Blue and John Crow Mountains

Blue and John Crow Mountains
Photo by Roman Bruehwiler.

The Blue and John Crow Mountains are a remote mountainous region known for its biodiversity and relevance to the history of Jamaican Maroons.

The region provided refuge to escaped indigenous slaves, the traces of which can be seen at Maroon archaeological sites such as hiding places and a network of trails. They lived in and around the settlement of Nanny Town. The area is limited to the Preservation Zone of the Blue Mountains and John Crow Mountains NP. These mountain ranges are covered with dense tropical, montane rainforest. A wide variety of endangered and/or endemic plant, frog and bird species is found here.

Community Perspective: the Blue Mountains and its coffee history are well on the Jamaican tourist trail, but we’re still awaiting a first review describing clear access to the rather limited core zone of old forest (earlier research on that topic can be found here).

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Kelly Rogers

USA - 31-Jan-19 -

We visited Blue and Crow Mountains in November 2017.  We hired a driver to take us from Port Antonio and we are very glad that we did.  Some of the roads were not in great shape and we got to gape at the stunning scenery.  We were told that the "good road"  will be completed all the way to the northern part of the island eventually.  It was complete from Kingston to the National Park when we went.  This would be the only part I would be willing to drive if I had a rental.  

We stayed in a guest house for a few days.  We hiked on marked trails and on one day we went on one of the ubiquitous and obligatory "hidden waterfall"  hikes.   Our guide made the history of the site come alive for us by pointing out the uses of all of the plants we encountered.  We could understand how the Maroons could live in the jungle and have everything they needed.  We did not hike to the summit of Blue Mountain, which requires getting up before sunrise to avoid the characteristic mists, because everyone we met that tried, climbed into a cloud (so no views).  

We visited a small coffee plantation and it was delicious!  Believe the hype!  The coffee is good. 

The people that live in Blue Mountains are friendly, opinionated and hospitable.  My favorite combination.  We enjoyed our visit very much and would recommend that anyone visiting Jamaica spend some time in the Blue Mountains.   

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Site Info

Full Name
Blue and John Crow Mountains
Unesco ID
1356
Country
Jamaica
Inscribed
2015
Type
Mixed
Criteria
3 6 10
Categories
Archaeological site - Caribbean Natural landscape - Forest
Link
By ID

Site History

2015 Name change

TWHS was called "Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park", but large parts of national park were moved to buffer zone during final nomination stages

2015 Inscribed

2011 Deferred

Site Links

Unesco Website
Blue and John Crow Mountains
Official Website

Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park

Related

Tourism Assessment Report Rio Grande Valley

The Nanny Town Maroons of Jamaica

In the News

Another Maroon Site Identified In Blue and John Crow Mountains (2015.12.04)

Fine of up to $50,000 for committing various offences in the Blue and John Crow Mountains (2015.12.03)

Locations

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Blue and John Crow Mountains

Connections

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Ecology
Turtles and tortoises: 1 turtle species (AB ev)
Endemic Bird Species: 101 birds (32 endemics)
Critically endangered fauna species: Arntully Robber Frog (1-249 mature individuals remaining) - possibly extinct
Bird Migrations: The Americas Flyway
Orchids: "Above 2,000m the forest is known as Elfin Forest due to the stunted and gnarled appearance of the trees which are heavily coated with epiphytes including hanging mosses, ferns and tiny orchids." (OUV)
Geography
Situated in one of the SIDS: Jamaica
Named after a Mountain: "The Blue Mountains are the longest mountain range in Jamaica. They include the island's highest point, Blue Mountain Peak, at 2256 m (7402 ft)" . The John Crow Mountains. "extend parallel with the northeast coast of the island, bounded to the west by the banks of the Rio Grande, and joining with the eastern end of the Blue Mountains in the southeast, The highest point in the range is a little over 3,750 feet (1,140 m)"
Human Activity
Maroonage: The region provided refuge to escaped indigenous slaves, the traces of which can be seen at Maroon archaeological sites such as hiding-places and a network of trails. The ‘Windward Maroons’ of the Blue Mountains region were one of two Maroon strongholds in Jamaica.
Secret Locations: Nanny Town Cultural Heritage Route .. secret trails, settlements and natural resources
Religion and Belief
Living indigenous religions: Obeah, strongly connected to Nanny of the Maroons
Timeline
Built in the 17th century: apparently before the arrival of the British in 1655, that the Maroons moved away from the Nueva Sevilla area to the north-eastern region of the Island (AB ev)
Late Pleistocene: Fauna seems to date from late Pleistocene
Trivia
Minority communities: Jamaican Maroons
Featured in the Go Jetters: Series 1: Episode 49: Blue Mountains, Jamaica
James Bond in Movies: The Blue Mountains appear in the first James Bond movie Dr No
Blue Mountains: Blue Mountains, named for the mist that gives the mountain the outstanding blue shade
Visiting conditions
No road access: The closest access is walking about 1km from the Moore Town roadhead to Nanny Falls.
WHS on Other Lists
Alliance for Zero Extinction: The BJCM contains two of Jamaica’s five Alliance for Zero Extinction sites (AB ev): Jamaican Peak Frog and Jamaica Petrel
Biodiversity hotspot: Caribbean Islands
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists: The Maroon Heritage of Moore Town was listed in 2003 as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity and then relisted in 2008 on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. (AB ev)
World Heritage Process
First inscriptions: Jamaica 2015
Only WHS in their country: Jamaica
Name changes: from Blue and Jhon Crow Mountains NP to Blue and John Crow Mountains to reflect removal of large parts of the NP to the buffer zone
Slow Starters: 1983 - 2015 (32 years)
Natural sites filling gaps cited by IUCN: The BJCM has also been identified as a gap in representation of World Heritage sites: it belongs to a Centre of Plant Diversity and an Udvardy biogeographic province not yet represented on the List and as noted above it overlaps with one of 78 most irreplaceable protected areas in the world (AB ev)

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