Just in time for Earth Day, we wanted to share our conversation with Damart Williams, the Senior Director for Zonal Operations in the Eastern Zone of the Forestry Department.

We spoke about the major tree planting initiative - 3 million trees in 3 years, which works out to one tree for each Jamaican living on the island. We also discussed the current push to expand the scope of the Forestry Department into urban areas.

Trees serve vital ecological functions; they sequester carbon and reduce urban temperatures; they regenerate soil and help reduce stormwater run-off; but they are also crucial social infrastructure (especially in the tropics) that play a critical role in fostering a sense of community and shared responsibility towards the environment by creating the conditions for interactions between people in the public realm. Plant a tree this Earth Day.
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Hey Damart, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Can you let our readers know your name, role, and length of service?
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Damart Williams (DW): Sure, my name is Damart Williams, the Senior Director for Zonal Operations in the Eastern Zone of the Forestry Department. I have been in this role for the past six years. I oversee all the forest management activities east of the island, including St Mary, Portland, St Thomas, Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine, and Clarendon.

We manage our forest reserves and the forest estates designated by the government. We also have a client services unit that deals with private planters, schools, community groups, and the average Jamaican citizen. The Zone also includes a rural sociologist responsible for managing relationships with all the local forest management committees. These are in communities adjacent to forest reserves that we work closely with to manage forests.  

What is the overarching goal of the Forestry Department?
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DW: The agency's primary goal is to increase forest cover and ensure that all forest reserves and estates are maintained sustainably. Our two main tools to do that are tree planting and forest maintenance. We work closely with partners like NEPA, NGOs like Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust, and the Caribbean Coastal Area Management in Southern Clarendon. Recently we have recognized the importance of urban forests as well. So now there is a thrust to ensure we increase the amount of cover we get in urban areas.

Can you speak to the rationale for advancing tree planting in urban areas?
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DW: The National Tree Planting Initiative was launched in 2019 and set a goal to plant 3 million trees in 3 years, about one tree for every Jamaican. We are doing our best to ensure that we meet this target. We recognize that urban areas have a great potential to contribute to climate change mitigation and that tree planting in urban areas helps reduce emissions, stormwater runoff, and urban temperatures (heat island effect).

Over the past 50 years, urban areas have doubled in size worldwide. With that comes an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Trees absorb much of these emissions, acting as carbon sinks. This impact is beneficial in urban areas as much as in rural areas.

How are you getting communities and residents involved in meeting this goal?
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DW: Many people have been coming on their own to the Forestry Department to buy and pick up tree seedlings. We have tried to get as many persons within other public agencies, the private sector, and other community groups on board.

We also do seedling distributions using our Forestry Bus. We take our seedlings, blast our location on social media, and ask people to come on board to collect them. And even though we have not yet reached the milestone of 3 million trees, we are still hopeful to meet the target by September/ October this year [2022]. We're pushing to the finish line.

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‍VISION FOR A GREEN KINGSTON:

Do you have a vision for a “green” Kingston? Are there precedents/case studies that inspire you?
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DW: In 2017, I was privileged enough to attend urban forestry training sessions in Chicago and New York. I got exposed to several communities more advanced than us in their urban forestry initiatives. There was rooftop and backyard gardening taking place in low-income communities. It struck me that if they can do it within that context, then Jamaica (even though we are somewhat dissimilar) could also do so.

There is very little data on the tree cover for Kingston and St. Andrew. We only have data for postal codes Kingston 19 and 20 that shows just over 20- 24% forest cover within those urban spaces. We suspect that this is probably the case in other towns and cities across Jamaica. If the Forestry Department is loud enough, we can increase that percentage to 30%, at least in the short term. In my vision, we will have people coming on board to plant, not just in their backyards but on their rooftops, and find non-traditional ways of planting relevant to an urban context.

What policies do you think would help us get there?
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DW: Achieving our forest cover goal must be integrated into the planning process. 50-60 years ago, there was little thought about trees in urban areas - our focus was on rural areas. But now that we recognize the greater importance of trees, we need to be more intentional about integrating these concepts into the planning process. So that would include not just the Forestry Department but also agencies like NWA and others that work in urban environments.

What I struggle with is that you have spaces designated for infrastructure development, like Mandela Highway or Constant Spring Road, with little talk about planting trees along the thoroughfares. Recently we have been asked to look at the impacts of the planned Barbican Road expansion on the existing trees along the corridor and the opportunities for planting new trees. It is a new role for us; usually we are not invited to sit at the table to discuss these types of projects. So we are hopeful that this translates into other areas where development is happening.

