Devon Taylor and Emiel Martens | Beach dispossession in Jamaica: What’s the data really telling us?

In recent weeks, the Jamaican government has launched a campaign to counter the growing public discontent over beach access across the island. Instead of engaging with the discontent and acknowledging the issue, the government’s reputation management, or rather crisis management, has focused on discrediting those speaking out and presenting statistics suggesting that there is “no problem” in Jamaica.

The Tourism Minister Bartlett publicly criticised all people raising concerns about public access to Jamaica’s beaches internationally. According to Bartlett, if there were a problem, it should be addressed within Jamaica rather than by airing these concerns abroad. He further argued that “untruthful claims” created “a false impression internationally”. In particular, Bartlett rejected the claim that only one per cent of Jamaica’s coastline is accessible to the public. Likewise, Environment Minister Samuda dismissed this claim as “complete, total nonsense” and “a fallacy and a lie”.

Recently, the Ministry of Tourism published several “facts on Jamaica’s beaches” to refute the information circulating in international media. According to the ministry, these posts were based on data from the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA). On August 12, they posted that there are 70 recognised public beaches across Jamaica, followed on August 13 by a post claiming that as much as 74.7 per cent of the country’s “sandy beach coastline is public beach”. Then, on August 19, they boasted that there are 60 public bathing beaches that are “free to enter”.

While NEPA data supports that there are indeed around 70 designated public beaches across the island (although the accessibility and condition of several of these beaches are disputed), the 74.7 per cent figure is definitely not, and significantly overstates the proportion of public recreational beaches. When we challenged the ministry on this figure and shared NEPA data contradicting the claim, our comment was deleted and our account blocked. That’s why we have decided to share the NEPA data here: to set the record straight and show that the actual figures paint a very different picture.

First, the government’s focus on statistics as a distraction from the real issue. It diverts attention from both the lived reality of the Jamaican people and the legal reality that Jamaicans do not have a fundamental right to access the coastline and use the sea. That is the core problem: Jamaicans can access beaches only by permission, not by right, and, in the vast majority of cases, the State has not granted that permission, let alone enshrined in law the right of all Jamaicans to access the island’s coastline. Having said that, we want to address the government’s “facts on beaches” and demonstrate that the figures we and others have presented are accurate and based on data from NEPA.

Let’s start with the one per cent figure. According to NEPA, about three miles of Jamaica’s coastline are designated as public beaches, with another two miles classified as public bathing beaches associated with hotels. Given that Jamaica has 494 miles of coastline, these five miles represent just one per cent of the island’s total coastline. If we exclude the two miles of public bathing beaches associated with hotels, which, as we all know, are not public beaches, the figure even drops to 0.6 per cent. So, yes, it’s very much accurate to say that Jamaicans have access to less than one per cent of Jamaica’s coastline. Beyond the designated public beaches, the State has not granted the public permission to access the coastline.

Of course, not all of Jamaica’s coastline consists of sandy beaches. Indeed, of the island’s 795 km of shoreline, “approximately 30 per cent is characterized as sandy beach” (NEPA 2000). However, when we focus on the sandy coastline, the data also paints a troubling picture. While the government’s campaign boasts that Jamaica has around 70 public beaches, it fails to mention that there are almost four times as many non-public beaches. According to NEPA, in 2000, there were “87 public recreational beaches used by the public for bathing”, alongside “275 beaches associated with guest houses and villas” and “61 bathing beaches associated with hotels”. In other words, there were 87 public beaches compared to 336 non-public beaches. Thus, of all the recreational beaches identified by NEPA, only 20 per cent were public, while 80 per cent were private and tourist beaches, a staggering statistic that is not mentioned by the government for obvious reasons.

In recent times, the statistic has become even more staggering. By 2025, the number of public beaches had fallen to 72, or 17 per cent of all recreational beaches. The number of tourist or private beaches had risen to about 352, or 83 per cent, though some no longer function as beaches because of deterioration. NEPA’s data thus shows a clear decline in public beach access over time. Between 2000 and 2025, 16 designated public recreational beaches disappeared, an 18 per cent decrease in 25 years.

The NEPA data leaves little room for doubt: the vast majority of Jamaica’s recognised recreational beaches are private or tourism beaches, while only a small minority are public. Moreover, the number of public beaches has steadily declined over the years and continues to be under pressure, with several communities facing attempted dispossession at this very moment. And, please note that this data does not even account for the many fishing beaches that have disappeared or are currently under threat, such as Jacob Taylor Beach in Trelawny, Sanco Bay/Drapers in Portland, and Rocky Point/Pera in St Thomas (all on the government’s list of public beaches), with devastating consequences for the livelihoods of many Jamaicans.

Taken together, the data raises a fundamental question: who owns and benefits from Jamaica’s beaches? At the heart of the problem lies the Beach Control Act of 1956, a colonial-era law that has enabled successive governments to deny Jamaicans’ rights to their own coastline and perpetuates patterns of colonial dispossession. Repealing and replacing this act should be a part of internal reparations, one that recognises and restores Jamaicans’ right to land, water, a healthy environment, and the fundamental right to access the coastline.

Dr Devon Taylor is the president of JaBBEM, Dr Emiel Martens is the co-director of Beach Inna Bondage.