Dolphin Head Forest Reserve, Jamaica

Dolphin Head Forest Reserve is approximately 1167 hectares, covering six forest estates in the north-western part of Jamaica.

Historically, the Reserve was part of lands owned by slave masters and the slaves were used to cut the roads through the mountains and to rear cattle and other livestock on the land. Commencing in 1950, the Government started to declare various parcels of land as forest reserves to ensure the conservation of the forest resources in these areas.

The Dolphin Head mountain range is recorded to have a higher density of local endemic plant species and rare or threatened plants per unit area than anywhere else in Jamaica. The effective mitigation of threats and conservation of the biodiversity of this ecologically fragile ecosystem remain a priority in Jamaica.

In April 2009 the Forestry Department launched the Dolphin Head Local Forest Management Committee (LFMC), which effectively became the community group that works with the Agency to establish and develop conservation based activities to support sustainable forest management.Since the LFMC’s establishment, it has secured grant funding to reforest sixteen hectares of denuded and degraded forest lands and has also established an apiary in the area, which serves as a thriving honey business for its members.