Cockpit Country is a mountainous, forested area of western Jamaica, rich in biodiversity and home to the Leeward Maroons of Jamaica. Its landscape of steep-sided hills and deep, round valleys eroded from the limestone bedrock is an outstanding example of karst topography. 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 and the Giant Swallow-tail butterfly, and more than 60 endemic plants. 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. A renewed interest in prospecting for bauxite and limestone in the Cockpit Country has sparked a campaign led by a wide cross-section of local and overseas Jamaicans - the Cockpit Country Stakeholders' - to protect this unique area. Mining in Cockpit Country would destroy the natural, cultural and archaeological resources of Cockpit Country that are virtually untapped as a source of sustainable livelihoods, especially eco- and heritage tourism, for many rural communities of Jamaica.
1. We call on the Prime Minister of Jamaica to ensure that the Cockpit Country and environs, as described by the Cockpit Country Stakeholders%u2019 Group, is declared CLOSED to mining and commercial prospecting.
2. We urge the Government of Jamaica to take steps to declare the Cockpit Country a Protected National Area as a matter of priority, as stipulated in the 1997 Policy for a National System of Protected Areas in Jamaica.
3. As organisations and individuals interested in the conservation of Jamaica%u2019s unique natural and cultural heritage, we wish to see the Cockpit Country protected and managed as a World Heritage Site.
