It’s that time again!
Forest Trek 2024 is on
JAMAICANS WILL this year get the chance to hike nine kilometres through the forests of Seville Heritage Park in St Ann, as the Forestry Department hosts another Forest Trek.
Forest Trek 2024, to be staged on Saturday, March 16, sees the Forestry Department offering two transportation options for participants who sign up for the group or individual packages: ‘Transportation included’ and ‘Transportation excluded’.
Persons who choose the transportation-included option will be transported to Seville Heritage Park on the day. Participants will meet the buses at the Forestry Department, 173 Constant Spring Road, St Andrew, where parking is provided free of charge.
The Forestry Department has advised that all hikers must gather at the checkpoint located in the parking area at 5:30 a.m. At the checkpoint, participants will be boarded on buses and dispatched to Seville Heritage Park for the start of the hike.
Those who select the transportation-excluded option will meet at 8 a.m. at the parking lot near the startline at Seville Heritage Park.
The Forest Trek is hosted annually as part of efforts to raise public awareness about forests and their value to the natural ecosystem as well as to climate change response efforts.
Forests are home to an estimated 80 per cent of the world’s biodiversity and, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, “provide genetic material important for crop and livestock improvement and are home to many pollinator species”.
They also help to mitigate climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide and storing carbon, which are otherwise fuel for the warming of the planet, which, in turn, triggers other climate risks and threats.