Peter EspeutThank God the plans for the development of South Coast tourism propose a qualitatively different outcome than we have seen so far on the North!
The Butch Stewart model is OK, I suppose, for those who like it. And many North Americans do. Many people like high-rise concrete hotels, where every day you rub shoulders with thousands of other tourists walking through artificial gardens along concrete walkways, swimming in concrete pools, and eating and drinking in all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink restaurants and bars.
On the south, the plans call for more low-density community tourism, based on small guest houses and bed-and-breakfast accommodation. The emphasis will be on Jamaica's flora and fauna in their natural habitat: mangroves (like West Harbour, Clarendon), salt marshes (like the Black River Morass), forests (like the Hellshire Hills), beaches (like Bluefields) and nearshore cays (like Pigeon Island).
And the emphasis will be on our heritage: the dozens of Taino (Arawak) villages, the Georgian architecture of Black River, and the many aqueducts, windmills and great houses associated with the period of slavery. Industrial tours to sugar estates and bauxite-alumina plants will add variety to the mix.
This type of tourism appeals to Europeans and to some North Americans, who like to experience other cultures, as opposed to just sea, sun, sand, sex and sensimelia. It provides the greatest opportunity for the profits from tourism to be spread more broadly across the landscape. Instead of aspiring to be wage-workers in a big tourism property, South Coast residents can look forward to hosting tourists in their homes, to serving visitors in their restaurants and bars, and to patronage of their tours and attractions.
Tourism will diversify the economy of Jamaica's South Coast long dominated by sugar and bauxite. There will be many new opportunities for training and employment for the young people, and outlets for artisans and musicians. And the tourist will get a different experience of the rural Jamaican family, of small-towns and communities, and of our natural and cultural heritage. How refreshing!
This development has long been the dream of South Coast advocates like Desmond Henry and Diana McIntyre-Pike, and they must be very pleased.
Funding will come mostly from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) under the rubric of the South Coast Sustainable Develop-ment Programme, and in addition to tourism, protected areas and fisheries management will also be supported.
'Mafia'
Ask anyone where the South Coast is, and nine times out of 10 they will say 'Black River' or 'St. Elizabeth'. This is testament to the success of the St. Elizabeth "mafia" who have marketed their area as the 'South Coast'. Of course, Morant Bay is on Jamaica's South Coast, as is Kingston; but the term 'South Coast Tourism' has been crafted to mean Treasure Beach and Middle Quarters shrimp and Holland Bamboo Avenue and the Black River Swamp Safari and YS Falls, to name a few excellent St. Elizabeth attractions.
I welcome the South Coast Sustainable Development Programme, which will focus on Westmoreland, Manchester, Clarendon and St. Catherine as well as St. Elizabeth. The backbone of the tourism plan is an eco-heritage trail stretching from Fort Augusta in the east through Hellshire, Monymusk, Milk River, Canoe Valley, Lover's Leap, the Black River Morass, Bluefields to Savanna-la-Mar. This will link-up with the Port Royal tourism project to the east and Negril to the west.
An interesting approach of the project is its commitment to community participation. The South Coast Sustainable Development Plan was prepared with the input of thousands of coastal community members, and this approach is to continue through the various stages of implementation. In my view, this is the most exciting aspect of the project, and may mean the difference between success and failure. A number of cautions must be advanced. Unless the government improves the physical infrastructure of the South Coast areas proposed for tourism (especially roads, water, sewage and telephones) it is difficult to see how the effort can be successful.
Squatter
settlements
The success of this effort depends upon the integrity of the natural environment for tourists to experience, but tourism improperly established will degrade or destroy the natural environment, as our North Coast experience has taught us.
The authorities must be scrupulous in ensuring that South Coast tourism is indeed sustainable, and that environmental impacts and carrying capacities are carefully assessed. Wherever money is being made, pimps, hustlers and touts will not be far behind. As the project advances, many persons will migrate to the centres of tourism on the South Coast. Squatter settlements will spring-up and tourist harassment will become commonplace. Crime, now quite low on the South Coast, may be expected to increase. From the very start there must be a plan to address this inevitable consequence, and in the end it will be the residents of the South Coast who must protect the future of their grandchildren.
Since tourism on the south is still in its early days, we have a chance to get it right from the start. I hope the project does not get hijacked by special interests or political considerations.
I hope the planners and implementers will not make the sort of exceptions which will destroy this chance to make a success of human (social and economic) development across a large chunk of our land.
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.
