High-rise developments in a wetland?

Shari-Lee Crooks / Our Today

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The Pinnacle is a luxury penthouse development launched and unveiled in a groundbreaking ceremony on January 20. The development will be four 28-storey luxury towers of apartments overlooking the Marine Park. There will be 423 residencies in total featuring 1,2 and 3-bedroom suites.

The development is being built by LCH Development and will also feature four-and five-bedroom penthouses, along with 15 private villas.

Naturally, a development of that magnitude being built that close to a major mangrove sanctuary raises concerns about the health of our physical environment after this development ceases construction. After the construction. the presence of permanent residences will continue to impact the area long after the initial construction stops.

Wetlands perform invaluable ecological functions in their natural state. The role of coastal wetland ecosystems in maintaining shoreline stability and preserving biodiversity is well established. For quick examples, wetlands are crucial to shoreline protection, flood protection and serve as a natural habitat to many flora and fauna that are endemic to Jamaica.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Jamaica Public Service (JPS), Michel Gantois (left), accepts a Red Mangrove sapling from Environmental Officer, Protected Areas Branch, National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), Italee Patterson (centre), for planting at Sturridge Park, Palisadoes-Port Royal Protected Area in Kingston recently. With them is Acting Coordinator for Ecosystems, Ecosystems Management Branch, NEPA, Chanel Raynor. (Photo: Chantel Spence)

The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) has undertaken a four-year project to strengthen Jamaica’s mangroves in order to aid in their conservation. Through its adopt-a-mangrove initiative, NEPA encourages private entities to help replenish much-needed mangroves and even had the first round planted by JPS and JPS’ foundation in February of last year.

Jamaica is a signatory to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance as of 1998. Meaning, the Government has international obligations to maintain mangrove/wetland areas and draft policy for their protection and conservation.

With that in mind, the development is dangerously close to a protected area of wetland and should have strict oversight to ensure permanent damage is not done to the coastline in order to construct these luxury high-rises.

It is important that the Government does not doom the nation to an unsafe climate future by risking our island’s natural buffers in favour of expansion. It is imperative we do not take our environment lightly, as our survival quite literally depends on its preservation.