The Ideas hub
Ideas
Articles and commentary by Dr. Peter Edwards on nature, economy and resilience.
EcoNexus Perspectives
Essays on the ideas behind EcoNexus.
Oceans & Coasts
Reefs, mangroves, fisheries and the blue economy. · 3 articles
Parrotfish, Revisited: What Our Reef Fish Are Telling Us
In 2016 and 2018, colleagues and I at the Jamaica Institute of Environmental Professionals argued that Jamaica's shrinking parrotfish were a warning about our reefs. The warning still stands.
Eyes on the Water: Technology, Transparency and Jamaica's Sea
Jamaica's maritime space is roughly twenty times the size of its land. In 2004 I called for better monitoring of it. The tools to do that are now cheaper and better than ever, but who owns the data matters.
Whose Beach Is It? Public Access and a Blue Economy for All
Beaches are not quite public goods and not quite private ones. How we manage that middle ground decides who gets to enjoy Jamaica's coast.
Land & Food
Watersheds, forests, regenerative farming and food security. · 2 articles
One River, Our Farm: Forty Years of Water Trade-offs in the Yallahs Valley
The Yallahs River once watered my family's farm in St Thomas. Its story shows how water decisions made far away land on farmers.
Land, Capital, Labour, Enterprise: Four Ingredients for an Agricultural Revival
Many Jamaicans believe agriculture is finished. The economics suggests it has simply never been given all the ingredients it needs.
Nature's Economics
Valuing ecosystems, green finance and alternatives to extraction. · 4 articles
Who Pays When a Reef Is Damaged?
When a ship runs aground on a coral reef, the damage is real even though no one owns the reef. The law needs a way to put a price on it.
Sand, Stone and Levies: Pricing What We Take From Our Rivers
Every truckload of river sand carries costs that never appear on the invoice. Well-designed environmental levies can put them back into the price.
Putting Nature on the National Balance Sheet
Our national accounts count the bauxite we dig up but not the forest we lose to get it. That blind spot shapes bad decisions.
Making Environmental Levies Work for People and Nature
How Jamaica's Environmental Protection Levy could raise predictable revenue and fund real resilience.
The Jamaica Gleaner · February 2026
Climate & Resilience
Hurricanes, adaptation and rebuilding with nature. · 4 articles
Hazards Are Natural. Disasters Are Made.
We cannot stop hurricanes. We can decide how much damage they do.
Chronic Conditions: Why Jamaica's Crises Keep Repeating
Dump fires, disease outbreaks and water lock-offs are not bolts from the blue. They are chronic conditions that flare into crises.
Healthy Nature, Healthy People: What COVID-19 Taught Us About Resilience
How COVID-19 exposed the links between a healthy environment and a resilient society, and why they matter after Melissa.
The Gleaner · April 2020
Dry Again: El Niño, Drought and the Water Lessons Jamaica Keeps Relearning
Why a 2014 argument about forests, water storage and food security still holds as El Niño brings drought back.
Diaspora & Development
How the global Caribbean community invests in home. · 2 articles
The Diaspora Is Not a Dollar Sign
Remittances matter. But the greatest untapped asset of the Jamaican diaspora is its skills.
Across the Ring Road: Universities and the Next Generation of Problem-Solvers
Real-world problems do not respect faculty boundaries. Our universities, and the young people they train, should not either.