Negril, Westmoreland
Negril’s Great Morass has burned before and it has burned again. The 6,000-acre wetland that was once a functioning ecological anchor for the resort, filtering sediments, feeding the reef, and sustaining a crab and fish industry for local communities, has been drying out since the late 1950s, when the Norman Manley Boulevard was constructed across it. Decades later, the consequences of that original engineering decision continue to accumulate, and fires that periodically sweep the dried peat of the morass have become a recurring feature of Negril life.
What the Morass Was, and What It Became
The decision to drain the morass was made with the specific intention of enabling Negril’s tourism development. The road that runs the length of the Seven Mile Beach required the wetland to be cleared. What was not fully reckoned with was that the morass was not simply wet land waiting to be used. It was the ecological engine of Negril’s coastline, providing the sediment flow and biological productivity that sustained the coral reef and kept the beach in place.
The drainage of the morass severed that connection. As the wetland dried, peat accumulated and became combustible. Fires began. The canals dug to drain the water, which should have had regulatory dams at both ends to maintain water levels, were never completed. The morass has been drying progressively ever since.
The IWEco Project
By 2021, a multi-million-dollar international project, known as IWEco and funded through the Global Environmental Facility, was underway to address the situation. With a budget of approximately US$13 million across its components, roughly US$3 million was directed at the morass specifically, funding hydrological assessments, ecological surveys, wetland conservation plans, and coral restoration work in the adjacent Orange Bay Fish Sanctuary. Stakeholders in Negril welcomed the initiative while being clear about their concern that it should produce action rather than simply additional studies.
Coral planting exercises were carried out as part of the IWEco programme, with the reef restoration work tied directly to the morass recovery work. The ridge to reef concept underpinning the project recognised that the health of the reef is not independent of what happens inland: restoring the morass’s hydrology would in turn reduce the sediment and nutrient loading that suppresses coral growth.
What This Means Beyond Environment
A healthy morass supports a healthy reef. A healthy reef protects the beach. A protected beach sustains the tourism economy that gives the surrounding property its value. The chain of consequence is direct. For property owners and investors in the Negril corridor, the state of the Great Morass is not an abstract environmental concern. It is a foundational condition of the investment case. Land adjacent to a functioning coastal ecosystem in a world-class resort destination commands a different price from land sitting behind a degraded one. The restoration of the morass, if it proceeds with the follow-through that previous studies and interventions have lacked, is among the most material improvements possible to Negril’s long-term property environment.
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