SALT RIVER, Clarendon – The Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation (C-CAM) has received an $800,000 boost to support its management of Jamaica’s largest nature reserve, the Portland Bight Protected Area (PBPA) which is located in Clarendon.

The funds, provided by Sterling Asset Management Ltd, launched the start of a 90,000 postcard project which is expected to provide income in excess of $1.4 million to the foundation.

Sterling Asset Management managing director Charles Ross, who made the presentation to former C-CAM director Peter Espeut during a ceremony in Salt River, Clarendon on Saturday, said the donation reflects his company’s desire to raise the awareness about Jamaica’s endemic species and the need to protect its fragile ecosystems.

“This is in addition to meeting the objective of providing a steady income source for C-CAM to develop and promote the area as an eco-tourist destination, while also providing economic opportunities for the Portland Bight community,” Ross said.

The funds will help the foundation start and maintain the postcard line of business and the organisation will be able to reinvest proceeds from the card sales as well as help the foundation meet its broader objectives. The theme of the sustainable financial resource project is ‘Precious Assets Worth Preserving’.

The PBPA was formed by Government in 1999, to be managed as an integrated terrestrial and marine conservation area. Located in the southern (coastal) part of St Catherine and Clarendon, it has 200 miles of land and 524 miles of marine space.

More than 50,000 persons live within the 44 communities in the Portland Bight protected area which comprises of a bauxite alumina processing plant, limestone mines, aquaculture and relics of three sugar industries, commerce and human settlements alongside natural ecosystems which collectively create an exciting natural resource management experiment. The Bight has 30,000 acres of mangroves, 20 islands and four dry limestone forest.

In his thanks to Sterling Asset Management, Espeut said C-CAM can now start a new line of sustainable business that will allow the foundation to reinvest the card proceeds to support tours of the Portland Bight area. “What C-CAM intends to offer is an important part of its nature and heritage tourism product. This is an excellent example of a gift which will keep on giving,” Espeut said.

Espeut describes the project as one which dovetails perfectly with the foundation’s own vision for the sustainable development of the Portland Bight. It’s a vision, he emphasised, that sees the Portland Bight Protected Area rising as an important site for nature and heritage tourism.