Jamaica court blocks beach privatisation, but fight is far f

A Jamaican court has granted a temporary injunction blocking the privatisation of One Man Beach in Montego Bay, handing a rare victory to the Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement (Jabbem) in its fight to preserve public beach access. The ruling directly challenges a tourism development model that restricts local access to coastal land – a pattern Jamaicans describe as extractive: foreign capital captures prime shoreline, local communities lose traditional livelihoods and gathering spaces, and the economic gains flow abroad.

The case centres on whether Jamaica's state has the right to lease public beaches to private developers for resort construction. Jabbem argues it does not – that beaches are part of the commons, protected under constitutional rights to public space and environmental stewardship. The temporary injunction halts one project, but the legal battle is far from settled. Appeals are expected, and dozens of similar developments are queued or under negotiation across the island.

What makes this significant is less the immediate outcome and more the shift in who's contesting the model. Local environmental and human rights groups, international lawyers, and public figures are now openly naming the mechanism: tourism development that extracts value while leaving communities worse off. That's not greenwashing to unpick – it's a structural problem with how the tourism sector operates in the Global South.

The court's decision doesn't solve the underlying tension: Jamaica needs tourism revenue, but not on terms that hollow out public goods. The injunction buys time, but only legislative action – clarifying what beaches are non-negotiable common property – will stick.

‘Plantation tourism’: court victory signals hope in Jamaica’s fight to keep beaches public

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