(Image credit: Norman Pogson / Alamy Stock Photo). Retrieved from theweek.com
The Caribbean can boast some of the world’s most beautiful beaches but for many of its population access to the sea and sand their island nations are famous for is getting harder.
Beach privatisation, where land is sold to multimillion-dollar developers building resorts for their exclusive clientele, has “become normalised throughout the Caribbean”, reported The Guardian in June. This is “leaving citizens’ access to public spaces threatened as the region’s natural beauty and cultural birthright is jeopardised”.
Jamaicans are among those fighting back. Earlier this year two of Bob Marley’s children, Ziggy and Cedella, joined the grassroots campaign group Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement (JaBBEM), which wants to make unconditional access and use of Jamaica’s beaches a constitutional right.
JaBBEM and other campaigners are taking legal action against companies and government agencies to protect beaches such as Bob Marley Beach in Bull Bay near Kingston and Little Dunn’s River Beach near Ocho Rios on the north coast, reported The Voice. JaBBEM has three active cases in the courts and plans to file 17 more.
Local advocacy groups say less than 1% of Jamaica’s coastline is accessible to the public. “We should be able to use our beaches. We are a beach community. We are beach people. We are a small island surrounded by water,” one local told Al Jazeera’s AJ+.