Requiem for Fort Rocky..

.. and maybe Palisadoes as well

I wanted to do a photo essay, video too, if I can figure that out, without words. Let the images speak for themselves. A requiem of sorts for the Palisadoes/Port Royal Protected Area, which has suffered assaults before. But I’m a word person. So here are some images and a few words to go with them.

What happened:

This is a video taken by the Jamaica Environment Trust on 8 March 2025, while work was still ongoing at Fort Rocky. Every single living thing was mowed down to create a car park.

This is partly why:

I say partly, because the destruction at Fort Rocky is also to create an entertainment zone, despite its legal protected status as an important natural area, and the existence of a heritage site - the old fort.

What is being/has been lost:

My photos, taken December 2021. The one from the beach is taken at Fort Rocky, looking out at Lime Cay. The others are at various places in the park.

What was done seen from above:

JET’s pic. You can see the bare area beside the little headland, where everything between the sea and the road was destroyed. And you can see what was still there, on either side of the bare earth. Perhaps you can also appreciate why this area was protected in the first place.

At this point, Sunday, March 9, 2025, we have not heard officially from the environmental regulatory authorities or the Environment Minister. Apparently, the Culture Minister has made a statement - the Good Times party is under that ministry’s auspices, ‘powered by’ them, as their ad states. I have not seen this statement, but understand it claims an Environmental Impact Assessment was done, as well as an ecological assessment of the flora and fauna and this wanton act of vandalism was done ‘by the book’.

I don’t know what book that might be, but it is not a book about environmental protection or sustainable development or climate resilience or any of the other slogans the Jamaican government parrots at every suitable occasion. This is a book that devalues natural systems and regards heritage sites as obstacles, a book about carelessness and short-sightedness and ignorance at the highest levels of our government.