Although the Government has made it clear that it will not sanction mineral exploration in the Cockpit Country, residents of a number of communities in that section of Trelawny have been relocated, reportedly by miners who have bought land and have already started digging, according to some residents.

Empty homes and businesses were evident in the district of Sawyers in Trelawny when the Sunday Observer visited two weeks ago.

“Them buy off some people land and move them go different place,” a man who gave his name only as ‘Workie’, told the Sunday Observer. “Most of the land belong to the bauxite company”.

The Sunday Observer was unable to determine which bauxite company the residents were referring to, and repeated attempts last week to speak to representatives of Alcoa Minerals of Jamaica and Clarendon Alumina Production (CAP) were unsuccessful.

Both Alcoa and CAP received a special exclusive prospecting licence in May 2004 allowing them to search for bauxite deposits in Trelawny and St Ann. The search area encompassed “Wakefield, Bunkers Hill, Sherwood Content, Duanvale, Kinloss, Jackson Town, Stewart Town, Bryan Castle, Scarborough Mountain, Gordon’s Run, Mosquito Cove, Fontabelle, Pantrepant, Albert Town, Ulster Spring, Dromilly, Deeside and others”, the licence said.

Last Thursday, at a ‘Save the Cockpit Country’ presentation at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston, environmentalists said that applications for a renewal of the licence, which expired in May this year, are now at the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands.

The Sunday Observer, however, was unable to confirm this.

Meantime, Cockpit Country residents insisted that miners have already started prospecting for bauxite in the area.

“Them dig a big hole inna the bush,” one man said. His words were met with nods of agreement from other residents of Sawyers who had gathered around. The rugged terrain prevented this reporter from visiting the area the man spoke about.

At last Thursday’s presentation, British scientist Mike Schwartz, who has lived and studied in the Cockpit Country for over a decade, warned the Government against granting Alcoa and CAP exclusive licenses to prospect for bauxite in the Cockpit Country.

Under Jamaican law, prospecting does not require an environmental permit.

Mining is done in three phases. First, there is the prospecting stage where prospectors use heavy equipment to open roads through sections of a forest before drilling to test the levels of bauxite in the soil.

If the results are favourable, then the miners would develop a more extensive road network and extract tons of the precious mineral.

When the land is depleted of the ore, the miners start a process called post-mining reclamation, that is an attempt to restore the land.

But these efforts do not impress Schwartz. He said that even prospecting for bauxite would have disastrous effects on the island. The miners, he said, do not have the capacity to restore the land to anything near to its original status after they have extracted minerals.

“We believe the Cockpit Country is an independent, self-contained, self-regulated eco-system which will be severely altered and very likely destroyed in its entirety by even small amounts of bauxite mining,” Schwartz said.

The scientist said cutting roads through the natural forest would disturb the balance of nature and completely destroy some already endangered species of plants, trees and other forms of life that now inhabit the largely untouched land.

“All the surface vegetation would have to be removed and some of those plants are only found on one hill in the Cockpit Country,” said Schwartz. “We are appealing to the Government of Jamaica not to allow prospecting or mining in the Cockpit Country and its environs.”

Speaking on behalf of a body known as the Cockpit Country Stakeholders group, Schwartz also called on the state to declare the forest a protected national area as soon as possible.

The Cockpit Country spans more than 5,000 acres. Most of the land is located in Trelawny but it also spreads through the neighbouring parishes of St Elizabeth and St James. The area has rich deposits of red earth, which could earn big yields for mining interests, and according to environmentalists, the companies are intent on destroying the environment to meet their own ends.

The Dry River, a section of which runs underground for miles, is located in Sawyers, and it too stands a chance of being permanently damaged if heavy machinery rolls into the area to transform the topography of the land, the environmentalists said. The districts of Alps, Linton Springs and First Hill are some of the other areas that may be affected by mining.

Some of the residents were ignorant of the possible damage to their community if bauxite mining starts in the area. They said most of the land surrounding Sawyers is already owned by a bauxite company and they would be boxed in if mining starts and they decided not to sell.

“We wouldn’t have no choice ’cause them own all the land already. A just a little strip make up the district,” one woman said.

Others were worried that the miners would dig up the graves of their relatives if they were given the go-ahead to mine the Cockpit Country. The area is part of a farming belt and produces tons of yams, potatoes and other ground provisions which are mainly exported.

Since the year 2000, environmentalists have proposed that the rugged, inaccessible inland territory of Jamaica be named a World Heritage Site. Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin and well-known author, Mick Day, described the Cockpit Country as “Jamaica’s only real hope of having a World Heritage Site”.

But head of the Jamaica Environmental Trust, Diana McCauley, said although the World Bank has indicated its willingness to fund such a project, the Government needs to openly declare that no mining would be done in the region before the bank will act.

“It must be given the status of a no mining area or it won’t happen,” McCauley said, “We have gone everywhere and no Government agency has responded favourably”.

But on November 7 in Parliament, Finance and Planning Minister Dr Omar Davies assured the House that the administration had no intention of approving Cockpit Country mining.

“I can tell you that there is no chance that there will ever be approval in that regard. So let us get that out of the way,” Davies said in a debate on a resolution seeking a Government guarantee for a $200-million loan for the Clarendon Alumina Production Limited.

He was responding to concerns raised by Opposition spokesman on energy, Clive Mullings, about the possibility of the renewal of the exclusive licence to prospect for bauxite in the area.

