THE ENVIRONMENTAL Foundation of Jamaica-funded Area Specific Environmental Awareness Campaign for the town of Lucea in Hanover is set to have its official launch in the Hanover Parish Council car park in the town on Saturday.

The $5.5 million, 18-month project, dubbed 'Let's love Lucea', is being executed by the parish's environmental non-government organisation Dolphin Head Trust.

"The project is of extreme necessity and arose out of a need to promote conservation and waste management, to stem the high level of environmental deterioration of the town," said Paula Hurlock, executive director of the Dolphin Head Trust.

"It is a first for the parish and now assumes greater importance in light of the two most recent announcements of the Cruise Shipping Terminal at the Lucea Harbour, and the construction of a 2,000-room hotel in the town," she added.

According to Ms. Hurlock, the launch will be an all-day affair with educational displays and entertainment. Its main purpose will be to make the people of Lucea and its environs aware that there is an environmental awareness programme being effected, and that everyone has a role to play in it.

She also said that the campaign's primary target-groups are students, community groups, market vendors and fishermen.

She said that two of the trust's major partners, the Hanover Chamber of Commerce and the Hanover 4-H Club, have been assisting with the public education aspects of the project.

To date, the Hanover Chamber of Commerce has produced a documentary aimed at discouraging dumping along the roadside, as well as in the relatively pristine areas of the parish; it will be aired on the local cable channel.

Other organisations participating in the launch are United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Ridge to Reef Great River Watershed Project, the Montego Bay Marine Park, National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs of Lucea, the Negril Chamber of Commerce and the Forestry Department.

"The mammoth task of cleaning-up Lucea cannot be done by the Trust alone, (it can be done) only through cross sector partnership," Ms. Hurlock said. "A single action like cleaning up the beach or the town will not work, as this requires vigilant attack on many fronts."