THE Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust (JCDT) is moving to set up a trust fund that will finance their management of the Blue and John Crow mountains on a sustained basis.

With their current operations costing between JA$25 and JA$30 million annually, the environmental agency is looking to raise US$2 million for the fund. It is money that would help make it self-sufficient, while its annual hunt for money

would be limited to only a few projects.

“Every year we have to search and beg, and so what we want to do is establish a trust fund. If we had about US$2 million in it, it would earn maybe about JA$20 million so that then we wouldn’t have to be so reliant on begging for donations and grants,” JCDT executive director Susan Otuokon told the Observer.

Now more than two months into the new year, the JCDT has in its coffers about three quarters of the $30 million required to undertake the raft of strategies it plans to adopt to shore up its management this year of the Blue and John Crow mountains – home to all 30 of Jamaica’s endemic birds and 11 of the island’s endemic frogs. And for next year’s operations, she said they had less than half of the

required sum.

This has helped to lend urgency to their need to have the trust fund up and earning. Already there is hope that it could reach fruition, according to Otuokon.

The Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ) has committed JA$2 million to the effort – one million to be put directly into the fund and the other to help finance the drive to raise additional funds.

“There is a commitment. They will give us some time to see what we can do (to raise money) and then let us get the million to put in the trust fund. (So it’s) a million for the fund and another million for the fund-raising,” Otuokon said.

She added that they were expected to sign off on the agreement within another month or two.

There is, however, some way to go before they meet their US$2-million target. They have, as such, called on the public to get involved.

To begin with, Otuokon said the public could visit the Hollywell community near the mountains to take advantage of the recreational and educational opportunities the national park has to offer through

the JCDT.

“If they want to organise youth clubs, church groups, we can organise things like that so that we wouldn’t be begging. That is a service we can offer. That will help us to earn income for the work that we do,” she added.

More than 500 children from 17 schools and colleges were hosted in the area on educational tours in the

past year.

The other thing the public can do, she said, is to

donate money to a specific programme or project of the JCDT or to the fund that is to be established.

The almost 19-year-old JCDT has, meanwhile, made progress in its monitoring and conservation efforts in the Blue and John Crow mountains over the last year.

Those efforts have included patrols of the area to deter illegal activities, such as illegal clearing for coffee farming. The agency was, according to its annual report delivered last week by Otuokon, able to conduct 95 patrols of 60 sites in the mountains, accounting for a 67 per cent increase

over 2005. Its other efforts included:

. the restoration of degraded areas with native plant species;

. the control of invasive species such as wild ginger, which threaten native plants; and

. the monitoring of birds and fresh water (which is of particular importance since the Blue and John Crow mountains provide water for a reported 40 per cent

of Jamaicans.

They were also involved in the promotion of agro-forestry through the supply of more than 1,000 trees to farmers for planting in surrounding communities.

Funds to finance their operations are currently sourced through a number of donor agencies, including the EFJ, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme; the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA); the Neotropical Migratory Birds Conservation Fund out of

the US; and the Luis Kennedy Foundation.