The Forestry Department is today (July 28) seeking to clarify what it considers an ‘inaccurate’ retelling of a tense standoff between its personnel and Colonel Richard Currie and the Accompong Maroons, who attempted to prevent semi-processed Jamaican mahogany harvested by the enclave from being seized.

The department, an agency under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, said that acting on information its rangers unearthed an illegal logging operation in Lewis Patent, near Quickstep, Trelawny last Thursday (July 25).

The disputed site, according to the Forestry Department, purportedly falls within the boundaries of the Cockpit Country Protected Area where logging and timber operations are deemed unlawful.

At its shortest estimated distance, Accompong is two kilometres from the border of the parishes of St Elizabeth and Trelawny.

In its statement, the department disclosed that a team was dispatched to seize illegally harvested timber the following morning and was met with fierce opposition by residents and ‘illicit loggers’ themselves.

After hearing that the agency was en route, then packing up a truckload’s worth of timber hours prior, the aggrieved Maroons reportedly barricaded the Foresty Department team in the area, blocking their exit with trees and boulders after “significant illegal harvesting activities, including the cutting and conversion of Jamaican Mahogany trees into lumber” was discovered.

Comprising two agency vehicles and seven staff, the stranded team contacted the Forestry Department for assistance and a second unit was sent in tow, accompanied by the St Elizabeth Police.

Hours later that Friday night, the secondary team—including three service vehicles and eight Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) personnel—were pelted with stones from the surrounding hills when they sought to clear the blockage. The Forestry Department disclosed that both teams spent the “night on-site, awaiting further assistance”.

Aid arrived in the form of a Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) team around 5:30 am the following Saturday, which provided support to retrieve Forestry Department personnel after two-and-a-half hours.

The agency added that its vehicles were left behind, pending additional state resources.

Only with the combined efforts of the JCF, JDF, and Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB), were all state officers and equipment eventually retrieved.

The growing convoy now attempted to once again leave the area around 5:30 pm when it was impeded in Quickstep Square by a group of residents.

“They (residents) attempted to illegally claim the seized lumber and obstruct the police. The superintendent on site successfully ensured the safe departure of the Forestry Department personnel and the evidence, which has been secured in Kingston for further investigation,” the department statement indicated.

Maroons offer different tale

On the other side of the dispute, Colonel Currie, in a series of social media posts, blasted what he called ‘wanton corruption’ within the Government.

While not denying Maroon logging, Currie insisted that they were operating on their lands and, as the Indigenous peoples of the area, are not beholden to the laws of Jamaica with respect to the use of natural resources. Instead, in a sharp reversal of the allegations, he levied the illegal claims against the department.

Accompong’s chief, while claiming that the Forestry Department is ‘destroying what it should be protecting’, added that it has a long-established arrangement where it sold lumber to the Government through a third-party firm.

Our Today could not immediately verify this information nor did Currie name the third party in his Instagram video.

The enclave leader started his first livestream Saturday evening lamenting the massive security presence in Quickstep when he showed up to “de-escalate a situation”, only to be told he needed to follow lawmen to the police station.

Currie said for years, nefarious interests have been lumbering the Cockpit Country Forest Reserve and questioned what the Forestry Department has to do with rare Jamaican Mahogany.

He lambasted Superintendent Coleridge Minto, head of the St Elizabeth Police, who Currie alleged ‘has no regard for the Maroons or the law’ with his facilitation of the “pilferage of mahogany and the lumbering of Cockpit Country”.

“Someone needs to inform Superintendent Minto about the rights of Indigenous people, about the Maroons of Cockpit Country, about the protection of the so-called forestry zone that they themselves are assisting persons to take lumber out of Quickstep and profit from it,” said the Accomong leader.

“Unnu see dem? A me dem come fah. Yuh see dem? But dem nuh know what mistake dem making because I’m saying to them ‘I am here to de-escalate’ but every day unnu find a way fi turn me inna di criminal,” added Currie.

Lamenting how the community remains without critical services since the passage of Hurricane Beryl, the Accompong chief is adamant he will not rest as agents of the State come into Indigenous territory and abuse their rights.

Currie argued ‘it is well-known’ that mahogany from Quickstep is stamped before it can leave the area, a claim the police say they have no knowledge of.

Indeed, a third Instagram video posted by Currie of the residents removing mahogany timber from one of the Forestry Department service vehicles shows ‘AT’ brands at the base on several logs—seemingly attributing Accompong Town as its processor.

In his second, pre-dawn video, a still-upset Currie concluded that Jamaica is “riddled with corruption and dirty people who claim to be the protector (sic)”.

“These people are agents of corruption and I’m going to show it and paint it to unnu fi unnu see. The Forestry [Department] is the one lumbering our forests, this is a long-standing issue. Quickstep is not a playpen for the Forestry Department to decide what to lumber, when to lumber [or] who to lumber,” he declared.

Continuing, Currie said he was contacted by Superintendent Minto to look into a ‘disturbance’, to which the chief replied that Accompong remained without cellular reception but would investigate reports of persons being blocked in.

In his account of the matter, the Maroon leader acknowledged meeting the multi-agency convoy in Quickstep Square, where Minto expressed his disappointment with the standoff.

Currie retorted that a similar lumbering-related issue sprang up two years before and asked the senior cop whether he was aware of the Jamaican Government’s refusal to recognise the area’s desire for self-determination.

He cast doubt on the mandate of the Forestry Department, asking whether the entity was into sustainable stewardship or profiteering.

“It is the same thing with bauxite! We declare a protected area and then leave off a likkle piece and then grant prospective licences. So is it protectionism or exploitation under the guise of protectionism? What is the Forestry Department doing with thousands of foot of mahogany and why is Superintendent Minto escorting them out without a stamp? Without due process on this situation? (sic)” he queried.

Our Today understands that Currie has since been listed as a ‘person of interest’ by the JCF.