ALLIGATOR POND, Manchester — For four years the 500-plus page document outlining the Manchester Sustainable Development Plan for 2030 and beyond, has been hailed as the blueprint for other parishes to follow.

Now Manchester citizens are starting to see tangible benefits with the development of economic and employment projects as laid out in the plan.

In the fishing village of Alligator Pond and surrounding communities in quiet South Manchester, State agencies and professional marketers are now working with residents to officially launch four such projects of a community tourism-related nature in time for the winter tourist season in December. They include a non-motorised boat tour of the little known Alligator Pond River, a visit by boat to the Alligator Cays a few miles offshore, a hiking trail in the limestone hills of New Forest and a craft centre utilising products from the endemic Bull Thatch palm.

As explained by project coordinator for the Manchester Parish Development Committee, Angela Edwards, the decision to accelerate the projects was fuelled by public demand.

“We find we’ve been trying to dress up this thing too much in terms of getting ready for market,” said Edwards as she spoke to the Jamaica Observer Central at a recent sensitisation workshop in Alligator Pond.

“What we find over time is that each time when we bring people to show them the proposed projects, they say ‘why are you waiting, people want to experience this. It is different, natural so why you don’t just start’ … so we said ‘you know what, we keep getting the same reaction from people, local and overseas, so we need to start’,” she said.

At the workshop, representatives from the Social Development Commission (SDC), the Tourism Development Company Ltd (TPDCo), the South Coast Resort Board, the police, among others, provided guidance to locals regarding issues of management, safety, the setting and maintenance of appropriate standards, and the regulations and licensing requirements governing tourist attractions.

The next phase of the project, which is partly funded by the Canadian Urban Institute, involves the creation of an implementation committee which will drive the Alligator Pond projects.

“Projects like these are never easy,” explained Sherryl Lewis, TPDCo’s Licence Processing Manager. “We must have the input from the community; we must have the ‘buy-in’ from the community. We can help to put the management structure in place, help to do what needs to be done, to hold their hands … (but) one day like a mother you are going to have to say ‘go and do what you need to do’….”

Conroy Watson of the Alligator Pond Citizens’ Association, who has been among the local representatives spearheading the project says he is not daunted. He pointed out that locals have been doing boat rides up the river and to the Cays for years at an informal, unofficial level.

“People actually do it and have been doing it for the longest while, but it wasn’t structured. So now this is what we are trying to do to make sure that the benefit spreads more and that there is attention to safety and management,” said Watson.

He argues that the promise of employment and economic benefit will be motivation enough for the community to give its full weight.

Edwards dreams that the community-style tourism projects will provide further impetus for “a really vibrant community” with “bed-and-breakfasts springing up”. “If you have activities people will want to stay overnight. I see really, another Treasure Beach …”

As outlined by promotional flyers, the craft project will centre on Ludian Hill’s craft shop at Prospect, a few miles north-west of Alligator Pond. Hill relies heavily on the Bull Thatch palm which, Edwards points out, grows abundantly on the south coast, but which is now in danger because of unsustainable reaping.

“They (palms) are being threatened seriously because people from all over come and cut down those trees,” Edwards said. “The trees grow very tall so you find that rather than cutting the (fronds) they just cut down the trees… that’s not sustainable and we are trying to sensitise people; to get them to understand that we are losing these endemic trees fast… we need to protect them, use them sustainably…,” she said.

The Mount Forest nature tour hiking trail is described as a limestone slot-canyon allowing visitors a close-up view of the limestone forest, a wide array of birds, sensational rock formations, flora and fauna.

Annette Salmon of the marketing company 20twenty Strategies, whose job it is to develop a promotional and marketing programme for the projects, said reinforcements such as “heavy duty ropes” and a “nice rope rail” will be useful to enhance safety on the hiking trail. She said there was a similar need for close attention to safety on the boat rides up the river — described as “unbelievably peaceful” – and to the Alligator Pond Cays.

Looking out to sea and referring to high waves driven by strong winds, Salmon mused: “On a day like this we definitely wouldn’t be going to the Cays.” Boatmen and lifeguards would have to be trained and certified and boats would have to be of a good standard to be certified and passed before project implementation, she said

The marketing specialist says the tourism projects will dovetail with attractions that already exist in Alligator Pond such as the world famous Little Ochi restaurant and others which also cater to seafood in the rustic community. They would also be in sync with community tourism projects already operating in South Manchester, including notable hotelier Diana McIntyre-Pike’s Countrystyle Villages Programme.

A recurring theme at the sensitisation workshop was for residents to “own” and take control of the projects.

“The people themselves must have a serious stake in the development of the project. If they don’t, it’s not going to last. They have to own it, they have to protect it, they have to care about it,” said Salmon.

Clarence Myers, chairman of the PDC argues that the chance of success is strengthened by the fact that residents themselves articulated the projects from the very beginning, when planners were consulting with communities before writing the parish-wide development plan. It was completed in 2008 and cost the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Canadian Urban Institute and the National Housing Trust close to $40 million in cash and kind.

“The community (Alligator Pond and its environs) was part of it from day one and we want to make sure that they know that they are the owners of this project. They own it and they will be assisted, but they will be running it themselves,” said Myers, a Mandeville-based hotelier.

Still, Watson is unfazed. “We have done all the background studies and the feasibility studies and people have been doing what they have to do… We are ready,” he said.

There are environmental and other issues to be dealt with. Edwards and long-time manager of the PDC, Sam Miller spoke to the Observer Central about the worrying erosion of the Alligator Pond Beach in recent years. Also, during the sensitisation session, the touchy issue of squatting and inadequate sanitation in Alligator Pond came up for sometimes heated discussion.

All agreed that the issues must be addressed if Alligator Pond is to remain sustainable and attractive to outsiders over the long term.

For Miller and Canadian Urban Institute country planner Phil Rodriques – both of whom were central to the drafting of the development plan — there was “a strong sense of satisfaction” that for the communities, things are now coming together.

Miller is particularly proud that other parishes — including neighbouring St Elizabeth — are now using the Manchester plan as a model. “The more parishes get on board, the better for all of us,” he said.

Rodriques, who represents his company on the Greater Treasure Beach planning committee in St Elizabeth, says developments such as those slated for Alligator Pond are a planner’s dream.

“When we started looking at these projects in Alligator Pond and in other communities all those years ago, we were actually thinking about life after bauxite and to see those actions and policies coming together with actual buy in from communities … that’s a wonderful feeling,” he said.