JaBBEM calls for repeal of ‘colonial’ Beach Control Act

WESTERN BUREAU:

A call is being made for Jamaicans to lobby the Government to repeal and replace the Beach Control Act of 1956, which Dr Devon Taylor, president of the Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement (JaBBEM), says is robbing citizens of their rightful access to the nation’s beaches and coastlines.

Addressing the Kiwanis Club of Kingston on Tuesday, Taylor said the current issue of restricted beach access is indicative of plantation tourism – tourism that benefits foreigners at the expense of locals – which, he explained, is rooted in the regulated control of land during the days of slavery.

“The plantation was historically characterised by concentrated control of valuable land, and it is the very same thing here, with external markets and unequal labour relations. Plantation tourism reproduces elements of a spatial relationship in a modern tourism economy, but the commodity has changed; the plantation once exported sugar, but the modern tourism enclave exports an experience, yet land, labour, foreign exchange, and control remain central,” said Taylor.

“The Beach Control Act itself reveals this whole philosophy around controlling the beach and the foreshore, controlling people who use it, licence uses, permits, and all these kinds of restrictions. What we are demanding is for listeners who are interested to help us to get the Beach Control Act of 1956 repealed and replaced; not to replace colonial control with 20th-century-managed control, but to replace it with free and unfettered permanent rights to the Jamaican coastline for present and future generations,” Taylor added.

RECURRING SOURCE OF CONTENTION

The issue of public access to beaches that have reportedly been sold to private investors has been a recurring source of contention in recent years. According to JaBBEM, only 2.8 miles of Jamaica’s 494 miles of shoreline, or less than one per cent of the coastline, are accessible to the general public.

Under Section 4 of the Beach Control Act, the owner or occupier of any land adjoining any part of Jamaica’s foreshore – the shoreline between the water and cultivated or developed land – is entitled to use that area for private domestic purposes. Section 5 forbids encroachment on the foreshore for any public purpose or commercial intent without the requisite licence.

In 2022, concerns arose about fisherfolk and other residents of Mammee Bay, St Ann, being denied access to Mammee Bay Beach, where hotel construction was under way. In 2023, beach-rights campaigners in Portland protested the lack of public access to Blue Lagoon Beach via the parochial road. JaBBEM also has an ongoing court case regarding access to Flanker/Providence Beach in St James, which is being targeted for resort development.

JaBBEM has long argued for public access to Jamaica’s beaches, citing Section 4 of the Prescription Act, which states that if a public beach has been used for public fishing, bathing or recreation for 20 years, and any adjacent road or track has been used to access the beach over that period, then the public will have the absolute right to use the beach and access points as stated.

Taylor told Tuesday’s meeting that Jamaicans must be educated about environmental matters and the importance of caring for and moderating their local spaces, including beaches.

“Citizens must be empowered to control their local spaces, and these spaces must not be controlled by central government. Many of our folks are not steeped in aspects of environmentalism, so that is an aspect that is going to come into play, because they have been deracinated (separated) from the coastline for many generations,” said Taylor.

“We should refuse the falsehood that we must choose between tourism or beach rights, investment or community, development or fishermen, jobs or environmental protection, and hotels or public access,” Taylor continued.

“The real question is under whose rule development occurs, who benefits, and what rights are guaranteed to the people. A hotel can operate beside a public coastline, tourists and Jamaicans can share the same beach, fishing communities and tourism can coexist, and conservation and public access can coexist,” he added.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com