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.

Because much of the hydrological connectivity is based on underground passages and fissures, water transport systems in this karst region are highly prone to damage through in-filling, siltation, and rafting of solid waste. These changes manifest themselves as reduced flow and reduced water quality at the downstream risings, as well as flooding in the upstream catchments.Over time, as a result of bauxite mining we could expect an altered flow regime and changes in drainage patterns, as recharge of the aquifer below is reduced and overland flow becomes more dominant. The likely consequences: flooding of heretofore safe areas and a reduction in the volume of major rivers flowing from Cockpit Country, compromising the water supplies for the western half of Jamaica’s north coast.Other potential risks to water resources include increased turbidity (cloudiness of water) from erosion of cleared and excavated land, hydrocarbon contamination through fuel spills from vehicles and machinery, and pathogen contamination (e.g. coliform bacteria) due to increased human activity in the area or through the relocation of communities into low-lying areas closer to the aquifer.

All of these factors are likely to lead to increased costs of providing clear, potable water to consumers.

It is clear that no matter what approach is taken to the reclamation of mined lands, the biological diversity would be lost forever. And if bauxite mining were allowed even on the edges of the Cockpit Country, the region would soon be opened up to logging and limestone quarrying on a scale unprecedented in the history of Jamaica.

Couldn’t they mine just a small piece of it or at least do some prospecting?

We believe that Cockpit Country in its totality is an independent, self-contained and self-regulated ecosystem, which will be severely altered and very likely destroyed in its entirety by even small amounts of bauxite mining or indeed by prospecting for bauxite mining.

Due to the real risk of damage from prospecting, and given the global significance of the area, we are insisting that NO PROSPECTING be allowed prior to a comprehensive Environmental and Social Impact Assessment being conducted by a qualified and reputable team. The study must be independent, transparent and publicly accessible.

We have as members of our group a number of respected scientists who have contributed to this Campaign, and we are confident that our analysis as presented here would be supported by the relevant biological and socio-economic studies and inventories that would have to be conducted to determine the long-term costs and benefits, for the Jamaican people, of allowing bauxite mining in the area.

Compared to bauxite mining, what are the benefits of keeping Cockpit Country intact?

To answer this question we have to first ask, who benefits from bauxite mining?  Apart from the mining company and its relatively small work force, and Central Government, it is not clear who will benefit from mining in Cockpit Country. If we take the communities of southwest St. Ann or rural Clarendon as examples of the consequences of mining, the destruction of this unique landscape is sure to have detrimental impacts on the people living in and around the area. The rural residents, mainly small farmers, will lose their family lands and traditional livelihoods and be relocated to barren, mined-out areas with highly questionable agricultural potential.

The biological diversity and cultural heritage is of irreplaceable value nationally and internationally. The CCSG is working with scientists from the University of the West Indies and from abroad to explore and assess the biological resources of Cockpit Country to Jamaica and the world.

The historical and archaeological heritage of the Cockpit Country is virtually an untapped resource. It is a sad but true observation that “culture, at times, is perceived as expendable in the context of development.”*

We must not let this happen in the Cockpit Country.

Compared with mining, which is the extraction of a non-renewable resource at the expense of all other productive land uses, there are several alternative uses of Cockpit Country, which can be sustainable if properly managed: ecotourism, cultural tourism, health tourism, educational tourism, and scientific exploration, as well as careful harvesting of natural products for nutritional and medicinal purposes.

These activities can be undertaken by local people assisted by professionals from Jamaica and elsewhere. The people of the communities in and around Cockpit Country will make a living and a profit from these activities, and the people of Jamaica and the foreign visitors (who already know of the area) will enjoy themselves whilst contributing directly to the local economy.

For the wider population of western and northern Jamaica, protecting the Cockpit Country forests means protecting their water supply – a very tangible benefit.

Tourism is already Jamaica's Number One source of foreign exchange. Jamaica is known and appreciated the world over as a prime tourism destination. Tourism – if carefully planned and developed with real, quality-of-life benefits in mind for local people – is renewable and sustainable.
Bauxite mining is non-renewable, final and therefore not sustainable.

Jamaica is facing a choice between conserving and managing Cockpit Country as a world-class tropical forest and wildlife reserve – a UNESCO World Heritage Site enjoyed by thousands of locals and visitors every year for generations to come – or a sterile wasteland of so-called restored pits, with a few goats and cows grazing under the scorching sun, its biodiversity and cultural heritage permanently erased.

We have the full support of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association on this Campaign, and if Jamaica has to choose between unsustainable bauxite mining and sustainable tourism, so be it.

*The Impact of Land-based Development on Taino Archaeology in Jamaica, by Andrea Richards, pp.75-86 in The Earliest Inhabitants: the dynamics of the Jamaican Taino, edited by Lesley-Gail Atkinson, UWI Press, 2006.

What is the CCSG doing?

The Cockpit Country Stakeholders Group (CCSG) is seeking information - we want to know exactly what is planned for Cockpit Country and where. We fear that if any mining is allowed, this will be used as a precursor to more extensive mining. We are concerned that investors will require an adequate return on their investment, and will therefore want to mine as widely as possible.

We know that in some, if not all, mining agreements the Jamaican Government provides the mining companies with entitlements to specified amounts of bauxite and guarantees them additional land if the land covered by the mining rights does not contain sufficient levels of commercially exploitable bauxite.

We have written to the Commissioner of Mines, the Chairman of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute and the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands requesting information on what is planned for Cockpit Country. We have so far not received a definitive reply. We have also copied our letters to the Minister of Local Government and the Environment, the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA), and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).
We have also embarked on a public education campaign on the Cockpit Country. So far this issue has been covered by local radio and the print media, and there have been several articles about the biological assets of Cockpit Country in the Miami Herald.

We are preparing a legal opinion on the legal and regulatory framework and hope this will be completed by the end of November 2006. We have sought information under the Access to Information Act as to the track record of bauxite companies in restoring mined out lands.