Healthy Environment = Health Economy

Print this article

Environmental factors figure prominently in the economic development of all Caribbean states. Most rely heavily on the sustained health of that very environment for tourism, which has emerged in the latter half of the 20th century as the main industry of many island-states.
But natural disasters, mining of minerals like bauxite and oil and agricultural practices have all played a part in the ongoing process of environmental change that has impacted the region’s economies.

It is against this background that Professor Elizabeth Thomas-Hope—the James Seivwright Moss Solomon (Snr.) Professor of Environmental Management, The University of the West Indies, Mona—is leading research in a number of critical areas. These include agro-biodiversity and land management in the Caribbean, particularly in relation to the mitigation of environmental hazards, poverty and urban environmental management, the environment and health, the ecological impact of tourism, environmental perception and its implications for environmental management, international migration and migration policy with regard to the Caribbean.

Professor Thomas-Hope is a distinguished geographer and environmentalist, and the first appointee to the James Moss-Solomon (Snr.) Chair of Environmental Management. This Chair endowed by the Grace, Kennedy Company, has made possible the development of environmental programmes across multidisciplinary fields and enhanced The UWI’s engagement with related community and public sector activities in the region and internationally.

A former Head of the Department of Geography and Geology (1999–2005), Professor Thomas-Hope has directed the Environmental Management Unit (EMU), in the Department of Geography & Geology at Mona since its inception in 1997. She directs the Master of Science specialism—Integrated Urban and Rural Environmental Management—which forms part of the University’s graduate programme in Natural Resource Management, and supervises a number of PhD students working on environmental themes.

The Environmental Management Unit was formed in response to the need for increased capacity building in the area of environmental management.

The EMU, Professor Thomas-Hope explained, “promotes effective management of environmental resources through research, graduate training and community outreach.”
The Unit hosts seminars, produces publications on current environmental issues in the Caribbean, and provides a range of consultancy services.

Its work has been critical to environmental management in Jamaica. For example, research in the Rio Grande Valley, Portland, Jamaica, has focused on the conservation of bio-diversity particularly in small farming areas.

Professor Thomas-Hope expounded: “The researchers from the EMU have been working with small farmers of the Rio Grande Valley, to conserve the biological diversity and manage hazards characteristic of this flood and landslide prone farming area.”

The EMU has also been instrumental in promoting the sustainable development of islands through their Island Sustainability, Livelihood and Equity (ISLE) programme and involved an interdisciplinary group of persons from areas such as Human Geography, Gender Studies and Agriculture. ISLE involved seven university partners—The University of the West Indies, Dalhouise University, University of the Philippines, Hasanuddin University (Indonesia), the Technical University of Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Agricultural College and the University of Prince Edward Island.

“ISLE sought to strengthen the partner institutions responsible for the training of human resources and focused on curriculum development, and the enhancement of knowledge pertaining to the integrated environmental management of islands and the translation of these into policies and programmes to support sustainable development,” according to Professor Thomas-Hope.
Jamaican studies developed by the EMU have contributed to the Government of Jamaica’s Land Management Policy Programme while graduates of their MSc and PhD programmes are making their contributions in a range of public and private sector agencies, secondary and tertiary institutions, international agencies and non-governmental organizations.

Noting that the EMU boasts graduates from across the region including Barbados, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and of course, Jamaica, Professor Thomas-Hope said, “the primary development challenge in the Caribbean is to reduce poverty by promoting sustainable development. A healthy environment is key to this.”

“Much of our environmental problems arise from inadequate and inappropriate waste management, land use practices and coastal zone management.”

“It is our hope that the work we do at the EMU not only results in improved policy/regulatory reforms in the region, but promotes proper land use and coastal zone management along with better planning, regulation and enforcement.”

“We know what the problems are. We’re focused on finding workable solutions,” Professor Thomas-Hope declared.