AMID swirling allegations from conservationists that sections of the Cockpit Country are being mined for bauxite, the Government’s environment watchdog yesterday vowed to apply the brakes to any undertaking found to be encroaching on the protected area.

Windsor Research Centre, which is located five kilometres inside Cockpit Country, reported seeing mining equipment and haul road extension works at the Madras/Caledonia crossroad near Bryan Castle in St Ann.

“The new haul road is outside the Special Mining Lease (SML) 165 which Noranda inherited from St Ann Bauxite Ltd, and is penetrating so-called Special Reserves, which are inside Cockpit Country,” engineer and director of Windsor Mike Schwartz said in a release to the media.

“According to SML 165, these reserves are to be used only if it turns out that there is less bauxite than predicted within the said SML,” he continued.

Schwartz and Diana MaCaulay, CEO of Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), said they were alarmed and appalled at the development, especially since the Government has given “numerous assurances that bauxite mining would not be permitted in Cockpit Country”.

“To now learn that the GOJ has gone ahead and allowed Noranda to begin mining operations in Cockpit Country without any dialogue with stakeholders and without the declaration of the long promised boundary and protection regime is a betrayal of good faith,” MaCaulay said.

But speaking with the Jamaica Observer yesterday, CEO of the National Environment and Planning Agency Peter Knight said the agency was seeking to verify the complaints lodged with his office and would defer detailed comment until then.

“Suffice it to say, if mining is taking place and if they have encroached on Cockpit Country, it will be stopped,” Knight said.

Noranda communications executive Lance Neita told the Observer said the company has been made aware of the allegations and would respond in short order. He maintained, however, that Noranda is operating according to its lease and has never gone outside of its boundaries.

Cockpit Country is an expanse of mountainous forest that stretches from St James, Trelawny, and St Elizabeth, to sections of St Ann, Clarendon and Manchester. It sits on limestone bedrock and has been eyed for limestone and bauxite mining. Cockpit Country supplies as much as 40 per cent of the water for western Jamaica, according to the Water Resources Authority.

At the base of the contention is the demarcation of its boundaries. Over the years, different interest groups have defined varying boundaries, some wider than others. In 2013, the Government stepped in to settle the impasse and commissioned a series of public consultations to that end. The published recommendations concluded, among other things, that “The Government of Jamaica should not authorise any form of exploration of mineral deposits, mining and quarrying activity within the Cockpit Country as the level of emotion is too high and level of opposition and resistance by community members and leaders, CBOs, NGOs and civil society organisations, some Government of Jamaica agencies and members of the academic community may not provide enough guarantee and confidence for potential investors”.

“They can’t just ignore the public consultations that they commissioned,” Schwartz said.