Dr. Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie, CEO of the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET)
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By Nakinskie Robinson
The Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) has called for the strengthening of environmental legislation, public disclosure and participation in decision making following its report examining the experiences of environmental defenders in Jamaica.
Its release comes days after the court found bauxite company, Windalco, guilty of the October 2019 effluent spill in the Rio Cobre, which led to fish kills and adverse effects on residents in nearby communities.
The report, Environmental Defenders in Jamaica: Voices, Barriers and Pathways to Environmental Justice, which began in 2024 and concluded August 2026, provides a basis for discussion about how Jamaica can strengthen environmental governance and better support the people who contribute to protecting the country's natural resources.
In the report, JET has called for a raft of improvements to environmental rights including the ratification of the Escazu Agreement, since Jamaica is currently the only English-speaking Caribbean country that has signed the Agreement but has yet to ratify it.
JET said ratification would provide access to a binding regional framework for environmental governance and defender protection and would signal Jamaica's commitment to the standards it has already acknowledged.
It has also called for the government to strengthen the Access to Information Act and its implementation as well as making proactive disclosure of environmental information standard practice.
As for the protection of environmental defenders, JET said the government must establish accessible grievance and referral mechanisms, strengthen procedures for responding to threats and intimidation, documentation and monitoring of environmental defender risks and enact protections against retaliation and abusive legal proceedings.
It is also pressing civil society and individual defenders not to wait on legislative reform, and instead move to develop formal defender networks and structured information-sharing mechanisms, among other measures.
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