DAYS after numbers provided by the Forestry Department showed that Jamaica has lost more than 260 acres of its forest reserve to fires in the past five years, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has indicated that the country is on track to meet and exceed the goal of protecting 30 per cent of its land mass by 2030.

According to Holness, 25 per cent of Jamaica’s land mass has already been protected, up from eight per cent in 2016.

This aligns with the 30×30 initiative under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

The framework is a landmark international agreement adopted at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

It led to the adoption of the framework, including the 30×30 initiative to protect 30 per cent of land and marine areas by 2030, with more than 190 countries committing to this goal.

Speaking during the National Labour Day Project at Mason River Environmental and Research Park in Clarendon on Friday, Holness indicated that much work has been undertaken to protect forestry areas and mangroves.

“We gave 14 new forestry orders, protecting forestry areas… declared the Cockpit Country Protected Area and… declared the Black River Protected Area. We intend to protect the mangroves in southern Clarendon, and we are going to be declaring the Long Mountain area in Kingston as a reserve,” said Holness.

He noted that Jamaica’s marine protection has reached 14 per cent and underscored that this will increase with the implementation of the Marine Spatial Plan, and the expansion of marine protected areas.

“Jamaica led the global lobbying effort as part of the high ambition coalition to secure a worldwide commitment to protect 30 per cent of land and marine areas by 2030,” added Holness as he pointed out that the Government is actively strengthening and modernising policies to safeguard Jamaica’s vital environmental assets.

He indicated that the Beach Access and Management Policy is nearing completion and will soon be shared with the public.

“I believe that [this] policy will solve many of the issues [arising],” declared Holness.

The prime minister also indicated that the National Swamp and Fresh Water Policy is being revised.

“We are currently working on the overarching protected areas policy and that will help us to declare some areas as sensitive areas, which would be another step towards protecting more of Jamaica’s environmental assets,” said Holness who pointed out that the Cays Management Policy will also be enhanced.

“Jamaica has many little islands around it [for] which we really haven’t put in place a structure as to how we are going to manage them. But those are critical environmental assets and that [structure] is towards moving to the blue economy,” said Holness as he highlighted Jamaica’s achievement of several significant environmental milestones.

“We have completed the National Biosafety Policy, we have completed the Emissions Policy Framework [and] we have upgraded our Climate Change Policy to make it more aligned with the Paris Declaration.

“We have [also] upgraded our Watershed Policy, we have upgraded our Forestry Policy, we have upgraded our Hazardous Waste Management Policy [and] we have upgraded our Environmental Management Systems,” he outlined.

Labour Day was observed this year under the theme: ‘Protect the Environment: Our Land, Our Duty, Our Future’, and the slogan: ‘Jamaica Nice, Protect Wi Paradise’.

The prime minister’s announcements came days after data from the Forestry Department show that, in 2020, 16 acres of the forest reserve were destroyed by fires. That number jumped to 22.61 acres in 2021 and 31.13 acres in 2022.

Additionally, 38.62 acres of the forest reserve were destroyed by fire in 2023, and that figure almost tripled in 2024 to 104.42 acres.

May 23, 2025

Already, with seven months left in the year, 52.48 acres of the forest reserve have been destroyed by fire up to May 6.

But despite the fires in the forest reserve the island’s overall forest cover has actually increased based on satellite data and light detection and ranging (LiDar) technology.