The Kingston Freeport Terminal Limited (KFTL), a subsidiary of the CMA CGM Group of companies entered into a thirty year concession agreement with the Government of Jamaica to operate the Kingston Container Terminal (KCT). As part of the concession agreement, KFTL is obligated to expand and upgrade the KCT by undertaking the capital dredging of the nautical access inside the Kingston Harbour to accommodate larger vessels traversing the Panama Canal since its recent expansion. The Kingston Harbour is the 7th largest protected natural harbour in the world and functions as receiving waters for treated and non-treated flows, conveyed by a network of waterways from surrounding urban centres and hinterlands. As a result, the biodiversity of the Harbour has declined over the last fifty years in tandem with the unmitigated growth of the Kingston Metropolitan Area. Notwithstanding, the Harbour remains a focal point for the fishing industry of over 1000 active artisanal fishers depending on the waters for their livelihood. The topic of Capital Dredging prior to KFTL’s 2017 campaign has been highly controversial among fishing and environmental interests, with the former being vehemently opposed initially based on a reported decline in fish catch and habitat years after the last Capital Dredging campaign in 2001. As part of the company’s obligation to its financiers as well as its own overarching commitment to operating in an environmentally and socially responsible manner, a multi-faceted environment and social intervention was implemented to ensure that the 2017 dredging campaign was executed with as minimal impact or displacement as possible.
Having successfully executed the 2017 Capital Dredging Campaign, the aim of the paper is to document a case study of how a dredging campaign can be conducted in a manner that facilitates Port and by extension National development without compromising the environment or the livelihoods of socially vulnerable stakeholders such as the fisher folk. To achieve this aim, the paper examines the social and environmental safeguards employed by KFTL to minimize the adverse impact of its dredging campaign. It outlines the methods used in the environmental monitoring programme and a snapshot of the data collected, which represents the most current characterization of water quality in the harbour. The paper also presents the social engagement methods employed by KFTL to engage and educate fisher folk, including the monitoring of pre and during dredging fish catch data. Further, it describes the process that was used to provide livelihood support to fishers in spite of the fact that the dredging was empirically demonstrated to have no significant adverse impact on their livelihood. Finally, the paper summarises the fishing community development initiatives that were sponsored by KFTL to promote sustainability and rejuvenation of the Harbour’s biodiversity.