Coastal Management in Barbados

Submitted by Allison Abbene on the 2018 winter session program in Barbados sponsored by the Department of Geography…

This week, the class and I went on an onshore coastal management field trip. We traveled around parts of the island and learned more about how the coasts are developed and maintained under various circumstances. One of the negative impacts on the beaches in Barbados, as we learned, was tourism and industry. While tourism is always expected to affect the economy of Caribbean islands, it came as a shock to see how much the environment is affected by the building of hotels and tourist infrastructure.

The class was able to see a few tourist beaches, many of which were depleted of sand because of how close the resorts were built to the coasts. One of the most surprising things to see was at the Hilton Resort on the south coast of the island. Following a fairly recent hurricane that hit the island, the resort’s beaches were eroded right up to the fences of the hotel. Rather than the ocean naturally restoring the beach over time, the hotel’s infrastructure prevented this, forcing the National Conservation Committee to build a tombolo in order to rebuild the sand and support the hotel. The area around the hotel also faced many sea turtle conservation problems, as the area is the most intensely studied turtle nesting region. Earlier, we had a chance to go snorkeling and learned that the turtles had not been seen in the area in more than a year. This was shocking to hear, as Barbados is known as a very popular island for sea turtles.

It quickly became clear to me that many popular resorts disregard the well being of the island in hopes of expanding their own business. Because of tourism, Barbados’ beaches are struggling to be properly maintained as beaches are being lost.

Hilton Resort beach on the Barbados south coast. This small beach was created by the use of a tombolo (line of rocks built in the water to encourage sand buildup to the rock formations) as seen in the middle left.