More Calls for Jamaicans to Get Access to Local Beaches as Foreigners are Prioritised

Jamaican beaches and hotels have been dubbed the new plantation by activist Dr Devon Taylor, as major companies seize control of the island’s shoreline, cutting off free beach access to Jamaicans.

Tourism is touted as a major component of the Jamaican economy, with foreign nationals flocking to the island’s hotels in their thousands each year. However, with hoteliers claiming Jamaica’s most picturesque locations on the island’s coastline, less than 1% of the country’s coastline is accessible to the Jamaican public.

This was highlighted and discussed on an episode of the Al Jazeera news network’s programme The Take, with Dr Taylor sharing his thoughts on the growing issue. Taylor, who is the president of the Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement (JABBEM), expressed that companies are using the same extractive methods used by colonialists, who excluded the Jamaican people as they extracted its natural resources.

Taylor said that he does not wish for his organisations to appear as if they are anti-tourism as there is a place for it but its current model needs to be changed.

“Tourism in all its purest form, exchange of ideas, interaction of people is very important for the human family. But we cannot allow this kind of model. We’d like that Beach Control Act of 1956 to be repealed, to be replaced by something that is more just and equitable that gives us the fundamental rights to our beaches and our river,” Taylor stated.

Taylor also noted that while some view tourism as a substantial contributor to the Jamaican economy and a liberator, the average Jamaican does not benefit from it.

“We don’t have world-class education system that is a result of income from tourism. Our healthcare system is not world-class because of tourism [ … ] The average person is not feeling this big money that coming from tourism. In fact, I think there’s only 5 cents of every dollar that stays in the country. So while we’re seeing exclusion of our people we’re not really benefitting,” Taylor said.

Taylor’s organisation, JABBEM, currently has four ongoing cases in the Jamaican court attempting to protect public access to locations such as the Blue Lagoon Beach in Portland, Bob Marley Beach in St. Andrew, and Little Dunn’s River in Ocho Rios. Speaking on the current plans to expel residents from Bob Marley beach and make way for an exclusive hotel, JABBEM attorney Marcus Goffe, said that the brand of the location was built by its residents.

“They have maintained this beach, Rastafarian community named this beach Bob Marley [ … ] And so the whole brand of what you see down here have been built up by the people of the soil from here. And so anyone who is going to come here must then come here and join and support and strengthen these people here. They can’t be coming here to dispossess them,” Goffe stated.

Watch the video report below.