QUESTION: What will happen if bauxite mining is allowed?
There are three phases to any mining operation - the exploration or prospecting phase, the mining itself, and post-mining reclamation.
Considerable damage can be done in the prospecting phase, because at the very least, roads are needed to bring drilling equipment in. It is a cause for concern that, under current Jamaican law, prospecting does not require an environmental permit. The mining phase would require a more extensive road network, and all the vegetation on the surface of the land where bauxite deposits occur would be removed. Apart from the complete destruction of living resources that would result from the removal of surface vegetation and bauxite deposits, this would cause increased surface run-off and possibly impeded infiltration to the groundwater.
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 Cockpit Country is invaluable for many endemic Jamaican plants and animals as their last undisturbed refuge. It shelters unique flora and fauna that are threatened by a range of human activities, including illegal hunting of birds for food and for the pet trade, unsustainable collecting of rare species of plants, extensive logging for yam sticks and timber, and the conversion of forest to agriculture.
Forest clearance not only reduces the overall size of the forest and opens it up to external threats, but the associated fragmentation facilitates the spread of harmful non-native plants and animals. Clearing of the forest occurs most along the edges of the Cockpit Country made accessible by roads, which are among the greatest threats to the area's ecosystem.
Roads facilitate illegal logging and open up corridors to sunlight and airflow, thus altering the microclimates of the cockpits. Since the flora and fauna of Cockpit Country are adapted to very high humidity, it is very important that these conditions be maintained, or many plants and animals will not survive even in remaining patches of forest. Frogs and butterflies are particularly dependent on the high humidity of the undisturbed cockpits and cave systems.
Roads also allow access to poachers. Plant collectors have caused the extinction in the wild of Cockpit Country's only endemic cactus, Mammillaria jamaicensis, less than three years after the species was first described in 2003. A collection in Jamaica houses all the known individuals of this species, just 35 plants, grown from seeds.
The illegal capture of Jamaican parrots for the pet trade threatens their survival in the wild, and snakes such as the endemic Jamaican Boa or Yellow Snake (Epicrates subflavus) are often killed on sight because of the mistaken belief that they are poisonous, even though there are no poisonous snakes in Jamaica.
Most significantly, however, Cockpit Country is now threatened by BAUXITE MINING.
Alcoa Minerals of Jamaica and Clarendon Alumina Production have applied for the renewal of a Special Exclusive Prospecting Licence, first granted in May 2004, to exclusively prospect for bauxite within an extremely large area of western Jamaica, including most of the Cockpit Country.
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The Cockpit Country is a rugged, forested area of western Jamaica, rich in biodiversity and cultural heritage. The area encompasses the largest remaining intact wet limestone forest in Jamaica, which is of outstanding ecological importance to the island. Its landscape of steep-sided hills and deep, round valleys eroded from the limestone bedrock is the world's most outstanding example of karst topography.
This reservoir of globally significant natural and cultural resources has been earmarked for bauxite mining by the local subsidiary of the multi-national minerals company, ALCOA.
Due to its remoteness and inaccessibility, most of the Cockpit Country has been insufficiently studied. Each scientific expedition reveals more of the natural wonders of this "biodiversity hotspot" and the secrets of its human history.
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Legislation relevant to bauxite mining in Jamaica includes:
- The Mining Act, 1947
- The Mining Regulations, 1947
- The Natural Resources Conservation Authority Act, 1996
- The Natural Resources (Prescribed Areas) (Prohibition of Categories of Enterprise, Construction and Development) Order, 1996
- The Natural Resources Conservation (Permits and Licences) (Amendment) Regulations, 2004
An application for the renewal of a Special Exclusive Prospecting Licence is made to the Minister of Agriculture and Lands through the Commissioner of Mines. The duration of the Special Exclusive Prospecting Licence and the extent of the area it covers is determined by the Minister.
Although 22,327 hectares of Cockpit Country is a designated Forest Reserve, prospecting or mining bauxite can be done within a forest reserve, once the required prospecting licence or mining lease is obtained. Few lands are excluded from mining or prospecting under the Mining Act and notwithstanding these named exclusions, the Commissioner of Mines may consent to mining or prospecting in those areas.
Although an Environmental Permit from The Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) is required for mining, there is no such requirement for prospecting.
The holder of a prospecting licence is entitled to apply for a mining lease. However, the Minister may give permission to an applicant for a mining lease to mine an area prior to the granting of the actual lease.
The Minister has the power, under the Mining Act, to declare an area closed to prospecting or mining. However, this does not apply to an area for which a prospecting licence or mining lease has been granted and is in effect. In addition, the Minister can reopen the area to mining or prospecting after declaring it closed.
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Cockpit Country 
