Jamaica To Get German Help To Develop National Park

Blue Mountains (file photo)
Blue Mountains (file photo)

KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Jamaica is to ben­e­fit from the tech­ni­cal exper­tise of a team from Germany to devel­op the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park.

The team is from the Bavarian Forest National Park, locat­ed in south-east­ern Germany, which has utilised the con­cept of com­mu­ni­ty tourism to dri­ve socio-eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment. The Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust (JCDT), which man­ages the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, is seek­ing to part­ner with the Bavarian Forest National Park to imple­ment this approach. Speaking at a JCDT work­shop at the Hotel Four Seasons in Kingston on May 19, Director of the Visitor Centre at the Bavarian Forest National Park, Christian Binder, said the team is look­ing for­ward to work­ing with the JCDT to explore the “many oppor­tu­ni­ties to devel­op the nature park.”

Binder and the Manager for Tourism at the Bavarian Forest National Park, Erik Aschenbrand, are in Jamaica shar­ing rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion with sev­er­al stake­hold­ers, includ­ing Maroon communities.

During the work­shop, themed: ‘National Parks as Drivers for Socio-eco­nom­ic Development and Nature Conservation’, the team pro­vid­ed advice on how local com­mu­ni­ties could repli­cate the expe­ri­ences of Germany’s nation­al park.

In the mean­time, Minister with­out Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Hon. Daryl Vaz, wel­comed the part­ner­ship, not­ing that Jamaica is “hop­ing to fol­low the lead” of the Bavarian Forest National Park.

We look for­ward to a con­tin­ued work­ing rela­tion­ship and hope­ful­ly we can dupli­cate, on a small­er scale, what (you have accom­plished),” he said.

Vaz said the Blue and John Crow Mountains inscrip­tion on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List opens up new socio-eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties for com­mu­ni­ties in and around the site.

He added that the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park could become a prime area for busi­ness and income gen­er­a­tion through the devel­op­ment of var­i­ous tourist attractions.

The park presents a high val­ue mar­ket tourism oppor­tu­ni­ty which would be sup­port­ed by the devel­op­ment of envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly attrac­tions. These could include a zipline, pic­nic areas, nature trails, off-road tours and sem­i­nars on the bio­di­ver­si­ty, includ­ing indige­nous plants (as well as) cave explo­ration,” the Minister said.

Vaz not­ed that the park also pro­vides count­less oppor­tu­ni­ties for his­tor­i­cal, cul­tur­al and nat­ur­al research, par­tic­u­lar­ly in nutraceuticals.

The work­shop was held in asso­ci­a­tion with the Caribbean Aqua-Terrestrial Solutions (CATS) Project, which is oper­at­ed by the German Development Coöperation and the Caribbean Public Health Agency on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Coöperation and Development and the Caribbean Community.

The CATS project is also fund­ing the work­shops and activ­i­ties asso­ci­at­ed with the prepa­ra­tion of an updat­ed man­age­ment plan for the nation­al park and World Heritage site. http://​www​.jamaicaob​serv​er​.com/​n​e​w​s​/​J​a​m​a​i​c​a​-​t​o​-​g​e​t​-​G​e​r​m​a​n​-​h​e​l​p​-​t​o​-​d​e​v​e​l​o​p​-​n​a​t​i​o​n​a​l​-​p​ark

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