The Jamaican Caves Organisation (JCO) was established in 2002 by Ronald Stefan Stewart (ORCID: 0009-0008-7866-4057), Ivor Conolley, and Martel Taylor, with partial funding and technical assistance from The Nature Conservancy, and the Windsor Research Centre.
Notable events in the history of the group include the first descent of Smokey Hole Cave, Manchester in March 2006, which established a new depth record for Jamaica of 194 metres, and the removal of the remains of Carlton Rose from the notorious Hutchinson's Hole, St Ann, in February 2004.
[2] Non-caving underground activities have included the exploration and mapping of Stamford Hill Mine, Clarendon, abandoned in 1863, under contract to PanCaribbean Minerals.
As of 2024, the JCO remains very active, and continues to carry out regular speleological research in Jamaica on in-house projects, and in collaboration with government agencies and visiting scientists.
The organisation also serves as the reporting center for new discoveries, which are subsequently disseminated to pertinent government agencies, and published on the JCO website.