Coastal Zone Management: the Barbados Model
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Coastal Zone Management The Barbados Model Gregory R. Scruggs and Thomas E. Bassett storm on record at that time. Four years later, the Great Hurricane of 1780 hit even harder, making or every travel article featuring a Caribbean landfall in Barbados, then ravaging nearby islands, paradise with gentle waters lapping a sandy killing at least 20,000 and wrecking British and beach, there is an anxious news story about French fleets maneuvering at the height of the a brewing hurricane. The Lesser Antilles, American Revolution. Two centuries and dozens of F storms later, even Hurricane Ivan wasn’t as deadly an archipelago of small islands that form a crescent in the eastern Caribbean, have always been par- when it devastated Grenada in 2004, leaving the ticularly vulnerable, thrust into the volatile waters parliament in ruins and 85 percent of the structures of the Atlantic Ocean. In 1776, the Pointe-à-Pitre on the island damaged. hurricane struck the French colony of Guadeloupe In recent decades, climate change has height- and killed 6,000, making it the deadliest Atlantic ened threats to the region. U.S. strategies em- ployed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina or Superstorm Sandy are not especially relevant to DOMINICAN British Virgin the fragile, yet vibrant islands of the Lesser Antilles, REPUBLIC San Juan Islands from Puerto Rico in the north to Trinidad and Anguilla Puerto Rico Tobago in the south. With tourism-dependent Gustavia Antigua and Barbuda economies and extremely limited amounts of North Point Basseterre developable land, especially on mountainous islands, Montserrat Guadeloupe this potpourri of independent countries, dependent St. Lucy territories, and overseas departments share a com- St. Basse Terre mon land use challenge: how to grapple with devel- Speightstown Peter BARBADOS St. Dominica opment patterns oriented toward the coast while Andrew St. Martinique managing the growing threat of sea level rise. James St. Joseph One island in the region stands out for its Holetown St. Conset Bay Thomas exceptional capacity to recognize and prepare for St. John Ragged St. Lucia Point the rising tide: Pear-shaped Barbados has become BARBADOS Deep Water St. St. George St. Philip a Caribbean leader in integrated coastal zone Harbour Michael St. Vincent and management—the contemporary practice of BRIDGETOWN the Grenadines Christ Church integrating sectors, levels of government, and Amanda Wait/NonprofitDesign.com Grantley Adams Oistins Int’l Airport Long Bay Grenada disciplines to address the coastal zone both in the South Point water and on dry land. Coastal land use and envi- Porlamar Trinidad ronmental management are always contentious Carupano and Tobago issues on a small island. But, as former UN Secre- Caracas Cumaná tary General Kofi Annan once remarked, “Barbados Barcelona Valencia Maturin consistently punches above its weight.” Almost VENEZUELA 50 years since independence, the island nation has leveraged a combination of foresight, international Barbados is the easternmost island in the Lesser Antilles. Owing to British-style town and country planning, the island is divided into support, and local capacity to develop planning 11 parishes (inset). institutions and prepare for an uncertain future. 2 LINCOLN INSTITUTE OF LAND POLICY • Land Lines • OCTOBER 2013 © Berit Watkin/flickr From Sugar to Sun Worshippers independence in 1966—earning it the nickname As climate change Today, Barbados is famous as a top international “Little England.” intensifies hurricanes tourist destination, with trademark white-sand The colonial economy was a classic model in the Caribbean, beaches, warm aquamarine water, and ample of trade to enrich the metropolis. The English Barbados works hard to protect its best sunshine along its 60 miles of coastline. Nearly imported African slaves to work sugarcane planta- asset: 60 miles 300,000 people live on the 166 square-mile island; tions, molasses refineries, and rum distilleries. As of coast in the 44 percent of Barbadians are classified as living in a result, 90 percent of modern-day Barbadians claim eastern Caribbean. urban areas, centered in Bridgetown and along the African descent. Following independence, the developed south and west coasts. With a per capita already-lagging sugar crop, which suffered fluctu- GDP of US$23,600 and near-universal literacy, ations common to any monoculture, became even Barbados ranks 38th in the world and first in less reliable as the push for free trade led the U.K. the Caribbean according to the United Nations and later the EU to slowly draw down subsidies Development Programme’s 2013 Human Devel- and preferential pricing. opment Index. Relying on its sand and surf, Bar- At the same time, Barbados