Caribbean Coastlines Under Threat From Foreign Resort Developers
BBC Business reported Wednesday that residents across several Caribbean islands are mounting legal and political battles to reclaim access to coastlines increasingly absorbed by foreign-backed luxury resort developments.
Locals Pushed Off Their Own Shores
In Barbuda, campaigner Miranda Beazer spent more than two decades running a beachside bar that served as a community gathering spot. After Hurricane Irma devastated the island in 2017, foreign developers approached her with large buyout offers. She refused them all. She alleges that bulldozers subsequently demolished what remained of her property. Beazer says she holds a lease covering roughly 30 acres of coastline but can currently access only eight. Legal support organisation the Global Legal Action Network is backing her case and argues that the remaining land is illegally occupied by two foreign development firms.
Both companies dispute the claims. One stated it holds a legitimate lease and has not constructed on any land without proper authority. The other said it has never occupied the disputed plot and has adhered strictly to its agreements.
A Land System Built After Slavery
Barbuda’s property framework is unusual. Land ownership is communal rather than individual, a system formally recognised by the government of Antigua and Barbuda through the 2007 Barbuda Land Act. Citizens may apply for occupancy leases but do not hold private title. Crucially, the collective retains the right to be consulted on significant development decisions. Campaigners argue that right has been systematically bypassed.
Also Read: How Tourism Is Reshaping Coastal Economies Across the Developing World
The Star-Backed Resort at the Centre of the Controversy
A few miles from Beazer’s plot sits a 400-acre development backed by Oscar-winning actor Robert de Niro and Australian billionaire James Packer. The Beach Club Barbuda is due to open later this year. It will include a luxury Nobu-branded hotel and 25 beachfront homes. Entry-level plots reportedly start at $7 Million. Locals say a newly constructed bypass road now encircles the complex, making the beach it occupies invisible and inaccessible to the wider community.
The resort was made possible by the Paradise Found Act of 2015, which explicitly carves out the development site from the protections of the 2007 Land Act. Local authority chairperson John Mussington argues the original law was effectively overridden to accommodate the project. Legal challenges have climbed as high as the regional court system.
Why the Fight Matters Beyond Barbuda
Barbuda’s situation is not isolated. Campaigners in Grenada and Jamaica report similar pressures, with coastal land increasingly transferred to private interests at the expense of communities with deep historical ties to those shores. Legal advocates say the cases highlight a tension between tourism-led growth strategies and the rights of island residents whose access to their own coastlines is quietly eroding.
Also Read: Land Rights and Tourism Development in Small Island States
Read Next: Why Caribbean Economies Remain Dangerously Dependent on Tourism Revenue
