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Jamaica has approximately 88,000
hectares remaining in what can be classified as
relatively undisturbed forest cover of tropical
hardwoods and rain forests. Over the years, we have
witnessed the disappearance of much of our forests
much of today being little more than uneconomic
woodlands, interspersed with bamboo, pastures and
abandoned cultivations. Vast amounts of once
productive agricultural lands have also become ‘idle
and underutilized’.
The Forestry Department was recently
strengthened with the assistance of UNDP and CIDA’s
Trees for Tomorrow Project and launched the National
Forest Management and Conservation Plan (NFMCP) in
2002. The National Forest Management and
Conservation Plan (NFMCP) proposes a number of
initiatives to reverse the trends of forest
depletion and degradation and recognizes that local,
bilateral and multi-national assistance is largely
available only to non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) with the kind of objectives and expertise
offered by TFC.
At the same time, the Forestry
Department is under-going a paradigm shift that will
substantially reduce its implementing role, and
although there are already some NGOs pursuing
specific forestry-related concerns (e.g.: Dolphin
Head Trust, Jamaica Conservation and Development
Trust), until TFC, there was none that focused
specifically on conservation and development of
forests.
TFC intends to concentrate its
attention on large and small private properties,
particularly some 60,000 hectares of idle or
underutilized agricultural lands, as well as the
69,244 hectares identified by the Plan as having
potential for reforestation.
TFC has therefore targeted the owners
of these holdings and proposed a pilot
Afforestation Programme based on Teak and other
elite hardwood timbers so as to increase commercial
wood production and thereby relieve the pressure for
wood on the depleted forest resources for wood and
wood products. In pursuing its stated goal, TFC will
partner with the Forestry Department in
strengthening stakeholder participation in forestry
programmes.
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