Protected Natural Area for Sale

The Portland Bight Protected Area, in Jamaica, contains one of the largest dry limestone forests in the Caribbean, the largest intact mangrove forest in the country, and 20 globally threatened species. The area was deemed so special that it was under consideration as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, until last year when the government backtracked on the proposal, signifying an ominous change of plans. The government announced in August that it was engaged in negotiations to sell Goat Islands to the China Harbour Engineering Company to build a massive transshipment port and associated logistics hub, right in the heart of the Portland Bight Protected Area. iLCP Fellow Robin Moore was invited by local Jamaican NGOs to help them raise an international uproar about this destructive plan… and that he had done.