environment and Planning Agency.

The delegation instrument which became effective October 1, grants management functions to the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (BJCMNP) to the JCDT. JCDT staff is therefore empowered under the NRCA Act to enforce legislation pertaining to the park. Some of the obligations of the delegation instrument include promoting awareness of the natural resources of the National Park, maintenance and repair of all buildings and facilities and development, implementation and monitoring of plans and programmes relating to the management of the National Park.

The underlease enables the JCDT to charge user fees for the use of the facilities at the Holywell Recreational Area which lies within the Park and is also a Forest Reserve.

Three agreements have been signed relating to the management of that area since December of last year. A lease was signed by the Commissioner of Lands and NRCA (December 2001), an underlease signed by the JCDT and NRCA (September 19, 2002) and an Assignment (September 19, 2002) which was prepared in conjunction with these two agreements, in which the Forestry Department assigned its rights to NRCA to manage Hollywell.

The Hollywell Recreational Area is a picnic site and mountain retreat located at the Hardwar Gap within the Park. The area is 990 metres above sea level. There are three cabins on site ranging from studio to two-bedrooms, ten gazebos, five tent sites, bathrooms, showers, an environmental resource centre and a number of guided and unguided tours.

BJCMNP started as a pilot programme through the Protected Areas Resources Conservation Project (PARC) in 1990 and was declared a National park under the NRCA Act (1991) in 1993. It is 193,000 acres in size and encompasses areas of St Thomas, Portland, St Andrew and St Mary.

It is an area of tremendous biological importance and significant cultural value. Six distinct forest types are found in the area with a wide range of vegetation ranging from tropical to near temperate. It is home to many rare or endangered animals and plants, including the Giant Swallowtail butterfly (papilio homerus), the Jamaican Hutua (coney), neotropical and endemic birds, endemic three frogs and the yellow snake.

JCDT has been actively involved in the management of the park since 1993.