negative environmental impacts of tourism in jamaica

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The environmental impact of mass tourism: A case study of Negril, Jamaica, 1970s-2023

Henrice Altink introduces her new article in Environment and History, Making Tourism Sustainable? Environment and Resort Tourism in Negril, Jamaica, 1970s–2002 . Mass tourism has had severe environmental impacts but there are hopeful signs that sustainability is becoming central to the development agenda in the 2020s.

Mass tourism generates jobs, brings in revenue and enhances cultural learning but can also lead to a dependency on tourism, a loss of cultural identity, pressure on natural resources and environmental degradation.

Negril, one of the main resort areas in Jamaica, provides a useful case study for environmental historians to explore mass tourism’s environmental impact and attempts to make it more sustainable. It was planned by the Government of Jamaica (GoJ) as a resort town in the 1960s and 1970s, rapidly expanded in the 1980s and 1990s, when numerous large and mostly all-inclusive hotels were built, and had an active environmental lobby.

The impact of the development of mass tourism on the coastal environment, including beach erosion, reef destruction and loss of mangroves, only becomes visible after some time.

By the mid- to late-1970s, several scientists began to draw attention to the pollution of Negril’s coastal waters by sewage from hotels as many used septic tanks. In the 1980s, they were joined by local stakeholders, ranging from the Negril Chamber of Commerce (NCC), which was largely made up of small hoteliers, and local environmental groups such as the Negril Coral Reef Protection Society, set up by divers and diving operators. They lobbied both the GoJ and international donors to improve sewage disposal, supported by data that they had collected. For example, the NCC set up a water quality monitoring system and undertook a reef survey. These efforts had some success as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) agreed to extend existing sewage lines and the European Economic Community (EEC) offered to fund a central sewage plant.

The GoJ was reliant on international donors to undertake sewage and other infrastructural developments in tourist resorts because of its limited fiscal space. In the 1980s, it took out several Structural Adjustment Loans that came with various conditions, including a reduction in public spending. The GoJ also made some marginal changes in planning processes by stipulating in the early 1990s that planning applications for hotels required an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) – an assessment of the impact of a planned project on the environment including vegetation, biodiversity, ecology and water. The EIA included a public discussion which local stakeholders in Negril actively used to raise concerns about proposed hotel developments.

Other than changing planning processes and working with international donors to improve sewage infrastructure, the GoJ did little to make tourism more sustainable. It, for instance, never mandated that hotels adopt energy-saving practices. This was not just because of its financial constraints; tourism was key to the Jamaican economy – it was the main foreign-exchange earner – and it was a private-sector driven industry.

Alongside local stakeholders, international donors such as the World Bank also put pressure on the GoJ to address the environmental sustainability of the sector. They also provided funding for initiatives to make tourism more sustainable, such as USAID which in the 1990s ran a programme that worked with small hotels in Negril to undertake environmental audits. This should be seen in light of a global shift towards sustainable tourism; that is, ‘tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities’ ( UNWTO ). In the wake of the 1992 United Nations’ Earth Summit (also known as the Rio Conference) which highlighted the need to adopt the principles of sustainable development in a wide range of economic and social processes, the World Tourism Organisation published a set of recommendations for governments and tourism operators to make tourism more sustainable.

The combined pressure of local stakeholders and international donors along with regional and local initiatives to make tourism more sustainable, such as the Caribbean Hoteliers Association’s Action for Sustainable Tourism which provided workshops, training courses and guidance material for its members on a range of environmental issues, encouraged the GoJ to develop a Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism. Work started in 1998 when consultations were held with various stakeholders, including local communities, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the industry. It was completed in 2002 and addressed all three impacts of tourism. With regards to the environmental impact, the plan mentioned a new location strategy, environmental mitigation measures and support for the industry to adopt sustainable practices, which addressed some of the concerns raised by environmental groups and industry stakeholders in Negril, including poor sewage infrastructure and lack of inclusive planning. But it was not radical. It largely built on work already going on in Negril and other resorts, such as environmental audits, and the GoJ remained reluctant to prescribe changes in the industry. Furthermore, the island’s overall tourism strategy remained firmly focussed on the 3Ss – sun, sea and sand – which led to more tourist arrivals and an increase in hotel accommodation. Between 2002 and 2018, the number of hotel rooms available in Negril increased from 3,543 to 5,965 and the number of stopover arrivals rose from 256,667 to 410,665 ( Jamaica Tourist Board annual travel statistics).

