Dear Editor,

The burning of the Holland Bamboo at a time when Jamaica’s biodiversity is already under great threat is an untold tragedy.

The attraction forms a critical part of Jamaica’s conservation programme under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

The principal factor which makes it vulnerable to total destruction by fire and other adverse invasions of the sanctuary is that it has not yet been isolated.

If it were, then it would immediately cease being a thoroughfare to the hinterlands of St Elizabeth and Westmoreland.

Moreover, the small farm holdings found on its outskirts are, at best, incongruous. These farmers must be served adequate relocation notices and the vacated lands used to house proper maintenance infrastructure for the attraction, as well as the establishment of a modern propagation nursery capable of augmenting and restocking for the maintenance of its critical plant density.

After this has been done, steps should then be made to reroute traffic, either adjacent to or around the attraction, so that it may be truly isolated.

The UDC could be charged to propose the design for its isolation and to make it a paid-access facility for viewers and researchers, as is the case with similar attractions around the world.

Enough said.

Derrick D Simon

Golden Spring, St Andrew

derrickdsimon@yahoo.com