The Editor, Sir:

As we seek to mop up our 'labour liquidity', and discourage the palm-rubbers across the country, the authorities should look to using petty criminals as a reforestation work force to immediately reforest the slopes of our watersheds. This has to be a national priority, as we are fast becoming the next Haiti in terms of destructive, uninformed, poverty-driven deforestation.

While we are at it, couldn't we plant, along with the indigenous species (no more Caribbean Pine, please!), and fast-growing (rescue) species, some trees that would provide a economic/medicinal benefits at harvest/maturity? The neem tree comes to mind. It can be used to rehabilitate the limestone pits left behind by bauxite mining, as the plant tolerates limestone-rich soils better than all other species, and aids in rapid restoration of the remaining, thin, top soil.

In the battle against insect pests, researchers are turning to naturally occurring pesticides; the Neem tree, for one, has been a staple of traditional Indian folk medicine for eons. A modified neem seed extract developed by W.R. Grace & Co of Boca Raton, Florida, is used to eradicate pesky whiteflies. Harmless to humans, the extract, called Margosan-O, stops targeted insects from feeding and repels them from treated plants. (It is also sold under the name, Neem, by the Ringer Corp)

Even more important, one component of the extract, a chemical called Azadirachtin, mimics a crucial insect hormone that causes death during metamorphosis.

Can we start to plant these useful, erosion-preventing trees soon before Blue Mountain Peak washes out to sea, and ends up smothering our offshore reefs?

I am, etc.,

TONY GOFFE

tony@peeniwalli.com

c/o PO Box 34

Mandeville

Via Go-Jamaica