Campaigners in Barbuda, Grenada and Jamaica seek greater beach access

Campaigners in Barbuda, Grenada and Jamaica say they can no longer access sections of coastline after foreign developers purchased land. She refused offers from foreign developers for her plot and is now in a legal dispute over access to 30 acres of coastline, of which she currently reaches only eight acres.

The Global Legal Action Network states that Murbee Resorts and Peace Love and Happiness occupy the remaining land. Murbee says it is a legal lease holder and has not built on land without authority. Peace Love and Happiness says it has never occupied the land and has followed all agreements since signing a lease in February 2017.

Barbuda land laws and resort development Barbuda's land system gives residents the right to apply for leases on collectively owned land. The Barbuda Land Act of 2007 recognized this system. In 2015 the government passed the Paradise Found Act, which exempts the Beach Club Barbuda project from the 2007 law.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ruled in 2022 that individual Barbudans do not hold property rights solely by their status as residents. Paradise Found says the resort was built according to Antiguan and Barbudan law and that public access to Princess Diana beach remains unchanged.

In Jamaica, Devon Taylor of the Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement says current law gives residents no rights over the foreshore. The group is involved in five legal challenges and states that less than 1 percent of the coastline remains freely accessible to locals.

The United Nations Development Programme reports that the Caribbean is the most tourism-dependent region in the world, with roughly half of visitors coming from the United States.