MEMBERS of the local environmental lobby and at least one academic have raised concerns over the multi-billion-dollar Palisadoes shoreline protection and rehabilitation works, launched recently.

Diana McCaulay, chief executive officer of the Jamaica Environment Trust, insists an environmental impact assessment (EIA) should have been done to inform the US$65.7-million (JA$5.85-billion) project.

“If they (the National Environment and Planning Agency) issue a beach licence for some amount of the work that is encroachment on the floor of the sea, that does not speak to anything done of the land,” she told the Sunday Observer. “The Palisadoes is a fragile environment. It’s got many different environmental resources — wetlands, the sand dunes, a whole range of rare plants. It is habitat for birds and other marine organisms, which is why it was protected. So you make an announcement that you are going to make a four-lane highway and you start work without considering where this work is to take place.”

The project — which is primarily being financed by the China Exim Bank and undertaken by Chinese contractors CHEC — is to see the flood-prone Palisadoes road raised six to eight feet above its current level and the construction of a four-lane highway, while the rock revetment work started in 2006 — for which an EIA was done — will continue.

CHEC is also to construct a boardwalk to accommodate jogging and an entertainment facility, and run underground power cables from the Harbour View roundabout to the airport. Beyond that, Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry said there will be additional expansion work, with the long-term view to develop the area to connect with the remainder of the highway network across the island.

But botanist Andreas Oberli, like McCaulay, thinks it is a bad idea.

“The joint Chinese/Jamaican project seems to be ill-conceived, poorly researched and planned, and does not take into consideration that the entire peninsula, including off-shore areas, mangroves and all cays are in fact a protected area,” he said. “The proposed four-lane highway would completely destroy a unique geological and biological landscape with tremendous recreational potential, one of the most valuable assets of the KMA (Kingston Metropolitan Area). Sea turtles nest and reproduce there every year, birds use Palisadoes as a bridge between the forests of Long Mountain and Hellshire, and joggers and hobby fishers use the beaches on both sides.”

In addition, he said the present traffic in the area does not warrant a four-lane highway.

“The present traffic volume, even if you double it, does not ask for a four-lane highway. The road does not have to be lifted on the entire stretch, but only on a few hundred metres on the approach of Gunboat Beach, the area where the sea wants to reclaim access to the harbour — something it has done for most of the last 500 years,” Oberli said. “A low bridge or a short causeway is what is needed. And who says that the airport will not eventually have to be relocated to somewhere in St Catherine or St Thomas anyway?”

Importantly, Oberli, a botanist of 30 years, said there are plant species that stand to be impacted.

“Six native cactus species grow on Palisadoes side by side, and half of them are endemic (unique) to Jamaica. One of these, Opuntia tuna, is now extremely rare and limited to two populations on Palisadoes. In other words, Palisadoes is the only place in the world where this species still survives. Recently, a part of the larger population has been destroyed by the construction of a parking lot for heavy equipment of the Chinese company CHEC, opposite the entrance road to the Yacht Club. An EIA was never done, and the site was bulldozed without anybody checking on what was growing there,” he said.

Marine ecologist, Dr Mona Webber, also had concerns over news that an EIA had not been done, and questioned the need for a four-lane highway.

“You can’t have that kind of scale project in that area without an EIA. It is just nigh on impossible — even if the EIA were ignored. Something of that scale must have an EIA,” she said.

Added Webber: “None of us have yet been convinced as to why there is need for a four-lane highway out there. Unless something is wrong or if there is a storm, I have never seen a traffic jam. I thought it would have been more useful to raise the road rather than to widen it and we wonder what sort of research was done…”

At the same time, she said there was little question of whether marine organisms would be affected.

“During the construction phase for sure and the encroachment (will have an impact) — even if you move the major vegetation (such as) the sea grass, the mangroves. And if there are adult mangrove plants, they are not going to be easily moved. So there is going to be some loss even though there are some plans (to replant or otherwise relocate),” she said. “The harbour is still a nursery… Anywhere that has sea grass and mangroves does provide a nursery function.”

Still, Webber, a senior lecturer in the department of life sciences at the University of the West Indies, said she was aware that some research work was being done to inform work on the harbour side of the Palisadoes.

“Any sort of reclamation and dumping up is going to happen on the side with the Kingston Harbour and that is where I know research has been done… There have been some investigations about sea grass replanting removal from those shallow areas of the harbour,” she said.

The National Environment and Planning Agency attested to such work, noting that they formed part of the environmental and engineering studies that was carried out, even as it sought to quiet the concerns.

“(Work on) the roadway does not require a permit as the total length of the roadway from roundabout-to-roundabout is approximately 5.6km and this is less than the 10km trigger in the prescribed categories,” the agency said in an e-mailed response to queries from the Sunday Observer. “Despite this, there has been two environmental and engineering studies conducted — the first in 2007 by the Institute of Oceanography in Cuba and a modification to the Cuban design prepared by CEAC Solutions, Kingston, Jamaica, which sought to advise the original designs contemplated and which was also considered in the new proposals.”

At the same time, the agency downplayed the potential impact the works could have on the natural environment in that area.

“The majority of the area to be impacted by the works does not include areas with significant biodiversity due to the damage occasioned by storms, etc over the last few years. The major impact expected will be to some vegetation, not least of which is some mangroves that have been planted by the agency along the shoulder of the roadway. This loss, however, is expected to be temporary,” the agency said.

It added that it would be operating on the “no net loss” principle.

“This means that if any sensitive ecosystems are to be affected, they must be relocated to another suitable area where it can provide similar ecological functions to that which it currently performs. Included in the CEAC report was a biological survey of the resources to me impacted as well as mitigation measures to be employed to counteract the loss of these resources,” NEPA said. “The permits and licencing system is the tool used to stipulate the conditions under which permissible activities can occur and is enforceable under the law. The licences granted to NWA by the Natural Resources Conservation Authority clearly outlines mitigation measures, which includes restoration and long-term monitoring of the biological resources to be impacted.”

Neither Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry nor Patrick Wong, chief executive officer for the National Works Agency, could be reached for comments up to press time.