KINGSTON, Jamaica — Three leading Jamaican environmental and scientific agencies have formalized a landmark collaborative partnership aimed at reversing the decline of the island nation’s unique native plant life, signing two landmark memoranda of understanding (MOUs) to unify their expertise, resources and conservation efforts. Jamaica’s National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) entered into the separate agreements with the Scientific Research Council (SRC) and the Forestry Department (FD), creating a coordinated framework for research, propagation, habitat restoration and public outreach centered on protecting the country’s endemic and at-risk plant species.
Jamaica holds a globally significant distinction as the fifth-ranked island worldwide for rates of plant endemism, meaning a large share of its native flora is found nowhere else on Earth. But this unique biological heritage is increasingly under pressure: leading environmental officials warn that climate change, unregulated pollution, rapid landscape development, and unsustainable harvesting have pushed dozens of native species toward extinction, eroding the island’s biodiversity and threatening the ecological, cultural and economic benefits native plants provide.
Addressing the urgency of the new partnership, NEPA Chief Executive Officer Leonard Francis noted that accelerating development has reshaped Jamaica’s natural landscapes in recent decades, putting unprecedented strain on native plant populations. Francis emphasized that every plant species is an irreplaceable piece of Jamaica’s natural heritage, which contributes an estimated billions of dollars to the national economy. Losing any endemic species, he argued, is a permanent loss for the country that can never be reversed.
NEPA Deputy CEO Anthony McKenzie, who leads the agency’s environmental management and sustainability division, echoed that warning, stressing that the MOU signing comes at a critical moment for Jamaica’s biodiversity. McKenzie named climate change and widespread pollution as the two biggest drivers of biodiversity decline across the island, adding that urgent coordinated action is the only way to preserve the country’s standing as a global hotspot of unique plant life.
Under the terms of the new partnership, the three agencies will work together to identify high-priority species for propagation and conservation, with selection based on national biodiversity goals, conservation urgency, and technical feasibility of recovery efforts. SRC Executive Director Dr. Charah Watson emphasized that cutting-edge scientific research will be central to the initiative, noting that innovative propagation methods including tissue culture will allow conservationists to scale up production of at-risk species for restoration. Watson framed the partnership as an investment in future generations, noting that Jamaica’s natural resources must be carefully protected and leveraged to ensure coming Jamaicans can benefit from the island’s unique natural heritage.
Forestry Department CEO Ainsley Henry highlighted the untapped potential of Jamaica’s native flora for medical innovation, recalling childhood observations of how many common modern pharmaceuticals trace their origins to wild plant species. Henry underscored his agency’s full commitment to the partnership, noting that coordinated conservation and restoration work supports not only Jamaica’s national biodiversity targets but also global efforts to halt planetary biodiversity loss and build community resilience to climate change.
The first high-priority target for the new partnership is the Lignum vitae, Jamaica’s iconic national flower, which is currently listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and protected under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Long-term population surveys conducted by NEPA between 2007 and 2024 confirm that Lignum vitae numbers have continued to decline steadily across the island, driven by land clearing for development, illegal harvesting, hurricane damage, drought and other climate-related impacts, making urgent intervention a critical priority.
To build public support for Lignum vitae conservation, NEPA launched the Lignum vitae in Schools campaign in January 2024, an outreach initiative designed to raise awareness of the species’ ecological and cultural importance and encourage planting across school campuses and local communities. Three schools have already participated in the pilot phase of the program: Sheffield Primary and Negril Primary in Westmoreland, and St Hugh’s Preparatory in Kingston. NEPA is now calling on additional schools interested in joining the program to reach out to the agency via phone at (876) 754-7540 or email at pubed@nepa.gov.jm.
NEPA’s CEO Francis stressed that biodiversity conservation is not a responsibility limited to government agencies, saying that every Jamaican has a role to play in protecting the country’s natural heritage. “We have a sacred duty to ensure that every single species, every single plant, survives in perpetuity,” Francis said, framing the new partnership as a critical step forward in fulfilling that obligation.