Int’l swimmer lends support to local beach rights campaign

WESTERN BUREAU:

Internationally acclaimed marathon swimmer Eva Buzo completed a 30-kilometre swim along the coastline from Trelawny to St James on Sunday to highlight the ongoing movement surrounding beach access rights in Jamaica.

Buzo swam from the Half Moon Bay in Falmouth, Trelawny, to the One Man Beach in Montego Bay, St James, over a 10-hour period as part of the Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement’s (JaBBEM) Swim for Rights Jamaica campaign.

The endeavour marked the second of a series of swims she has undertaken to bring attention to the issue of beach access rights, following a 40-kilometre swim in Puerto Rico earlier this month.

“This swim is in support of the crew of JaBBEM and the amazing work that they are doing to fight for access to beaches for the general public in Jamaica,” said Buzo, who is also a human-rights attorney. “This project is about unifying movements across the globe, where you have regular people being displaced from public lands in order to build luxury resorts, and the residents of those areas are standing up and saying no.”

Buzo said she has been using these swims to draw attention to key human-rights issues that local communities are fighting for.

“I hope this effort can elevate the work of JaBBEM, because privatising of beaches tends to happen in little pieces all over, and people often do not realise that it is happening to other people elsewhere as well,” she added.

Buzo’s collaboration with JaBBEM began in August this year, after she performed a marathon swim in support of the Flamingo Revolution in her native Albania. That revolution started in May this year over concerns that the Albanian government was selling protected lands to build luxury resorts.

“After I did that swim, a group of four island nations, including Jamaica, collaborated on a video where they said, ‘Everyone’s talking about the Flamingo Revolution in Albania, but the same problem is happening in our countries, and we’re trying to fight these issues, too.’ I reached out to the people in those videos and told them I would love to come and do a solidarity swim for them,” said Buzo.

JaBBEM President Dr Devon Taylor told The Gleaner that the Swim for Rights Jamaica campaign is intended to bring fresh attention to his organisation’s concerns about the Beach Control Act of 1956. The group has stated on several occasions that the act restricts Jamaican citizens’ public access to the nation’s beaches.

“Eva Buzo’s swim in open water is symbolic of freedom, and this swimmer took back the sea, stroke by stroke. A nation that cannot touch its own shoreline is not fully free, but let us be clear that this is not a stunt; it is a demand to repeal the colonial law and write a new one that names the beach as a birthright, not a product,” said Taylor.

In Jamaica, disputes have arisen in recent years over the issue of public access to beaches that have reportedly been sold to private investors.

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.

However, JaBBEM has argued that Jamaica’s beaches should be publicly accessible, citing Section 4 of the Prescription Act. That section 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.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com