Earth Today | A final goodbye

DR SUSAN Otuokon has bid adieu to her conservation work, moving on from the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust (JCDT), managers of the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, and an entity she served for more than two decades.

In responding to queries from The Gleaner, she explained that while her passion for the environment has never waned, material realities and considerations to do with her family have made it necessary to move on – though not before having done the work to shore up the sustained operations of the JCDT into the future.

“This departure was prompted by the need to move on and do something for myself after over 30 years’ service on behalf of our environment. Whilst it was my passion, financial realities and grandchildren led me to the decision to move on about three years ago. Hence, I started the process of institutional and succession planning in 2019,” said Otuokon, who first joined the JCDT as parks and protected areas officer in 1990 before leaving and then rejoining as programmes manager in 1996.

She subsequently assumed the role of executive director (ED) in 2002, following a stint doing consultancy work and three years spent as ED for the Negril Area Environmental Protection Trust.

“I left again for West Africa in 2010 and returned to Jamaica in 2011 and to the ED post in 2012,” Outuokon, now 58, said.

Looking back, she said the decision to leave “is bittersweet”.

“I loved my work at the JCDT and in the Blue Mountains but it was time for me to move on; and I mentored and trained a good team to take over,” she said.

That includes the new ED, David Walters.

“David Walters was part of the succession plan,” Otuokon said.

“A graduate from the MSc Programme I lectured in and a student intern in 2019, I have told him not to try to fill my shoes or follow my path but to chart new paths based on his expertise – in geography, IT and GIS,” she added.

Walters has high praise for Otuokon.

“Her contribution to Jamaica and to the environment sector are invaluable. She is really a pillar of the JCDT. Her contributions are significant, not only in terms of tangible impact on the ground, but as a developer; she is somebody able to develop an organisation and develop people. I am just one example of the people she has mentored and developed,” he told The Gleaner.

“JCDT is in a much better place because of the work of Dr Otuokon. We are sad about her leaving, but we understand and she did a really a good job in terms of succession planning … I am able to do this work because I stand on the shoulders of a giant,” Walters added.

Otuokon, meanwhile, counts as part of her best known credits the years-long work to have the Blue and John Crow Mountains designated a World Heritage Site. Its inscription on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation World Heritage List took place in July 2015.

The national park, which spans some 41,198 hectares (or 101,313 acres) and includes Jamaica’s highest point, the Blue Mountain Peak at 2,256 metres (or 7,401 feet) – is now a recognised location of international cultural diversity and natural wealth; and eligible, among other things, for preservation funding, monitoring and ongoing conservation. It has also been attracting more visitors.

Also to her credit is the onboarding of social media as an important marketing tool and the development of the volunteer corp and internship programmes.

Still, Otuokon is most proud of her efforts to develop people.

“I think my legacy is the hundreds of people, young and not so young, whom I have lectured … trained and mentored,” said the conservationist and scholar, who is the new University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC) vice president for institutional advancement and executive director for the UCC Foundation.

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