MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE GRANTS PROSPECTING LICENSE FOR COCKPIT COUNTRY – ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS OUTRAGED

[Exile]

<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</SPAN><P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"></SPAN><P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE GRANTS PROSPECTING LICENSE FOR COCKPIT COUNTRY – ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS OUTRAGED</SPAN><P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-JM style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-JM></SPAN><H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Kingston</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">, Jamaica</SPAN></H1><P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-JM style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">December 14th, 2006</SPAN><P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-JM style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"></SPAN><P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-JM style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"> The Cockpit Country Stakeholders Group (CCSG) and the Jamaica Environmental Advocacy Network (JEAN) express outrage at the news that the Special Exclusive Prospecting License for parts of Cockpit Country has apparently been issued. </SPAN><P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in"><SPAN lang=EN-JM style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Earlier today, at a consultation on the National Minerals Policy at the Jamaica Conference Centre, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Donovan Stanberry, said the prospecting license had been issued.</SPAN><P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in"><SPAN lang=EN-JM style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Representatives from the Jamaica Environment Trust, Windsor Research Centre, the Farquharson Institute and the Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation walked out of the meeting in protest at this disregard of the wide range of public concerns expressed with regard to plans to prospect and mine in Cockpit Country.</SPAN><P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in"><SPAN lang=EN-JM style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">“We have written to every relevant government agency asking for information as to what is planned for Cockpit Country before the prospecting license was issued,” said Diana McCaulay, Chief Executive Officer of the Jamaica Environment Trust. “We have received no specific response. As recently as Wednesday of this week, the Executive Director of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute, Parris Lyew-Ayee, wrote to us saying he would contact us to set up a meeting. To learn that the license has been issued anyway is a clear indication of the disregard in which the Government of Jamaica holds the public.”</SPAN><P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in"><SPAN lang=EN-JM style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Cockpit Country is Jamaica ’s largest remaining area of primary forest, an internationally recognized biological treasure, and a region which sustains the water supply of most of western Jamaica . The CCSG has developed a map of Cockpit Country, showing the areas which should be closed to mining and prospecting and this too has been widely circulated, including being printed in the media.</SPAN><P class=MsoNormal style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in"><SPAN lang=EN-JM style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">“I had written to Donovan Stanberry and Minister Roger Clarke and discussed the matter personally

[Exile]

RE: MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE GRANTS PROSPECTING LICENSE FOR COCKPIT COUNTRY – ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS OUTRAGED

Site Admin,

Couldn't post on other site. See what you can do. But this is a MAJOR happening!!!

Exile

[Exile]

RE: MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE GRANTS PROSPECTING LICENSE FOR COCKPIT COUNTRY – ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS OUTRAGED

<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">From:</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"> NJCA [mailto:NJCA@cwjamaica.com]
<SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN> Thursday, December 14, 2006 12:44 PM
<SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN> NJCA
<SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN> THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
<SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Importance:</SPAN> High</SPAN><P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">Dear Colleagues in the Media,</SPAN><P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">If there was ever any doubt or confusion on the part of the Government of Jamaica as to the will of the Jamaican people concerning prospecting or mining of bauxite in the Cockpit Country (whether you mean its heart, core, edges, or environs; whether you define it by geology, geomorphology, terrain, landscape, wildlife, forests, soil, water, air, communities, history, culture or people) – the attached list of just the PUBLISHED views of Jamaicans and other world citizens here and in the Diaspora should have set them straight. </SPAN><P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">I could supply you with an equal number of unpublished letters, all saying the same thing: THERE SHOULD BE NO PROSPECTING OR MINING IN THE COCKPIT COUNTRY. Since September 2006 when environmental groups learned about Alcoa’s application to prospect in the Cockpit Country, literally hundreds of people and over 30 organisations have endorsed the call to CLOSE the Cockpit Country to prospecting and mining.</SPAN><P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">To issue a Prospecting Licence for the Cockpit Country, behind closed doors, after ignoring all inquiries from interested groups and while publicly going through the motions of a public consultation for a new National Minerals Policy for Jamaica, is the ultimate insult to the people of Jamaica and the process of governance. This arrogant and defiant act by the Minister of Agriculture confirms that transparency, accountability and democracy are all figments of the imagination of the Government of Jamaica.</SPAN><P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"></SPAN><P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">Yours truly,</SPAN><P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">Wendy Lee</SPAN><P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">Executive Director</SPAN><P class=MsoAutoSig><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Papyrus">Northern Jamaica</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Papyrus"> Conservation Association</SPAN><P class=MsoAutoSig><SPAN lang=EN-GB sty

[Assasin]

RE: MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE GRANTS PROSPECTING LICENSE FOR COCKPIT COUNTRY – ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS OUTRAGED

Bwoy it grieve mi heart fi see how them man yah do business.

