Assessment — Category Two.
The Category
Commercial, industrial, and environmental threats to the territorial integrity of the Sovereign State of Accompong and to the surrounding Cockpit Country landscape on which the State depends.
The category includes:
- Unauthorized mining, quarrying, and mineral extraction
- Logging and land clearing without the consent of the State
- Infrastructure projects that cut, divide, or degrade Maroon-held lands
- Hydrological interference — diversions, extractions, and contamination affecting the watercourses of the Cockpit Country
- Land transactions conducted without the lawful authority of the State
- Administrative actions by third-party governments affecting land within the Treaty grant or its periphery
Why the Category Exists
Article 3 of the 1738 Treaty grants the Maroons 1,500 acres between Trelawney Town and the Cockpits for themselves and posterity for ever. The phrase is unambiguous. The land is perpetual and inheritable.
But the 1,500-acre grant is not an island. It sits within the larger Cockpit Country — the watershed, the karst landscape, the forest, and the ecological system that has sustained the Maroons since the earliest settlements. A grant of land that cannot breathe is not a grant that endures.
The Office therefore watches not only the Treaty grant itself, but the broader landscape on which the grant depends. Threats to the surrounding country are threats to the viability of the State.
The Position of the Office
The territorial grant of the 1738 Treaty is held by the State in perpetuity for its people and their posterity. It is not alienable by private transaction. It is not subject to unilateral redefinition by third-party authorities. It is not extinguished by non-use, by lapse of time, or by the substitution of successor governments.
The Office maintains a standing position on three points:
- The lands granted under Article 3 of the 1738 Treaty are held by the State. No third party has standing to dispose of them.
- The State retains an interest in the ecological integrity of the Cockpit Country surrounding the grant — the watershed, the forest, and the land system on which the people have depended for three centuries.
- Commercial and administrative actions affecting the land fall within the scope of this Office’s watch, and where warranted, its formal response.
What the Office Watches
- Licensing of extractive activity within or adjacent to Maroon-held lands
- Proposed infrastructure, road, and utility corridors crossing the Treaty grant or its watershed
- Land registration, title transfer, and administrative boundary actions bearing on Treaty lands
- Environmental assessments, permits, and public consultations affecting the Cockpit Country
- Commercial developments marketed on or near lands held in connection with the Treaty
For formal notices relating to specific projects, permits, or actions, see Advisories.
For the Born and the Unborn.