Because of its dependency on tourism, Jamaica was hit hard by the pandemic, which caused a 10 per cent decline in real GDP ( World Bank ). In the wake of the pandemic, various new tourism developments have been negotiated with government support. EIAs for these developments, including the 2,000-room Princess hotel in Negril, have been quickly approved despite objections by residents and environmental groups that local infrastructure cannot accommodate these large-scale developments and that they will destroy flora and fauna. However, there are some hopeful signs that the GoJ is trying to strike a better balance between the economic and the environmental sustainability of tourism, most notably its decision to finally replace the Master Plan. With support from the Interamerican Development Bank and input from industry stakeholders and civil society organisations, the GoJ embarked in 2023 on the development of a new tourism strategy that will put sustainability – economic, social and environmental – at its centre ( Ministry of Tourism , 2023).

Originally posted on 1 March 2024 on White Horse Press blog .

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An assessment of the economic impact of climate change on the tourism sector in Jamaica

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Description

Climate change is a continuous process that began centuries ago. Today the pace of change has increased with greater rapidity because of global warming induced by anthropogenically generated greenhouse gases (GHG). Failure to effectively deal with the adverse outcomes can easily disrupt plans for sustainable economic development. Because of the failure of export agriculture over the last several decades, to provide the economic stimuli needed to promote economic growth and development, Jamaica, like many other island states in the Caribbean subregion, has come to rely on tourism as an instrument of transformation of the macro-economy. It is believed this shift in economic imperative would eventually provide the economic impetus needed to generate much needed growth and development. This assessment has shown that tourism is not only a leading earner of foreign exchange in Jamaica and a major creator of both direct and indirect jobs but, also, one of the principal contributors to the country‟s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The rapid expansion of the industry which occurred over the last several decades coupled with disregard for sound environmental practices has led to the destruction of coral reefs and the silting of wetlands. Because most of the industry is located along the coastal region it is extremely vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. Failure to address the predictable environmental challenges of climate change, with some degree of immediacy, will not only undermine, but quickly and seriously impair the capacity of industry to stimulate and contribute to the process of economic development. To this end, it important that further development of industry be characterised by sound economic and social planning and proper environmental practices.

Table of contents

.-- I. Introduction.-- II. The economic impact of tourism in Jamaica.--III. Climate, Sea level rise, Coral reefs and Trends.-- IV. Impact of extreme events.-- V. Climate change and future environmental scenarios for Jamaica.-- VI. Vulnerability of Jamaica's tourism to extreme and climate changes.-- VII. Methodology and data.-- VIII. Results of the model.-- Estimate of potential for mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in the tourism sector.-- X. Adaptation measures and options.

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Jamaica is developing, but at what cost?

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Photos of Montego Bay by Emma Lewis, taken from Doctor's Cave Beach looking towards the lagoon, used with permission.

Several recent announcements about large developments along Jamaica’s idyllic north coast, a popular tourist destination, have local environmentalists concerned. On January 26, CEO of the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie's Letter to the Editor was published in the Jamaica Gleaner, in which she called for greater transparency and public engagement in such developments.

Noting that although ground has already been broken on The Pinnacle, a series of 28-storey luxury high-rises that sit on approximately 17.5 acres of waterfront property, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has not yet been done, and community stakeholders have not been engaged in any meaningful way, she added: “According to the development’s website , all government approvals were received as of August 2023. They have already started to market the project to potential homeowners/investors. This approach highlights several recurring issues observed in environmental decision-making in Jamaica […] JET has long argued for mandatory EIAs for projects which pose significant environmental risks.”

EIAs in Jamaica are conducted at the discretion of the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), but it remains unclear why some projects require an EIA and others do not. Rodriguez-Moodie also believes that all types of environmental assessments — not simply EIAs — and environmental permits should be publicly available on NEPA’s website, saying, “Engagement should go beyond simply seeking public acceptance (which is often the method used in EIAs), and should include consensus-based public dialogue aimed at reaching better decisions.”

