The battle for access to Jamaica’s multi-billion dollar beaches | The environment

Eannually, millions of visitors from all over the world visit Jamaica to enjoy its beautiful beaches, which fuel a multi-billion dollar tourism industry. But, in recent years, its picture-perfect coastline has become a battleground for access by successive governments have created their own private beaches to support the country’s thriving all-inclusive hotel industry.

The conflict, which has seen protesters clash with police and campaigners tear down barriers in private areas, is now playing out in the country’s courts. We take a closer look at each side’s case, and what’s at stake.

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Important reading

In focus

On reaching the beach in Jamaica, battle lines are drawn. Five civil court cases were simultaneously filed against the government and private landowners in an effort to prevent the privatization of The beaches are some of the most popular tourist spots in the country. Already, at beach resorts all over the country, locals are denied access to the beach unless they pay to join hotel guests.

On the other side of the conflict are community members, handicraft traders, fishermen and other local people who make a living from the sea. They say that cutting off their access to beaches is “discriminatory”, a violation of their constitutional rights and the continuation of a “colonial mentality” that suggests Jamaicans do not deserve to enjoy and benefit from their own. natural resources.

They fought the 1956 Marine Control Act, which was passed when Jamaica was a British colony. The law placed the island’s frontage and ocean in state ownership, and activists say the government’s current ocean licensing has given private companies exclusive control over parts of Jamaica’s coastline.

In March 2018, Jamaica’s prime minister, Andrew Holness, proposed a new beach access and management policy (pdf), promising to modernize the law and increase access. But campaigners say the policy only allows for “qualifying rights” that remain subject to conditions.

On the other hand, the government argues that revenue from the country’s multibillion-dollar tourism sector benefits everyone, and beach access activists risk causing costly damage to an industry at the heart of Jamaica’s economy.

Matthew Samuda, the minister of environment and climate change, said that while “the vision of access needs to be addressed”, the government should consider how to transform Jamaica’s natural assets into “economic benefits that benefit you, me, every single citizen, the poorest among us, the richest among us”.

He said there are between 112,000 and 116,000 people in Jamaica employed in the tourism sector, and an estimated 300,000 to 350,000 – more than 10% of the population – benefit from it through related industries.

He also pointed out that recent approvals for new developments, especially on public land, require developers to carve out sea corridors. Campaigners argue that this is at the discretion of landowners, and fails to address their concerns about existing private beaches.

At the heart of the ongoing legal battle is the Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement (Jabbem). The organization was born out of necessity, its founder, Devon Taylor, tells me. Taylor, an immunologist with a PhD in biochemistry, says the battle for access to the coast made him an “anticolonial fighter”.

He founded Jabbem in 2020 after months of local protests against the management of Mammee Bay, formerly a public beach in the Saint Ann district, a popular tourist destination, near where Taylor grew up.

Central to the group’s issue is the Practitioner’s Act of 1882, which protects the legal right to land or paths that have been used as public access routes for at least 20 years. This, they say, includes beaches.

Many members of Jabbem and other community campaigning groups have strong cultural links with their beaches. It is where they learned to swim, and for families who cannot afford trips abroad or expensive hotels, it remains their main space for recreation and relaxation. For others, like the Rastas, beaches are spiritually important, places to meditate and connect with nature. The spectacular Blue Lagoon (where the group of hikers pictured above) is located in northeast Portland – where mineral springs found in the mountains meet the ocean – is a treat for adults.

And, importantly, Taylor says, the beaches have provided a livelihood for generations of fishermen, and are a source of food for local communities. “When you take us away from the sea … you are actually preparing us to starve,” he said.

Carolyn Cooper, a Jamaican professor from the University of the West Indies and a volunteer advisor at Jabbem, calls the access restrictions “outrageous”. He adds: “It is as if this government, and successive governments in Jamaica, do not see that the black people of Jamaica have the right to leisure.”

Campaigners say they are against tourism, adding that there are examples in other Caribbean countries where citizens have access to the sea and tourism is thriving. In St Lucia, for example, all beaches must be made accessible to the public.

The activists’ concern is that the current laws destroy their coasts, keep locals from accessing the resorts and are designed to benefit only the wealthy few, and most of the hotel profits go to the elite or are taken out of Jamaica entirely from foreign owners.

Although the legal process could drag on for years, and the trial has already been postponed, at great cost to campaigners, Taylor says their determination remains strong.

“Our evidence is very strong, and nothing can defeat this case to obtain the rights of the books,” he said. “So we continue. We have been very patient. And we will see victory.”

Read more:

Jamaica’s beach access crisis: ‘We should not be forced to fight for what is already ours’
Why Jamaicans can’t access their beaches
Jamaican beach access campaigners are going to court to fight the privatization of the coast