The “Enhancing the Capacity for Management of Dry Forests in the Portland Bight Protected Area, Jamaica” project is funded by the European Union and is being implemented by the Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation (C-CAM).
The project runs from December 2021 to November 2023. It is being implemented in Jamaica’s largest protected area. This includes 210 kilometres of Jamaican dry forests, areas which have been classified as subtropical dry forests and include Hellshire Hills, Goat Islands, Portland Ridge and the Braziletto Mountains, including Harris Savannah.
The Project aims to:
1. Enhance C-CAM’s capacity to manage, protect and monitor dry forests of the Portland Bight Protected area (PBPA).
2. Collect and manage data on the status of dry forests and their biodiversity
3. Improve Education and Outreach about dry forests and dry forest conservation in at least three communities
4. Coordinate conservation actions in communications through the establishment of the Forest Conservation Council in the PBPA
The focus is to improve C-CAM’s and the communities’ ability to protect, conserve and preserve the tropical and subtropical dry forests of Portland Bight as these are among the most threatened ecosystems in the world. To achieve its objectives, the areas will be mapped to collect data on the various species living in the forests.
Under this project, researchers assisted by community monitors and volunteers will look for and identify the various species of living organisms, and work on specific ways to protect them.
Each area contains many different types of plants because of the environment, but, together they are home to dozens of unique flora and fauna including 271 species of plants of which 53 are found only in Jamaica.
The project will fund assessments of these forests and management plans that will not only help to protect all of Jamaica’s dry forests, but also some of the world’s most endangered and threatened species.
These include the Jamaican Iguana (Cyclura collei), the Portland Ridge Land Frog (Eleutherodoctylus cavernicola) and the Jamaican Skink (Spondylurus fulgidus). An important population of Jamaican Hutia (Geocapromys brownei) also lives in the Portland Bight dry forests, and new species of amphibians are also still being discovered in these areas.
Among the residents of the Portland Bight, dry forests is the Kite Swallowtail butterfly (Protographium marcellinus) one of the most threatened butterflies in Jamaica.
Other plans under the project include a small grant project to develop alternative livelihoods, an education and outreach highlighting the importance of dry forests and a conservation garden.
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