Latoya Grindley, Features Writer

Denuded slopes of the Blue Mountains of St. Thomas as seen from Mavis Bank, St. Andrew. - file

The Jamaica Conservation & Development Trust (JCDT) has two reasons to celebrate this year.

In May, the trust will be celebrating its 20th year of existence as a non-government organisation, and just three months before that, on February 20, it will also be celebrating the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park.

This park falls under its supervision and spans over 200,000 acres of land spreading across the parishes of St. Andrew, Portland, St. Mary and St. Thomas.

Activities

To commemorate these anniversaries, the institution has planned a variety of activities for the year. Among them is the establishment of an endowment fund to increase its sustainability to effectively carry out some of its duties. The JCDT considers this to be an important move as it is a charitable organisation relying on the funds received from donors.

Other activities for the year include environmental quizzes, a pre-Valentine cocktail party, Misty Bliss, a coffee and arts festival, an anniversary awards banquet and auction, summer camps and gospel concert.

It will also host the Blue Mountain Peak Ultimate Health/Fitness Charity Challenge which will be open to the general public.

The charity organisation strives to promote environmental con-servation and sustainable develop-ment. It is responsible for forest rehabilitation, reforestation, com-munity education for sustainable livelihoods, bird monitoring, patrols, threat monitoring among others responsibilities. The institution relies on the efforts of its 14 full-time members staff to execute duties.

Persons or companies wishing to support the 20th anniversary efforts may contact JCDT at 29 Dumbarton Avenue, Kingston 10, Tel: 920-8278-9