Protect Jamaica’s Irreplaceable Blue and John Crow Mountains

The Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park protects one of Jamaica’s most irreplaceable landscapes. The island is recognized globally for its exceptionally high levels of endemism, and the Park’s tropical montane and cloud forests provide critical habitat for species found nowhere else on Earth—including the Critically Endangered Jamaican peak frog, the Endangered Jamaican blackbird, and the Endangered Homerus swallowtail, the largest butterfly in the Western Hemisphere. Recognized internationally as a Key Biodiversity Area, the Park’s forests also protect the watersheds that communities across eastern Jamaica depend on, and its mountains hold deep cultural significance as the historic refuge of the Windward Maroons—values that together led to the Park’s inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

These globally significant values face mounting threats. Agricultural expansion and illegal clearing are steadily eroding montane and cloud forest habitat, while increasingly severe hurricanes, landslides, and wildfires damage fragile ecosystems that take decades to recover. Invasive species compound the pressure on endemic and range-restricted plants and animals that have nowhere else to retreat. The loss of this habitat would mean the irreversible loss of species found only in this one Jamaican mountain range—and the weakening of watersheds and cultural landscapes that Jamaicans have relied on for generations.