Vice’s new Cockpit Country documentary wracks up massive online views
/ Our Today
administratorThe Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) has welcomed the recent release of new Vice News’ documentary entitled ‘The Fight Against a US Mining Company in Jamaica Continues’, which, as of May 2 -12 days after its release – has more than 200,000 views and over 1,000 comments.
This documentary is a follow up to Vice News’ ‘Jamaica for Sale’, released in August 2021, which now has more than three million views on YouTube.
Both films give voice to many residents, including farmers, who describe the negative environmental and social impacts of bauxite mining.
The newly released film highlights the concerns of many residents who are now going to be affected by mining under the recently permitted Special Mining Lease (SML) 173. Residents were pleading with the government to avoid mining due to the impacts on their health, livelihoods and food supply.
After many years of advocacy and at least seven proposed boundaries, on March 17, 2022, Prime Minister Andrew Holness finally legally declared the Cockpit Country Protected Area (CCPA).
The gazetted CCPA is 78,024 hectares, while the Cockpit County Stakeholder Group (CCSG) Boundary, widely accepted by most stakeholders as the correct boundary is 116,218 hectares.
The newly declared CCPA is approximately 32 per cent smaller and excludes important areas, including that covered by SML 173 and other areas under Special Exclusive Prospective License (SEPL) 541 and SEPL 643.
Of particular concern to JET is the Rio Bueno watershed which is within the boundary of SML 173 and may very likely be impacted.
In the film, Minister of Transport & Mining Audley Shaw stated that mining only takes place in pockets and not the entire area.
In response, JET CEO Dr Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie said: “Mining in valleys spread over 1,300 hectares also requires a network of haulage roads, which opens up access to formerly inaccessible places and leads to the well documented degradation and fragmentation of forests as well as loss of biological diversity. These ‘pockets’ of land are also where farmers grow their crops.”
The minister also stated that the Government of Jamaica will not lock down the bauxite-alumina industry but focus instead on the interests of the farmers and citizens.
In response, Rodriguez-Moodie said: “All Jamaicans, including those in rural communities, have a constitutional right to a healthy environment and bauxite mining and processing threatens that right. The bauxite-alumina industry is extractive and unsustainable and the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) should not support, invest in or encourage an industry whose social costs far outweigh the economic benefits.”
The CCPA does not include a buffer zone and JET remains concerned that this means mining, quarrying or prospecting would be allowed right up to the boundary with adverse implications for public health and biological diversity.
JET is hopeful that the Vice News documentary will continue to raise awareness of the costs of bauxite mining, including convincing the Government to prepare an urgent bauxite-alumina transition strategy for Jamaica.
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