File
Downed banana trees on the St Mary Banana Estate following the passage of Hurricane Dean last August.
Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
ADVOCATES OF climate-proof development worry about the possible economic fallout if Government and stakeholders do not move urgently to negotiate affordable insurance to protect the critical sectors of agriculture and tourism from the ill effects of adverse weather. This is critical, they argue, because the probability of a hurricane strike on the island has risen in recent times from one in 16 years to one in three years, due to global climate change.
Climate-proofing involves the adaptation of the natural and built environment to withstand or minimise the adverse effects of climate change. Local environmentalists and development experts lament that successive governments have not enforced legislation and policies to guide development, including a master plan that was developed for the tourism sector in 2000.
Rapped government
Furthermore, they rap Government for moving too slowly to create conservatories to protect forests, mangroves and coral reefs, which, they claim, play a vital role in easing drought, as well as in protecting beaches.
Agriculture and tourism contributed 5.9 per cent and 7.3 per cent of gross domestic product in 2006, respectively, according to the Planning Institute of Jamaica. In 2004, the agricultural sector was devastated by hurricanes Charley and Ivan, wiping out 100 per cent of banana production and costing the sector $85 billion in damage. Costs were exacerbated by damage caused by hurricanes Emily and Dennis in 2005 and $3.7 billion worth of damage by Hurricane Dean again in 2007.
Several hotels suffered similar fate, not receiving remuneration for damage caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. That hurricane left $888 million in damage to the tourism sector, which experienced further dislocation by Hurricane Dean last year.
"If we are going to get more and larger hurricanes, we need to ask about the impact on sectors like agriculture, the finance and insurance sector. Globally, it is that sector (insurance) that has joined hands with small island developing states," notes Franklin McDonald, director of the Institute for Sustainable Development at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies.
"It is very clear that we need to have a conversation with the insurance industry in this island, how they are going to help us, because they are a very important players in the discussion on climate change," he tells The Sunday Gleaner.
Director General of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, Ronald Jackson, supports McDonald, adding that the country's main foreign-exchange earner, tourism, needs protection.
He says while the Government should move to diversify the tourism product to allow for more attractions and activities away from the coast, it must look towards protecting those hotels and attractions that currently depend on the beach.
"We really need to look at what we are doing on the coastline, because if your insurance does not take that into account, then there is very little you can do to transfer that risk from the individual property," states Jackson.
Premiums skyrocketed
Former head of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association, Horace Peterkin, says while some of the larger hotels are insured against flood damage, premiums have skyrocketed with the increase in natural events. There are many small hotels, too, that are not insured.
"Some hotel groups like Sandals can't afford to take out an insurance because the coverage is so high," says Peterkin, who is general manager for Sandals Montego Bay. "When you have a group of hotels, it costs you hundreds of thousands of US dollars and some groups would probably just have a self-insurance where, rather than just pay to a company, they put it in an account and draw from that whenever they have a situation," he adds.
Tourism and agriculture are not the only sectors for which climate-proof advocates are calling for greater protection.
One of the country's two major airports also faces the risk of being cut off from the mainland as a result of a rise in sea level, increased incidence of natural disasters, and poor sea-defence maintenance.
"We need to take adaptation measures to protect our capital investments so that we don't slide back. Look at the (Norman Manley International) airport; it is just a matter of time as to when we will get cut off," Minh Pham, United Nations Development Programme resident representative, tells a recent Gleaner Editors' forum.
McDonald, who is also a former director of the Natural Resources Conservation Authority, is chiding successive governments for being lax in maintaining groins and sea defences to protect the Palisadoes peninsula, which connects Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the mainland. According to him, the former Public Works Department bore responsibility for maintenance of sea defence, but since its restructuring into the National Works Agency, it lost the responsibility.
"The National Works Agency is very clear that its mandate is to fix the roads; we don't know about sea- defence works," says McDonald.
The Government spent millions to rehabilitate the Palisadoes roadway in February, putting up boulders to the east of the strip as a barrier against the battering waves. Environmentalists are sceptical about how long that barrier will hold.
gareth.manning@gleanerjm.com
