Jamaica is estimated to be losing as much as 350 hectares of forest cover each year, which is much for the little island. According to Marilyn Headley, head of the Forestry Department, people are still cutting down trees, mostly to make space for housing. "You see lots of land going into housing, and you are seeing the usual agriculture, but we noticed when we looked at the St James figure, that a lot of agricultural lands are going into housing," Headley in an interview to the Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange. 

 Her department is responsible for the conservation of the approximately 110,000 hectares of forest owned by the Government and gives advice to private landowners., non si tratta più di conversione agricola, ma di nuoce abitazioni. Ora anche i terreni agricoli, otre ai boschi, sempre più sono trasformati in canteri edili”.

The paradox is that tourism is fueling the housing boom, but the subsequent landscape degradation will in the long term kill the tourism itself: "If we didn't have that nice big backdrop to look up at when you are down on the beach, then what would we be promoting?" Headley asked. "When we go through a loss of tree cover, one of the main things is that you affect your downstream activities which then affect our beaches," she explained.