THE appointment of Jamaica’s new man with responsibility for the environment has been met with a noticeable lack of enthusiasm from the local green lobby, who are sceptical of his ability to perform in an area where he lacks experience and which has traditionally been put on the back burner.

But in an interview with Environment Watch last week, Robert Pickersgill — officially named the minister of land, water, environment, and climate change earlier this month — sought to answer the sceptics.

While admitting that the environment is new to him, he said he was no newcomer to Cabinet responsibility and that he expected that experience to serve him well.

“Put it this way, in terms of ministerial responsibilities, I am extremely accustomed to it… I am approaching either my 19th or 20th year as a Cabinet minister and over that period of time, I have been responsible for several portfolios, albeit it is, to the best of my memory, the first time that I am dealing with land, environment and climate change,” he said, noting that he has, in the past, had responsibility for water.

Still, Pickersgill — who takes over from the Jamaica Labour Party’s Dr Horace Chang, former minister of housing, water and environment — insisted he would rise to the occasion.

“I really find it quite challenging and very interesting. To me, the most exciting part of it is the relevance, and I regard that as exciting because for the first time, in terms of the name of a ministry, climate change is involved and already we have been receiving some compliments,” he noted.

“It is a comprehensive portfolio, I must admit. But they are interlocked and one feeds into the other — water, land, the environment, and climate change. The ministry touches on concerns of all the ministries and goes to make a very interesting and challenging package. So I look forward to serving in this particular portfolio,” Pickersgill said.

Environmental advocates, while not over the moon, have welcomed the minister in hopes that he will make progress where others have failed.

“We really have to see what he can do, but I really can’t say that I am enthusiastic,” said John Fletcher, a past president of BirdLife Jamaica.

At the same time, he noted his concern that once again, the interest of another area — despite the perceived connectivity between water, land, environment, and climate change — could take precedent over environmental concerns at some time.

“It is the same thing as in the past; we don’t have a minister of the environment; it is a minister of something else and then something else is tacked on. If you have housing and environment then you have a conflict because you want to build houses and at the same time you want to protect the environment,” Fletcher told Environment Watch.

“If you want water and environment then you have a conflict. The environment comes second. And then if there is a problem, if there is a conflict, 99 times out of 100, the environment loses in that conflict,” he added warily.

Yet, Fletcher hopes.

“We have to see whether he gives sufficient weight to his responsibilities as minister for the environment along with the other responsibilities he has. So let’s wait and see,” he said.

Diana McCaulay, chief executive officer for the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), was herself cautiously optimistic over the new appointment, extending the proverbial olive branch to Pickersgill with whom she hopes to meet shortly.

“I congratulate Mr Pickersgill on his appointment; I am looking forward to working with him. We have written requesting an early meeting. I have not before been aware of his interest in the environment. I am glad to learn of it though. And I hope we can settle some urgent priorities and get them done,” she said.

“I haven’t really heard him on the environment in the past, but I hope he will bring great energy and urgency to the job and I want to see him quickly,” McCaulay added.

Wendy Lee, executive director of Northern Jamaica Conservation Association, freely admitted her scepticism toward Pickersgill.

“I have seen a couple of headlines lately — Pickersgill warning about climate change — and it’s like ‘Wow! What does Mr Pickersgill know about climate change and why has he been so silent in the past? Is it something he is just learning about? Can we help him? Will he ask the NGOs (non-governmental organisations) for advice? He is just an unknown factor,” she said.

Still, she hesitated to be overly critical of the minister.

“His track record and position on environmental matters [are] a complete mystery; I have never heard anything from him on the matter that I can remember. So I guess it is a kind of a strange choice. However, at least we haven’t heard him say anything disastrous about the environment, which I can’t say the same for the rest of the Cabinet [over the years],” Lee said.

Meanwhile, the local lobbyists have suggested some issues for Pickersgill’s to-do list in the coming months.

For Fletcher, it’s the Cockpit Country — a prized piece of Jamaica that is rich in biodiversity, both plants and animals — the boundary of which has been the subject of much debate over the years as environmentalists battle to prevent mining in the area.

“We have been waiting a long time for the Government to release the report on the Cockpit Country. When the argument first came up, they created an expert committee based primarily of people from the university… to come up with a proper boundary and this goes back to the PNP (People’s National Party) Government of the 1990s,” Fletcher said.

“We need to know that the boundary of the Cockpit Country is this. It needs to be publicly declared and everything in that boundary is sacrosanct. The Cockpit Country has an enormous economic value to Jamaica. The simple thing is this enormous fresh water aquifer that stretches under the Cockpit Country and feeds all the rivers in western Jamaica — the Cabarita, the Martha Brae River, the Great River, the Black River,” he added.

“All of them come from there. It rains in the Cockpit Country every day and yet there is no standing water… It all goes through this great big sponge and then is collected underneath. Our fear is that any major development, any mining development would destroy that,” Fletcher said further.

The Cockpit Country also topped McCaulay’s list. In addition, she said significant action is needed to improve Jamaica’s air quality and a war must be waged against open burning.

“This year, for me, is the year for mounting a campaign against open burning because it is a public health scourge. It is affecting every single Jamaican, especially the young and the old,” the JET boss said, adding that existing legislation need also to be enforced.

Lee, for her part, said Pickersgill should hit the pause button on coastal construction.

“I would like to hear Mr Pickersgill say that there is going to be a moratorium on coastal construction in light of sea level rise, especially with massive tourist resorts — not only because of their impact on the marine environment, but because of their vulnerability,” she said.

“I would like to hear Mr Pickersgill say there will be a moratorium on all logging in our forests. All our standing forests should be immediately protected… And if that means declaring areas closed to mining, closed to agriculture, do it,” she said.

According to Lee, the disposal of waste, and especially plastic waste, in rural areas is another sore point.

“I suppose that in Kingston, garbage collection is done. But take a drive into the rural areas and you cannot go around a corner without a stinking illegal dump down a gully. The situation with garbage in rural Jamaica is just disgusting. And what nobody is really paying attention to is not only the impact for our own quality of life, but for tourists,” she said.

“Tourists want to explore Jamaica. I take people bird watching and they are horrified at the state in which we keep our country with garbage. Yet, they come here because of the most magnificent birds,” Lee added, while calling for the implementation of a deposit refund system to cut down on the quantity of plastic waste.