Mullings had said that plans by a foreign bauxite entity to do a feasibility study for bauxite mining in the area had raised environmental concerns and was being strongly opposed by local environmentalists.

Dr Davies said the Government took the environmental issue seriously and recognised that the Cockpit Country represented a unique ecosystem which is internationally appreciated.

Minister of tourism, entertainment and culture, Aloun Assamba, concurred.

“I am not in support of mining taking place in the Cockpit Country. I don’t think it would be a step in the right direction,” Assamba told the Sunday Observer.

However, at last Monday’s post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, minister of information and development Donald Buchanan, who has portfolio responsibility for bauxite/alumina, refused to respond when journalists asked about the issue.

“We are not going to the cockpit this evening. I am not going to the cockpit this evening,” Buchanan told the media.

Last Thursday, Schwartz, in building a case for the preservation of the area, said that the Cockpit Country is the main supplier of water to 10 of the island’s main rivers, including the Martha Brae, YS and Black River. It also supplies water to Western Jamaica.

Environmentalists have long argued that bauxite mining contaminates underground water supplies, and mining in this area could have dire effects on the tourism and agricultural sectors, they say.

Head of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association, Horace Peterkin, is in full support of the effort to stop miners from encroaching on the bauxite-rich lands of the Cockpit Country.

“We should fight tooth and nail to prevent any mining in the area,” he told the Sunday Observer. “The water supply is one obvious issue, but also because of the endemics that we could destroy.”

He said chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board, Dennis Morrison, who is also the head of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute, has given the hoteliers his assurance that mining the Cockpit Country was not in the Government’s plans.

“He told us there was no intention to allow mining in the Cockpit Country,” Peterkin said, adding that the JHTA is to meet this week to discuss the issue.

According to Trelawny-based environmental activist, Hugh Dixon, lobbying by the North Trelawny Environmental Agency has resulted in the Trelawny Parish Council passing a resolution to oppose any mining of the Cockpit Country.

“If we don’t have a groundswell, then we will not have the political will at another level,” Dixon said.

Opposition to any form of human intrusion on the topography of the area is also coming from the Maroons in Accompong Town in St Elizabeth. Over 200 acres of the Cockpit Country were ceded to the Maroons after they successfully defeated the British in a number of battles during the dark days of slavery. Other portions of the Cockpit Country are owned by private interests and the state.

“This is sacred ground where our ancestors fought for their freedom,” a Rastafarian resident of Accompong told the Sunday Observer. “Many of them died at different points and we see it as an insult to the cause if bauxite companies are allowed to mine any part of the Cockpit Country.”

His sentiments were echoed by some residents in the nearby districts of Quick Step, Elderslie and Troy.

“Them land yah fi leave alone fi the younger generation learn them history and about themself,” Elaine Ellington, a shopkeeper in Quick Step, told the Sunday Observer.

Scientists theorise that the Cockpit Country was formed about 15 million years ago when it was pushed out of the sea. The main mineral which made up the area was limestone, which has been dissolved by years of rainfall. Over the years, a series of pits, about 100-120 feet deep, were formed, hence the name Cockpit Country. The force of the water formed an intricate network of caves and sinkholes.

The main component of the soil in the area is known as karst – a term used to describe eroded limestone. The soil at the top, sides and bottom of the cockpits are remarkably different, and plants which flourish on the sides cannot survive on the hilltops or the base of the pits and vice versa.

The endangered Jamaican Yellow Boa is among 16 reptiles and amphibians that have made the Cockpit Country home. In the Windsor Caves, frogs have young which bypass the tadpole stage. There are also several species of lizards there.

The giant swallowtail butterfly is the largest butterfly in the new world. It has become extinct in the Blue Mountains and Mount Diablo and can only be found in the Cockpit Country where its numbers are rapidly dwindling.

The endangered Jamaican black-billed and yellow-billed parrots have also made the woodlands their home. They can scarcely be found anywhere else on the island as they are widely sought after as pets.

There are also 106 species of plants that are found nowhere else in the world. Among them are six kinds of orchids, some of which are nestled on the steep hillsides inaccessible to man, bromeliads, wild yam, ferns and cacti.

All but one of Jamaica’s endemic bird species are from the Cockpit Country. There are also several species of bats and the near extinct Coney living in Jamaica’s last natural forest.

The skeleton of a now extinct monkey was found there a few years ago and scientists say unique species of plants and animals are still being discovered.

Legalities of bauxite mining

Bauxite mining is governed by five pieces of legislation.

The Mining Act of 1947, the Mining Regulations, the Natural Resources Conservation Authority Act, the Natural Resources Order and the Natural Resources Conservation Regulations.

Bauxite miners must apply for a special exclusive prospecting licence to the minister of agriculture and lands, through the commissioner of mines. The minister has the power to dictate the length of time and the area where prospecting will be allowed if the application is granted.

Prospecting and mining of bauxite ore can be done within a forest reserve if the prospecting licence and mining lease have been granted by the state. Although some crown lands have been declared no-mining zones, the commissioner of mines has the power to allow mining in these protected areas.

An environmental permit from the Natural Resources Conservation Authority is required before mining can take place but none is needed for prospecting.

The holder of a prospecting licence can apply for a mining lease although the minister can grant permission for mining to begin before the lease is granted.

The agriculture and lands minister has the power to declare an area closed to mining but this does not apply to an area where a prospecting licence or mining lease has already been granted.

The minister can also re-open the area to mining.

additional reporting by Balford Henry