Key facts
- Jamaican activists are engaged in legal battles to regain public access to several beaches, including Mammee Bay, Little Dunn's River, and Blue Lagoon.
- These beaches, historically significant for social, economic, and spiritual reasons, are being increasingly privatized for luxury tourism development.
- Activists argue the current tourism model resembles "plantation tourism," benefiting elites and foreign visitors while marginalizing local communities.
- The government states its commitment to ensuring natural assets benefit citizens and is developing new beach parks and access corridors.
- New legislation, the Narra Act, is criticized by activists for potentially weakening established rights to public access pathways.
Jamaican activists are locked in a struggle to preserve public access to the nation's beaches, which they argue are being encroached upon by a tourism model that benefits elites and foreign visitors over local communities. Devon Taylor, founder of the Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement (Jabbem), highlights the Mammee Bay shoreline as a focal point, recalling a time when it was a vibrant community space before fences and security guards, hired by luxury hotel investors, blocked access in 2019.
Protests against these restrictions led to the removal of fences, but were met with further barriers and what Taylor describes as "violent displacement." Jabbem and other campaigners are involved in five court cases across the island, including at Little Dunn’s River, Blue Lagoon, Bob Marley beach, and Flankers/Providence beach. They contend that these spaces hold deep social, economic, and spiritual significance, inherited from colonial times when beaches were designated as "crown land" and subsequently managed by the state under laws like the 1956 Beach Control Act.
Campaigners at the Blue Lagoon claim they were misled by local authorities who promised a temporary closure for improvements but allegedly intended to permanently restrict public access for private villa development. Similarly, in Flankers, activists are fighting to restore a neglected beach and have filed an injunction against developers. They assert their right to these ancestral lands, emphasizing their importance for recreation, sustenance, and spiritual practice.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change Matthew Samuda stated the government is committed to ensuring natural assets benefit citizens, citing the development of new beach parks and insistence on access corridors for new developments. However, activists like Damion Coombs criticize the justification of restricted access for tourism protection as echoing colonial-era logic. Prime Minister Andrew Holness has proposed a new beach access policy, but campaigners worry it still permits unacceptable restrictions, such as "qualified rights" that could allow fees or arbitrary denial of entry. Jabbem is also concerned that the new Narra Act, designed to fast-track rebuilding, may undermine legal rights to pathways used for over 20 years.