Banned from the beach: Jamaican locals want their ocean access back

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TRANSCRIPT
The waters of the Blue Lagoon change colour throughout the day, from glistening turquoise to deep royal blue, depending on the height of the sun.
Fed by a freshwater mineral spring, the luminous pool meets sandy beaches as it opens out to the sea.
Local man, Wilbourn Carr, has fond memories of the Lagoon, which he used to access via paths through the rainforest.
“When I was 14 years old, I learned to swim at the Blue Lagoon.  Since then, I have been attached to the Blue Lagoon. Every member of my family up to the smallest child has been to the Blue Lagoon because of the impression it made on me.”
Alex Moore-Minott is an Indigenous traditional healer from nearby Portland, and he says the lagoon has been a site of tranquillity, healing and rest for many in his community.
“It’s a place of extreme spiritual and cultural importance. People would visit from very early in the morning before work, before their hectic schedule began, and it would be a source of calmness, a sort of meditation space.”
But access to the lagoon and beach has become increasingly restricted.
Over the last few decades, the 238 acres of land surrounding the pool and beach have been sold to private owners.
In addition, the Jamaica National Heritage Trust — the government body designated to preserve and protect the country’s cultural heritage sites — declared the Blue Lagoon temporarily closed for maintenance in August 2022.
A tall fence was erected across the public road, without community consultation or a clear timeline from the NHT or local government about when it will reopen.
“And there are still restrictions on it today. And as I say, that’s the only public access for a two-kilometre coastline, the most beautiful coastline in Jamaica, which the public should have access to. But private owners have now locked us out.”
The dwindling beach access experienced by Mr Carr and his community is a common story across the island.
It’s what prompted Dr Devon Taylor to found the Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement or JaBBEM — an organisation campaigning for the recognition and protection of beach access rights for all Jamaicans.
Dr Taylor says Jamaican people can currently access less than 1 per cent of the Island’s beaches, due to the rapid expansion of both privately owned beach-front properties and all-inclusive resorts, many of which offer exclusive beach access to guests.
“The Jamaicans that live across the road, who for generations could just walk across the road and into the sea, can’t do it anymore. That’s the fact truth. It’s very clear. We have lost a tremendous amount of access.”
JaBBEM has launched a series of legal cases against the government, private landowners and hotel companies to secure the public’s rights to access the island’s beaches and waterways.
Marcus Goffe is a human rights lawyer representing JaBBEM and community members in these cases.
He says at the heart of the issue of beach access is a colonial-era law called the Beach Control Act, which prioritises private landowners and foreign investors over ordinary Jamaicans.
Under the Act, the Jamaican people have no inherent rights to bathe, walk or fish at the island’s beaches, and the owner of a beachfront property maintains all rights for the access and use of the beach.
Mr Goffe says this Act, which is still in place despite Jamaica gaining independence in 1962, is part of a long colonial history of inequality and dispossession.
“The Act emphasises the rights of landowners. Historically, they were the ones who were the slave masters, who were the colonisers, who were primarily from England and Britain.”
After emancipation in 1838, former slaves did not receive any land or reparations, which Taylor says continues to disadvantage their descendants today.
“What we have experienced and endured over time is being second-class citizens in our country in terms of the rights to resources, in terms of the rights to land.”
Dr Taylor says Jamaica’s beaches are spaces where ongoing inequality and disadvantage are clearly visible.
If a private owner or hotel permits access to locals, he says they often charge exorbitant fees which the average Jamaican person can’t regularly afford.
“The model is just really discriminatory. Our socioeconomic status is really not one that will allow a family of five to go to the beach twice, three times a week.”
As a result, he says beaches have become increasingly segregated spaces where foreign tourists rule.
“You could spend seven days on a beach in a resort and never experience the culture and the life of the country. You may not even see a black Jamaican in the sea. You may have a server, someone who will care for your room, and at the end of the day when they work their eight hours, they can’t take off their clothes and go and swim in the sea to relax. They have to walk through that gate and leave.”
In response to rising concern, the government has promised to increase the number of beaches designated for public use.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced plans in March to upgrade nine free-to-access community beaches across the island.
However, Mr Goffe says even if more beaches are designated as ‘public,’ the Beach Control Act means their access remains uncertain.
“The public’s rights are not guaranteed and secure. Whereas a private land owner can buy land and pass it on to his great great great grandchildren, the public has no such protection whatsoever.”
If wholesale change is not yet on offer, Mr Goffe hopes the cases currently before the courts will at least secure access for the communities he’s representing.
Wilbourn Carr, who will be attending the Blue Lagoon trial later this month as a plaintiff, hopes the case is one important step toward a future where the Jamaican people are no longer locked away from their coast.
“We cannot afford to lose the last public access there is to the Blue Lagoon. People will not have access to the coastlines of Jamaica anymore. And this is not just for Portland, it is being spread all over Jamaica and it makes those of us who are culturally conscious very, very scared.”
This episode was produced in collaboration with SBS Dateline. You can read more about diminishing beach access in Jamaica and the fight to secure public access rights at
www.sbs.com/news/dateline
.