I wonder how much money Alcoa contributed to the PNP campaign?

How can they do this knowing the effect on the environment as it relates to water supply and the environment?

Ahbwoy a better jus go a mi bed.

[MdmeX]

RE: MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE GRANTS PROSPECTING LICENSE FOR COCKPIT COUNTRY – ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS OUTRAGED

Them is a real damn SELL-OUT. Look how the citizens them PLEA with the Gov. not to do so!!

[MdmeX]

RE: MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE GRANTS PROSPECTING LICENSE FOR COCKPIT COUNTRY – ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS OUTRAGED

Assasin (12/14/2006)Bwoy it grieve mi heart fi see how them man yah do business.

I wonder how much money Alcoa contributed to the PNP campaign?

How can they do this knowing the effect on the environment as it relates to water supply and the environment?

Ahbwoy a better jus go a mi bed.

Yuh think them care one hell about the people who live in that area? Fi dem pocket done line with gold.

[Assasin]

RE: MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE GRANTS PROSPECTING LICENSE FOR COCKPIT COUNTRY – ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS OUTRAGED

the thing is, it is going to affect water resource in most of western and central Jamaica

You see how them destroy all the trees in the hills of Portland and the amount of Landslide and bruck way that you have up in the Rio Grande and Buff Bay valley now is too numerous.

After them dig up the land and mine it nothing can be done to the land again.

It is Ironic how the Bushman them can win them land back and we a take way fi we Bushman dem land. The only difference is the Botwana government was offering the Bushman them something but we nuh care at all.

[TDowl]

RE: MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE GRANTS PROSPECTING LICENSE FOR COCKPIT COUNTRY – ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS OUTRAGED

A few weeks back some people were up in arms about Dutty Wine mashing up the moral of Jamaican pickney dem, I identified the Re Reas camouflage, de old now yu si now yu don't, setdeh nuh, man dem a kill we heritage that we can't replace, plants animals, water source, and masses dem nuh full up the threadya.

So tell me posters which one is wosa Dutty Wine or destroying de Cockpit?

[Balla]

RE: MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE GRANTS PROSPECTING LICENSE FOR COCKPIT COUNTRY – ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS OUTRAGED

the way you guys spout off in ignorance is incredible - answer to you question is nothing

[Assasin]

RE: MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE GRANTS PROSPECTING LICENSE FOR COCKPIT COUNTRY – ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS OUTRAGED

a nuh mi one ignorant brethren

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Minister Clarke delays, but what's the truth?</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>
Sunday, December 17, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>We are happy that Mr Roger Clarke, the minister of agriculture and lands, has, at least for now, listened to the environmental lobby and has suspended the licences awarded to two bauxite companies to prospect for mineral deposits in the Cockpit Country.<P class=StoryText align=justify>For, as we argued in these columns last week, mining in the Cockpit Country would, without any doubt, result in serious damage to the eco-system and Jamaica would be divested of one of its best and most important national treasures.<P class=StoryText align=justify>According to Minister Clarke, he made the suspension order to facilitate a meeting this week with environmentalists, mining interests and the relevant government agencies.
Minister Clarke, we expect, will go into that meeting with the intention of trying to convince the environmentalists that their concerns that prospecting in the Cockpit Country would damage the area are unfounded.<P class=StoryText align=justify>He will, we expect, recite the government line that the people doing the prospecting will use modern technologies which will have no more impact on the area than those caused by the expedition of zoologists, botanists, geologists and bird watchers who, according to Mr Parris Lyew-Ayee, the executive director of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI), regularly go through the area.<P class=StoryText align=justify>We suggest to Minister Clarke, however, that he should prepare himself to tell the meeting, and the country in general, why these companies would be so interested in prospecting if, as the Government would like us to believe, they will have no opportunity to mine the area.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The whole idea of prospecting, we assume, is to determine the possible yield of mineral deposits and, if that is found to be suitable, move to the next stage - mining.
We doubt very much whether any private sector firm would invest in prospecting merely to lose that investment if their search uncovers large deposits of minerals from which they can profit.<P class=StoryText align=justify>We had hoped that Mr Lyew-Ayee would have clarified his statement last week which, to us, made it clear that the Government, while denying that it had plans to allow mining in the Cockpit Country, was thinking of doing the very opposite. For according to Mr Lyew-Ayee, "if the results from the exploration work are favourable, the earliest time foreseen for any mining there, is almost 20 years from now".
The Government is talking from both sides of its mouth on this issue and in the process is giving the impression that it has very little regard for the intelligence of the Jamaican people.
We share the general concern being expressed for the future of the Cockpit Country. It is an area that the Government should seek to protect rather than destroy.