Jamaica’s beaches are not just real estate. They are part of our national identity, our cultural inheritance, our environment, and our people’s way of life.
For generations, Jamaicans have gathered by the sea to fish, worship, heal, reason, celebrate, and simply breathe. The coastline is part of the soul of the island. Yet under the colonial-era Beach Control Act of 1956, Jamaicans still do not enjoy a clear, general right of access to the beaches, foreshore, rivers, and sea that define this country. The campaign correctly points out that Jamaica’s own Beach Access and Management Policy acknowledges there is no general common-law right to bathe, walk along the foreshore, or access beaches except in limited circumstances.
Bob Marley Beach in Bull Bay, St. Thomas, represents more than one shoreline. It is a cultural and spiritual landmark connected to Bob Marley, Rastafari heritage, fisherfolk livelihoods, and community memory. The threat of losing public access there is part of a much wider national pattern affecting communities across Jamaica, from St. Thomas to Westmoreland, Hanover, St. Elizabeth, St. Ann, St. Mary, and Portland.
This is not only about where people swim.
It is about who Jamaica is being built for.
As beachfront development expands, too many Jamaicans are being pushed farther away from the very coastline that shapes the country’s global image. Tourism markets the beauty of Jamaica’s beaches to the world, but the Jamaican people must never become strangers to their own shore.
We are calling on the Government of Jamaica to repeal and replace the Beach Control Act of 1956 with modern legislation that protects public beach access, safeguards fisherfolk and coastal communities, respects cultural and spiritual heritage, and strengthens environmental protection along Jamaica’s coastline.
Jamaica needs a fair, modern beach access law.
One that recognizes beaches, rivers, and the sea as part of the people’s ecological and cultural inheritance.
One that balances development with justice.
One that says clearly: Jamaica’s coastline must remain accessible to Jamaicans.
Protect Bob Marley Beach.
Protect community access.
Protect Jamaica’s beaches for this generation and the next.
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