Jamaica's picturesque coastlines are at the centre of a bitter dispute over public beach access, as local communities take on what they call 'plantation tourism'. A model that prioritises luxury resorts over locals' traditional use of their shores has left many questioning whose beaches these are. In Mammee Bay, St Ann, residents recall a thriving public shoreline now largely denied to them.
Devon Taylor, founder of the Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement (Jabbem), points to Mammee Bay as a prime example of the issue. He recounts how locals were locked out in 2019 by fences and security personnel hired by investors developing luxury hotels. Protests followed, with temporary reoccupation, but concrete walls were eventually erected, leading to what Taylor described as 'violent displacement', including reports of gunshots fired to disperse protestors.
Five court cases are currently ongoing, challenging the implications of the 1956 Beach Control Act. This law, inherited from colonial rule, grants the state ownership of the island's foreshore and seabed but requires government permission for beach development. Campaigners argue this legislation underpins a discriminatory tourism model that concentrates wealth among an elite at the expense of local communities.
In Portland parish, residents of the Blue Lagoon area claim betrayal after local authorities closed the lagoon in 2022, citing future improvements and opportunities for vendors and guides. However, it was allegedly discovered that the closure was intended to facilitate private villa construction, effectively cutting off public access. The Blue Lagoon, renowned for its natural beauty and cultural significance, is a site locals refuse to surrender, citing its long-standing role in sustaining surrounding communities and providing healing properties from its mineral springs.
Activists Colin Beckford, president of the Blue Lagoon Alliance, and 73-year-old Wilbourn Carr, who has frequented the lagoon since childhood, underscore the profound social, economic, and spiritual importance these beaches hold for generations of Jamaicans. They argue that successive governments have failed to address inequities stemming from colonial-era land ownership, where beaches and other lands were transferred to the Jamaican state upon independence in 1962 but much of the managing legal framework remained.
The first of these pivotal court cases is scheduled for late March, as local communities push back against a tourism model they see as out of touch with their needs. It remains to be seen whether this challenge will yield significant change or further entrench the status quo.