Jamaican mountains become World Heritage site

This 2014 video from Jamaica is called Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Blue and John Crow Mountains – Stteppin Out Loud.

Another video, no longer on YouTube, used to say about itself:

Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park | Jamaica travel guide

4 July 2015

Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park is a national park in Jamaica. The park covers 495.2 km2 and accounts for 4.5% of Jamaica’s land surface. The park is globally known for its biodiversity. This park is the last of two known habitats of the Giant Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio homerus), the largest butterfly in the Western Hemisphere and also the habitat for the endangered Jamaican Blackbird (Nesopsar nigerrimus), a refuge for the Jamaican Boa (Epicrates subflavus) and the Jamaican Hutia (Geocapromys brownii). The park was nominated UNESCO World Heritage Site for mixed criteria (cultural and natural) in 2011.

For more detail please visit here.

For the John Crow Mountains, there is the history of the famous anti-colonial past.

For the preparation of the anti-colonial movement in Jamaica this is a reminder of the late 1600s; then, African slaves fled into hiding in the John Crow mountains.

From Wildlife Extra:

Jamaica’s Blue and John Crow Mountains become the country’s first World Heritage site

The Blue and John Crow Mountains has become Jamaica’s first World Heritage site, following advice from IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, UNESCO World Heritage Committee has announced.

Jamaica’s Blue and John Crow Mountains has been inscribed as a “mixed” site, recognising the complex interplay between the area’s natural and cultural values. The local Maroon communities share a strong identity with the area and are actively engaged in its management.

“The Blue and John Crow Mountains in Jamaica is a jewel of the Caribbean displaying exceptionally pristine nature,” says Tim Badman, Director of IUCN’s World Heritage Programme. “We are delighted that a site so valuable in the eyes of the local communities has been recognised for its importance to the whole humanity. This inscription also helps to build a World Heritage list which can represent the world’s regions in a more balanced way.”

Combining Jamaica’s highest peak with a contrasting limestone plateau, the site boasts the greatest diversity of ecosystems and habitats on the island, which are also among the most intact in the Caribbean region.

It overlaps with one of the world’s 78 most irreplaceable areas for the conservation of amphibian, bird and mammal species. Half of the flowering plants growing at 900 to 1000 metres in the John Crow plateau cannot be found anywhere else in the world, while unique montane tropical forests hang on the steep slopes and rugged landscape of the Blue Mountains peaking at 2,250 metre. The site also hosts globally significant populations of bird species.