As the Forestry Department of Jamaica continues to encourage the island-wide tree planting initiative, Noranda Bauxite is making its own commitment to plant 200,000 trees over the period of three years.

Noranda, in a statement on Friday (December 31), said this is the continuation of the company’s long-established programme of tree planting, land rehabilitation and reforestation after mining.

“Thousands of trees under our care, grow on arable lands, that are making a valid contribution to ecology and sustainability in Jamaica,” said Delroy Dell, Country Manager and Vice President of Noranda.

In this vein, the company is pleased to announce the launch of ‘Operation Discovery Tree’, a project designed to increase the forested areas in the parish of St Ann.

Operation Discovery Tree will include the development of a tree nursery on targeted lands reclaimed from bauxite mining near its Water Valley operations, as well as the strategic replanting of trees grown at the nursery to develop forestry areas in currently unforested parts of the region.

Operation Discovery Tree has been initiated to supplement Jamaica’s tree nursery capabilities and to increase the positive environmental impacts from Noranda’s ongoing tree-planting, greenhouses, aquaponics, and other reclamation initiatives.

According to Mark Hansen, CEO of Concord Resources, principal owner of Atlantic Alumina, “while bauxite mining does not impact forestry reserves, it has a manageable impact on the environment during operations; however, steps such as Operation Discovery Tree, combined with our already progressive reclamation and rehabilitation programmes, mitigate those impacts and can leave the natural environment with improved forest cover.’’

“Through the collaboration of our operations in Jamaica and Louisiana, our partners in Jamaica Bauxite Mining Limited, and our other Jamaican based stakeholders, Operation Discovery Tree has the potential to bring new forestry reserves to the areas in and around St Ann. We are also investigating additional programs to benefit environmental protection in Jamaica and new initiatives on carbon offsets, as we endeavour to be a net addition of carbon capture,” Hansen added.

Noranda Bauxite intends to break ground on this new nursery in the first quarter of 2022.

The company is also working to identify targeted locations in which to create new forestry areas in collaboration with the Forestry Department of Jamaica, other relevant government agencies, and Noranda’s community councils across St Ann.

“With the limited availability of trees for replanting since 2020 due in part to COVID-related implications, we believe that our new nursery project will quickly benefit Jamaica’s tree planting initiatives,” remarked Dell.

“While we have planted over 16,000 trees in 2021, we expect our nursery project to allow for a much larger and more sustainable source of seedling trees for years to come,” he added.

This commitment to tree planting is just one of Noranda’s continuing land-reclamation initiatives, and an important contributor to ecology and economic sustainability in Jamaica.

To support these tree-planting efforts, the company has already built 130 greenhouses and five water catchment sites with a capacity of six million gallons per pond.

Outside of its commitment to forestry, Noranda has operated as a responsible corporate citizen in areas of environment, safety, education, agriculture, health, youth development, sports, community development and responsible mining.