Gov’t buys $76-million tree relocation equipment

The government has shelled out $76 million for the purchase of tree-moving equipment.

The unit is a dual-purpose machine that combines front-end loader functionality with tree relocation capabilities. According to the Forestry Department, the tree-moving equipment represents a significant investment in Jamaica's pursuit of sustainable development.

"It will enable us to safely and efficiently dig up to relocate and replant some of the mature trees that development activities would have otherwise destroyed," said Ainsley A. Henry, CEO and conservator of forests at the Forestry Department.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, speaking at a ceremony where the equipment was officially commissioned into service on Monday, said, that by reducing tree loss, the tree-moving equipment will contribute to environmental restoration and accelerate the ecological functionality of urban spaces by landscaping with mature trees.

He said the equipment will ensure that "as we pursue the built environment, as we pursue the widening of our roads for our economic development and efficiency, we can also act as good stewards of our natural assets, our natural environment".

"We can use technology to resolve this conflict that would emerge ever so often as we widen existing roads that we can move the trees and replant them and they have a 90 per cent success rate of surviving," Holness said.