AFTER close to two decades of moving from one rented office to another, the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust (JCDT), which manages the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, says it has identified property where it can set up a permanent home.

The years have seen the agency housing its operations in six different locations, including at Duke Street and Cross Roads, both in Kingston. It currently has offices at 29 Dumbarton Avenue, also in the capital.

“In the last five years (alone), we have made three moves,” said executive director Susan Otuokon.

But chairman of the trust, Robert Stephens, said the agency has identified a building and is now in negotiations to secure it.

“This (building) is owned by the National Development Foundation (of Jamaica), which manages the area of Hope Gardens,” he told the Sunday Observer. “What we are doing is approaching them to see if we can have a long-term arrangement so that we can build our headquarters.”

Stephens added that one of the reasons the Trust had been unable to finance its own space was because donors were interested in funding projects and not buildings.

“Donors give money for projects, not for a headquarters, so we have to go out there and find the participants and partners who are going to assist us in getting those headquarters going,” he said.

Stephens said the building the Trust was eyeing was damaged by fire some years ago and would cost up to $60 million to renovate.

“It’s probably going to cost us about J$50 million to J$60 million to restore the building to what it was because it was a very lovely frettwork-type building constructed out of wood, and we want to restore it as it was,” he said. “We have pictures of it. We have everything. And we are going out there to try to replicate exactly what it was before the fire.”

He is hopeful that the negotiations with the NDFJ, which he said have been ongoing for more than a year now, will yield fruit.

“We are very positive and hopeful that there can be a coming together of the minds so that we can build our headquarters,” he said. “We have been seeking to get it going about a year and a half. What we would like to do is to get it moving a bit faster.”

The Sunday Observer was unable to get a comment from the NDFJ on the status of the negotiations.

Otuokon is excited at the prospect of the move and equally hopeful that the negotiations will end in their favour.

“That (the move to a permanent home) would be a great relief. People would know exactly where we are and we could really settle down a lot better,” she said. “We could be looking at a facility that is sort of more purpose-built, and we could facilitate more opportunities for education. We have (for example) a large library, yet it is mostly used internally. A couple of people know about it from UWI and UTech, but it is not largely used.”

Stephens said they would, in the interim, try to raise the money needed to restore the building.

“We are going to be going on the road to find the partners who are going to put funding into that. We have (already) approached a number of private sector and government organisations to participate with us, and we are getting some traction,” he said. “But the most important thing is to secure the lease of the property, and that is what we are now finalising. This is in the park at Hope Gardens.”

The JCDT has been working hard at preserving the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, which supplies some 40 per cent of Jamaicans with water.

Its programmes have included an ongoing recreation and education initiative in communities around the mountains, which is home to several species of endemic birds and frogs. More than 5,000 children from schools and colleges benefited from those programmes last year.

The JCDT has also been able to restore a section of the mountains that was denuded, while it has undertaken ongoing water quality monitoring.

It also patrols the area to prevent illegal activities, such as land clearing for coffee production.