Economic Valuation of Cockpit Country, Jamaica
(with funding from MacArthur Foundation)

Program Description
Goals and Objectives

Jamaica's Cockpit Country is recognized nationally and internationally for its unique biodiversity, its cultural heritage, and for the ecosystem services it provides to central-west Jamaica, including serving as the source waters of four watersheds.
This ecosystem is under imminent threat from bauxite mining and limestone quarrying. In the past, Government of Jamaica (GoJ) has not considered indirect costs such as loss of biodiversity, risks to ecosystem services and costs to communities, in its decision process, which emphasizes short-term, foreign exchange benefits. The overall goal of this project and is enhanced conservation of the Cockpit Country ecosystem -a hotspot within the Caribbean Biodiversity Hotspot- and its dependent watersheds through an integrated program of stakeholder capacity-building and research contributing to an economic valuation of the ecosystem and cultural services supplied by an intact Cockpit Country to current and future generations. Underpinning the program is effective sharing of all information so as to contribute positively to policy makers' decisions concerning activities in Cockpit Country, including bauxite mining.
Valuing ecosystem services: conducting an economic valuation of ecosystem and cultural services, and other sustainably-derived benefits of Cockpit Country, undertaken in relation to the costs and benefits of mining. This strategy will bring a new dimension to improving the governance of natural resources on Jamaica by: (a) improving the understanding of decision-makers as to the costs of damaging or destroying what are typically considered the 'free' and 'non-market' services of an intact Cockpit Country ecosystem; and (b) serving as a Case Study, both to build local capacity in conducting natural resource valuations and to promote valuation as a tool for improving environmental impact assessments conducted in sensitive habitats across Jamaica, and, indeed, the Caribbean Basin.

  1. Project Oversight
    1. Establish a Cockpit Country Evaluation Project Committee to guide the process; the committee presently includes representatives from Government (Forestry Department), Academic (University of the West Indies-Department of Economics (UWI-Econ), and Non-Government Organizations (WRC, JET) but will be expanded, as necessary.
  2. Design Cockpit Country Valuation Study
    1. Conduct literature review, experts consultations, and gap analysis via e-mail, telephone etc. to develop a list of ecological and cultural services that an intact Cockpit Country can provide for current and future generations.
    2. Convene a meeting with each of the three Cockpit Country LFMCs for community inputs into the ecosystem services list.
    3. Categorize the list of services, such as those that can be traded on an open-market (e.g. water services) and those for which there is no product substitute (e.g. endemic species).
    4. Conduct an Experts Workshop to review and select appropriate market and non-market valuation approach(es) for each service category.
    5. Prepare and publish workshop proceedings, which will include review of valuation methodologies (strengths and weaknesses), gaps where new methodologies may need to be developed, and defining the scope of work for a Cockpit Country Valuation Case Study.
  3. Conduct an economic valuation case study of Cockpit Country, which will include a dataset associated with ecosystem goods and services, natural resource commodities, opportunity costs of environmental damage arising from land degradation, among others; the team conducting the case study will include an experienced external consultant to assist in building local professional capacity, faculty from UWI-Econ, and a minimum of two graduate students.
    1. Acquire new data, as defined in the proceedings of the Experts Workshop.
    2. Analyze data and validate selected valuation methods through comparison of results with similar projects in other parts of the world.
  4. Public presentation of valuation case study results.
    1. Present preliminary results of the valuation to the three Cockpit Country LFMCs in a focus-group setting.
    2. Hold a symposium to review preliminary results of the case study.
    3. Prepare and publish symposium proceedings, along with an Executive Summary for decision makers.
  5. Institutionalize 'Ecosystems Valuation' for integration into the decision-making frameworks of natural resource management.
    1. Develop a reading course for UWI, with the Cockpit Country Case Study, so that the relatively new discipline of Ecosystems Valuation is integrated into the curriculum of the departments of Economics and Life Sciences.
    2. Conduct a workshop, to include Forestry Department, National Environment and Planning Agency, and Water Resources Authority, on ecosystem valuation techniques to integrate valuation into Forest Management Plans across Jamaica.
  6. Dissemination and public awareness
    1. Prepare and distribute pamphlet of Case Study results for the general public, highlighting the values of Cockpit Country along with what will be the first-ever multi-generational assessment of the environmental and social 'costs' factored against the 'benefits' of bauxite mining in Jamaica.
    2. Disseminate information at the national level via print, radio, and television (e.g, press kits, press conferences)
    3. Present final results at the local level to the Cockpit Country LFMCs
    4. Present results to decision makers in meetings with Government, including Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Jamaica Bauxite Institute, and Mines and Geology Division.
    5. Present results to professionals and the wider NGO community through e-fora and professional conferences (e.g. Jamaica Institute of Environmental Professionals bi-annual conference)
    6. Results made available through partner websites and linked to national and international collaborators, including the Jamaica Environmental Advocacy Network (JEAN) and BirdLife International.
    7. Manuscripts prepared for publication in appropriate peer-reviewed journals and for popular literature, such as Birds Caribbean Newsletter.

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