A critical concern with The Pinnacle location is its proximity to the Montego Bay Marine Park , Jamaica's first marine area which includes a five-square kilometre park and two special fishery conservation areas. While the Jamaica Environment Trust says the project is not located entirely within the Park, some of its amenities, including the marina, are, and “land-based impacts to the marine environment can come from all adjacent lands, whether protected or not.”

The development is driven by LCH Developments, which describes itself as “a significant real estate investment, development and management group […] committed to delivering positive change through sustainable, high-quality developments that improve and enhance the communities in which it operates.”

At the groundbreaking ceremony for the development on January 20, Prime Minister Andrew Holness boasted that the property would contain the tallest buildings in the region. The target market for the purchase of units at the property seems primarily geared toward non-residents, however, again raising the issue of limited beach access for locals.

Writing on Petchary blog , Global Voices contributor Emma Lewis noted that an 800-unit housing development is to be built by the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) in the north coast parish of St. Ann. After a “rather contentious public meeting held by CHEC,” the Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement (JaBBEM) live streamed a community meeting on January 28 aimed at saving the Roaring River watershed.

Meanwhile, the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) issued a statement expressing concern about the CHEC development’s environmental footprint, saying , “Part of the proposed development will impact critical watersheds for ecologically sensitive areas such as Dunn’s River, Roaring River, Bogue, Mammee Bay and surrounding communities in Ocho Rios. We staunchly oppose the granting of any environmental permit that will harm local residents and jeopardize the delicate environmental balance of the region.”

On X (formerly Twitter), founder of the Jamaica Environment Trust Diana McCaulay expressed worry about another large-scale tourism project, Harmony Cove, which is pushing to break ground this year:

Another soulless rectangle and some palm trees. This is a beautiful place and deserves the most sensitive, low impact, thoughtful approach.. https://t.co/cN80lNJFx0 — Diana McCaulay (@dmccaulay) January 27, 2024

Petchary says the development is a partnership between Nexus Luxury Collection and the Jamaican government, and added , “It will consist of a 26-storey building (just two storeys lower than The Pinnacle — oh my!) as well as a large casino, a golf course, and of course a beach area (none of the above for locals, I am guessing).”

While financial journalist Al Edwards called Harmony Cove “a boon for Jamaican tourism” that would take Jamaica “closer to Monte Carlo, The Bahamas and the Cayman Islands” and “[up] the ante considerably,” Petchary posed several questions that she believes need to be addressed by such developments, including whether Jamaican nationals will have access to the coastline on which these properties will be built, what the carbon footprint of the properties is and who will be living in them, and what benefits — apart from “mostly low-paid jobs” — will these all-inclusives bring to the community.

She also felt the impacts on water supply and traffic to the surrounding communities needed to be addressed, as well as key environmental questions such as how much natural habitat — including important mangrove forests — will be damaged during construction, how many endemic species of birds, plants and animals will be destroyed, and what the effects on beaches and coastal habitats will be, especially for protected environmental areas.

Despite these concerns, an additional three north coast developments appear to be moving ahead, plus another that Jamaica's tourism minister, Edmund Bartlett, is “excited” about, claiming it will bring “more than 700 new rooms and thousands of new jobs” to the island. Like The Pinnacle, these new projects are being primarily funded by foreign entities.

For a few years, there has been discussion over whether the island has become too reliant on international investment, with professor and columnist Paul Golding observing , “The World Investment Report 2018 indicates that Jamaica has had the greatest foreign direct investment inflows regionally since 2012, [attracting] more than USD 4.2b over the six-year period, by far the most in the region.”

To Petchary, all these developments have one thing in common: “These huge lumps of concrete could be anywhere in the world. What happened to the ‘Jamaican vibe'? Isn’t that what visitors come to the island for? What happened to Jamaican-style architecture, and our own special culture? No, these foreign developers are going for the ‘Miami vibe,’ and we seem to love it. How very sad.”

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