Mangroves and Megaresorts: Q2 2006 and the Wetland Systems at Jamaica’s Coast

Briefing

• Multiple resort EIA applications proposed clearing or modifying coastal wetland buffers.
• NEPA wetland protection guidelines identified as inadequate for scale of development pressure.
• Scientists documented seagrass bed loss adjacent to completed north coast developments.
• Fishing community groups in Trelawny reported loss of nursery habitat affecting catches.
• International Ramsar Convention obligations raised by conservation groups in submissions.

The coastal wetland systems that fringed Jamaica’s north coast — the mangrove patches, the seagrass beds in nearshore shallow water, the seasonal wetlands at river mouths and lagoon edges — were not a prominent feature of the resort development discourse of 2006. They were not the photogenic white-sand beaches that development was selling, and they were not the iconic reef dive sites that snorkel brochures featured. They were, in the economic calculus of resort development, the less-valued margins of the coastal landscape: obstacles to be cleared, modified, or bridged rather than ecological assets to be preserved. The science of their ecological function — as nursery habitats, as water quality buffers, as shoreline stabilisers, as carbon stores — was well established in the literature that NEPA assessors were supposed to be applying, but its translation into development decisions was inconsistent.

The multiple resort EIA applications that proposed clearing or modifying coastal wetland buffers in the spring and summer of 2006 were individually assessed; each was evaluated on its site-specific merits. What no individual assessment captured was the cumulative significance of the loss: each mangrove patch cleared for a resort access road, each seagrass bed disturbed by the dredging for a marina, each seasonal wetland filled for a car park was individually minor and individually approved, but collectively they were reducing the ecological connectivity and functional capacity of Jamaica’s coastal wetland system in ways that no individual application had been designed to address.

Ramsar and Jamaica’s Obligations

Conservation groups that raised Jamaica’s obligations under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in their submissions to the EIA process were invoking a legal framework that Jamaica had ratified and that imposed specific obligations regarding the conservation and wise use of wetland ecosystems. The Negril Great Morass and the Black River Lower Morass were both listed Ramsar sites, providing them with a level of international recognition that should have translated into heightened protection. But the Ramsar framework’s practical protection in the domestic planning system depended on the domestic regulatory agencies applying its principles, and the application was uneven. The coastal wetlands adjacent to resort development sites that were not listed Ramsar sites received still less protection.

Seagrass Loss

The scientists’ documentation of seagrass bed loss adjacent to completed north coast resort developments added a specific evidential dimension to the wetland debate. Seagrass beds are among the most ecologically productive coastal ecosystems: they support fisheries, stabilise sediments, sequester carbon, and serve as nursery habitat for species of commercial importance. Their loss adjacent to resort developments was attributable to the combination of physical disturbance during construction, changed water circulation patterns from engineered coastal structures, and elevated nutrient levels from resort wastewater that promoted the algal growth that smothered seagrass. The fishing community groups reporting declining catches adjacent to developed areas were, the scientists argued, experiencing the lagged fisheries consequence of seagrass loss that had occurred in the years immediately following construction.

Related: Property Market Analysis | NEPA Jamaica | Ramsar Convention

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