We have a Forest Policy for Jamaica created in 2017, but unfortunately, that policy only briefly speaks about urban forestry. We need an overarching policy from the Ministry of Environment to guide our actions and coordinate us. We recognize a disconnect between the various entities working in the urban space (Forestry Department, National Works Agency, municipal corporations, and others). Without an overarching policy, there will not be coordinated approaches to embedding urban forestry throughout all our urban developments.

I also think that any urban forestry policy goal needs to be tangible and measurable. It is not enough to say that we want a greener Jamaica; we need to set quantitative targets for the various agencies. The Forestry Department is currently developing an urban forestry manual to guide our approach and lay out a methodology for other agencies and local governments.

TREES AS INFRASTRUCTURE:

How do you think tree planting, as a form of 'green infrastructure', can complement existing urban infrastructure?
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DW: Ever since I attended the training in 2017, I believe there is space for the convergence of green and grey infrastructure. Along all our roads and streets, we can have trees without compromising the integrity of the existing grey infrastructure. If we look at Barbican Road, for example, we wouldn’t plant trees that disrupt the concrete or the road surface. We probably would plant smaller trees with shallower roots or use planter boxes.

The choice of trees all depends on the purpose of planting- is it for aesthetics, stormwater runoff management, or is it for the provision of food? The ultimate aim of urban forestry is to have very tangible benefits derived from persons living within that space. So when you have this convergence of green and grey infrastructures, it signals to community members that we can coexist with trees in these very tight urban spaces.

Can trees be justified in terms of cost? As well as broader economic terms?
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DW: They can! But articulating the benefits of tree planting has been a challenge we have grappled with for years at the Agency - the fact that people only see trees as trees and nothing more than that. We have realized that if people don't see the financial benefits of forests, they will not believe the cost of planting and maintaining trees is worth it. When you speak in scientific terms like “carbon sequestration, carbon sinks, or stormwater runoff management” that benefit is not immediately evident to most people.

We can justify things like utility cost savings; for example, shading trees can reduce your electricity bill for cooling. Also, if you have fruiting trees, they can be harvested and sold as additional income. People are always asking for fruit trees because those benefits are clear.

ARTICULATING THE BENEFIT OF TREES FOR FLOODING:

There is limited local data and research in our urban areas on how forestry can reduce flooding. So articulating those types of benefits is necessary but new and difficult for us as an Agency. We have a lot of data from our forest reserves and estates, but that level of understanding does not exist for our urban areas. And that's one of the main recommendations of the manual- that we have to increase the amount of research we do within the local urban context, followed by communication of those findings.

FORESTRY BENEFITS AND OTHER ECONOMIC SECTORS:

There is a synergy between forestry and tourism, for example, we work very closely with several ecotourism attractions like JCDT Holywell. There is growing recognition that tourists appreciate our forest heritage and natural resources, so Forestry is seeking to establish ecotourism sites that include rentable cabins.

THE ROLE OF THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR:

Is it possible to get multiple inter-agency stakeholders to support green infrastructure? What are some of the conflicts you envision happening?
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DW: Great potential for partnership and collaboration exists across the agencies, but we need an overarching policy document that streamlines our interactions. The other challenge I foresee is competing uses for land space, especially in urban areas where land is limited. For example, we may go into a community and see a sizeable unutilized piece of land that may be perfect for forestry, but demand from developers or other government agencies would take it out of play.

Recently in Rose Town, we planned to plant some trees but the selected site was the border between the upper and lower section of the community that separates two warring factions. Community members wanted to maintain a straight line of sight across the border, so it was not in their best interest to plant trees there. While this does not happen in all communities, it exemplifies the conflict for space in our urban environments.

What are some participatory approaches to getting communities and residents involved in green infrastructure implementation?
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DW: We found that many of our residents don't need much convincing to get into planting trees. There is always a core group of invested individuals; that is our focus when we go into communities. We find the CBOs (community-based organizations) and the CDCs (community development committees) that are already in existence, and we work with them. These groups already have mechanisms for planting and distribution; it's a more efficient process. In Seaview Gardens, we went directly to a CDC to plant and distribute over 1400 seedlings within two months under the CityAdapt ecosystem-based adaptation project. The President of the CDC mentioned that there is always a thirst for trees; people are convinced about the benefits of trees through the education provided by Forestry and the CBOs themselves.

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us Damart, we really appreciate you sharing your experiences, views, and passions with us.
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DW: It was my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

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