Environmentalists Say Study On Islands To Be Used As Jamaica’s Logistics Hub Is Flawed

KINGSTON, Jamaica CMC – Environmental groups, here, have said that a recently released environmental study on the use of the area being targeted for the location of a logistics hub is flawed.

Representatives from the Jamaica Environment Trust, the Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation and the Jamaica Conservation Development Trust have argued that the Environmental Management scoping study on the use of Goat Islands, located off Jamaica’s south coast displays a bias towards the development of the logistics hub and therefore its contents are faulty.

“There was very little actual visitation on the island except on the outskirts, a stroll through the woods on Goat Islands is actually insufficient to provide you with information on what’s happening in the forest itself” said Brandon Haye, Scientific officer at the Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation.

The study concluded that the natural resources on Goat Islands located in the Portland Bight Protected Area are so degraded, that there is nothing much worth protecting. It also makes a case for creating a site, to replant mangroves and to relocate species.

The study is expected to guide the development of a framework agreement between the government and Chinese investors, for the use of the Goat Islands as a logistics hub.

Since an announcement that was made in August by Environment Minister, Robert Pickersgill, about Goat Islands being considered as the site of a logistics hub to be built by the Chinese Government, environmentalists have been up in arms about the plan, arguing that any form of industrialization of the islands will have a devastating impact.

However, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller told supporters at the ruling People’s National Party’s (PNP) conference in September that  several important landmarks, including the two international airports, would not have been built had the Government of the day listened to the critics.

The Logistics Hub Initiative forms part of the Government’s strategic priorities for 2013/14 and beyond, particularly in the area of job creation and economic growth.