invested heavily bados derives 80 percent of its US$4.4 billion in its tourism services, which shifted the locus of GDP from its tourism and service industries. development. Historically, the island was mostly But this evolution is a recent one, part of a sim- rural, with sugarcane plantations carving up the ilar pattern of development across the Caribbean interior of the country, home to slaves and, later, in light of independence movements and the ad- itinerant sharecroppers toting moveable wooden vent of commercial aviation. Originally inhabited “chattel” houses, Barbados’s typical vernacular by a native Amerindian population, Barbados was architecture. The coast was home to Bridgetown, first settled in 1627 by the English, who quickly the principal port, where a navigable river meets turned it into one of the world’s leading sugar the ocean, and a few smaller towns and fishing producers. Barbados’s colonial history is unusual villages. A deep-water port dredged in 1961 also for the region; unlike many other Caribbean laid the groundwork for the arrival of cruise ships. islands that saw multiple changes of European The growing number of tourists necessitated hotels, powers, Barbados did not leave British rule until resorts, restaurants, shops, and bars, all within a OCTOBER 2013 • Land Lines • LINCOLN INSTITUTE OF LAND POLICY 3 FEATURE Coastal Zone Management: The Barbados Model stone’s throw of the ocean. This impulse led to has forced countries in the developing world to strips of coastal development between the airport act now or face a perilous future. and Bridgetown, on the south coast, and along the Paradoxically, Barbados’s imperial history— west coast, home to the calmest water and charm- often a burden on postcolonial countries—has ing Holetown and Speightstown. By the 1990s, proved an advantage, in that the island has a long, Barbados’s Grantley Adams International Airport uninterrupted history of British-style town and was receiving regularly scheduled British Airways country planning. Like the United Kingdom, flights from London on one of the few Concorde Barbados is administratively divided into parishes, supersonic jets. and modern development law is based on the British Town and Country Planning Act of 1947. “Key decision makers The Local Response Once independent, Barbados established its own have recognized that to Rising Waters planning framework with the 1972 Town and Lying just east of the main arc Country Planning Development Order. Presently, coastal zone management of the other eastern Caribbean the Town and Country Development Planning islands, outside the Atlantic Office (TCDPO) oversees all construction on the is important not just hurricane belt, Barbados has island, with the chief town planner reporting as an environmental a meteorological advantage. directly to the prime minister. Although it’s still susceptible to The Physical Development Plan from 1988 program but to grow the major storms, it experiences far guides development on the island. Since the docu- economy of Barbados.” fewer hurricanes than its neigh- ment’s amendment in 2003, there has been a turn bors to the northwest. Yet any toward sustainable development, not just as a threat to the beach and coral catch phrase, but as an inherent value for the gov- lining Barbados would have devastating conse- ernment’s vision for the island. In a 2008 confer- quences, given the island’s economic dependence ence speech, the previous prime minister, David on the coast. Its well-being is endangered by creep- Thompson, outlined a few core ideas of the plan: ing sea level rise, coupled with possible storm surge protect natural, agricultural, and cultural resources; if the island suffers even a glancing blow from a promote mixed-use centers and corridors to en- major hurricane. The Intergovernmental Panel on courage a diversified economy; maintain central Climate Change (IPCC) has strong evidence that Bridgetown as the financial and commercial hub; following a period of almost no change for cen- and stimulate tourism by the modernization of turies, there was an increase in global sea level older beachfront properties and development measures in the 20th century, and that trend is of new opportunities. Today, the current prime accelerating in the 21st century. In August, the minister, Freundel Stuart, continues this push IPCC said sea levels could rise more than three for sustainability, as shown by his participation feet by 2100. in high-level panels at last year’s United Nations Never a major contributor of carbon emissions, Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20. small island states are disproportionately impacted By the late 1970s, individual property owners by global climate change resulting from modern began to notice coastal erosion affecting their land. industrialization