Petition to Prime Minister Andrew Holness and the Jamaican Government**His Excellency the Most Hon. Sir Patrick Linton Allen, Governor General of Jamaica**Sovereign and Head of State of Jamaica, King Charles III.

We recognise that in Jamaica, the public does not have general rights to access the beach and use the sea and rivers. The law that regulates Jamaican rights to access the beach and use the sea is a colonial era law called the Beach Control Act of 1956 (BCA-1956). In a Reuters article dated May 29, 2017 it was stated that: “The Act, that remained in place until Jamaica got independence in 1962 did not give the island nation’s 2.7 million people legal right to beach access.” This law was the product of a colonial mindset that has remained on the books unchanged, and allows for discrimination against the Jamaican people.  This law is arguably racist and should have no place in the body of laws of Jamaica and must be repealed and replaced immediately.

We are alarmed by recent events at the Bob Marley Beach in Bull Bay, St. Thomas, a favourite spiritual retreat of the late Bob Marley, where the Jamaican public came under imminent threat of losing access to yet another community beach, along with the destruction of fisherfolk livelihood and land dispossession of prominent Rastafari family members. The threat of beach access loss remains at a high level. This problem is systemic  across the island including: Bluefields in Westmoreland, Cornwall beach St. James, Cousins Cove, Hanover, Alligator Pond, St Elizabeth, Mammee Bay, Peach Beach and Little Dunn’s River, St. Ann, Reggae Beach and Lagoon at Goldeneye St. Mary, San San, Dragon Bay in Portland, and many more. It is at a crisis level, and if not addressed soon, Jamaica’s beaches will eventually be fenced off from its citizens.

Most recently, in the Jamaican government’s Beach Access and Management Policy ‘For Jamaica (BAMP-2020)’ it was stated, and I quote: “In Jamaican common law, the public has no general rights of access to the foreshore except to pass over it for the purpose of navigation or fishing. There is therefore no general right of bathing, or to walk along the foreshore, except where acquired by custom or prescription, nor is there any general right to fish except as provided in Section 3(3) of the Beach Control Act, 1956.”

We recognise that as a result, controlling beaches has become the new gold rush in Jamaica; impacting the livelihood of fisherfolks and the environment.  Mass commercialization from beachfront tourism enterprises is also fueling the displacement of vulnerable Jamaicans from lands adjoining the sea. If this exclusion of the Jamaican people from the ecological heritage of the island is not stopped, it could possibly lead to social unrest and upheaval.

We, the people of Jamaica, both at home and in the diaspora, along with friends of Jamaica worldwide, are calling on the Prime Minister Andrew Holness and the Jamaican Government; His Excellency the Most Hon. Sir Patrick Linton Allen, Governor General of Jamaica; Sovereign and Head of State of Jamaica, King Charles III to immediately enact legislation for the repeal and replacement of the Beach Control Act of 1956, a colonial-era law that is discriminating against the Jamaican people in restricting their unfettered access to the beaches and use of the sea and rivers, while promoting the ecological degradation of the Jamaican coastline. Jamaica needs a modern law that grants general and unfettered access rights to all beaches, rivers and sea around Jamaica, whilst guarding against ecological degradation.

GoFundMe: ONE LOVE JAMAICA BEACH ACCESS DEFENCE FUND

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