Cockpit Country is a rugged, forested area of western Jamaica, rich in biological diversity and home to the Leeward Maroons. The wet limestone forest of Cockpit Country is Jamaica’s largest remaining primary forest and a refuge for rare Jamaican animals such as the Black-billed parrot (scientific name) and the Giant Swallowtail butterfly (scientific name). At least 66 plants are found only in Cockpit Country. Its landscape of steep-sided hills and deep, closed valleys eroded from the limestone bedrock is an outstanding example of karst topography.

Due to its remoteness and inaccessibility, most of Cockpit Country has been insufficiently studied. While the “Land of Look Behind” is famous in Jamaican history, each scientific expedition reveals more natural wonders of this “biodiversity hotspot” and secrets of its Taino and Maroon heritage.

• Cockpit Country Fact Sheet

In late 2006, JET became aware that a prospecting license for bauxite had been issued for part of Cockpit Country by the Government of Jamaica (GOJ). Working with Windsor Research Centre in northern Cockpit Country, the Jamaica Environmental Advocacy Network and the newly formed Cockpit Country Stakeholders Group, JET launched a campaign to protect Cockpit Country from bauxite mining. Elements of the campaign included a petition, which was delivered to the Prime Minister in 2007, a media blitz, letter writing campaign, a short documentary film entitled “Cockpit Country: Voices from Jamaica’s Heart,” Access to Information requests to discover the boundaries of the various licenses that had been granted, the development of the boundary proposed for protection, numerous public presentations, and the development of a document on the legal framework for bauxite mining. Within a few months, the Minister of Agriculture had suspended all prospecting licenses in Cockpit Country, as a result of the campaign and associated public outcry.

The GOJ then commissioned a study to establish the boundaries of Cockpit Country in early 2007. Although the study has long been completed, it has never been released to the public. JET and other groups have continued to meet with Government officials to get this unique natural resource closed to mining.

Cockpit Country website:
http://www.cockpitcountry.org

Save Cockpit Country petition site:

www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-cockpit-country-jamaica