VZCZCXRO8101
RR RUEHGR
DE RUEHKG #1125/01 2011056
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 201056Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY KINGSTON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5063
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0339
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 0313

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINGSTON 001125 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAR (HARNE, COLLINS), OES/OA (SCHAAF) 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: ECON EFIN EIND EINV SOCI SENV JM
SUBJECT: JAMAICAN TOURISM: INFRASTRUCTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL 
CONCERNS 
 
Ref.: Kingston 1089 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: The breakneck pace of development on the northern 
coast of Jamaica threatens the fragile ecosystem there.  The GoJ has 
aggressively pursued foreign investment in the tourism sector, but 
has been slow to upgrade the infrastructure to handle the glut of 
new hotels and resorts.  In addition, the GoJ's environmental 
oversight and enforcement are inadequate, where they exist at all. 
Not only is this having a deleterious effect on the coral reefs and 
coastal environment, but the influx of workers to service these 
projects is putting a strain on the communities that surround them, 
with attendant social and economic consequences.  End summary. 
 
 
---------------------------- 
An Environmental Catastrophe 
---------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Econoff met with Wendy Lee, Executive Director of the 
Northern Jamaica Conservation Association (NJCA) to discuss the 
impact of the "Spanish Invasion" of mega-resorts currently appearing 
across the north coast of the island (reftel).  Lee was firm in her 
conviction that Jamaica was headed towards an environmental 
catastrophe if the GoJ did not act immediately to improve 
environmental infrastructure, strengthen governmental oversight, and 
to halt - at least temporarily - the enormous influx of large hotels 
that are slated to increase Jamaica's room stock by some 50 percent, 
to 40,000, by 2012. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Lee noted that, in 2001, the GoJ unveiled its "Tourism 
Master Plan" for the island.  In this document, the GoJ specifically 
recommended that Jamaica should concentrate on attracting smaller 
boutique hotels that would be community-based, inclusive, and 
environmentally sustainable, focusing on the luxury segment of the 
tourist sector.  "The ink [on the Plan] was not yet dry," she said, 
when the GoJ promptly ignored its own advice, preferring to sign 
development deals with a number of large Spanish chains to build 
hotels with a typical size of 800 or more rooms. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The effects, according to Lee, have been disastrous. 
Coming in for particular vitriol was the Bahia Principe Resort in 
Runaway Bay.  The hotel is located on an environmentally fragile 
cove known as Pear Tree Bottom.  Rumors are widespread that the 
hotel's sewage system is inadequate for the 1,900 rooms it will 
service (it currently has approximately 730), and that there is 
piping that simply dumps raw sewage out at sea.  While it is 
difficult to confirm this (Bahia executives were unable - or 
unwilling - to meet with emboffs on a recent fact-finding trip), 
there is evidence that the reef in that section of the coast has 
experienced significant bleaching. 
 
¶5. (U) There is a glimmer of hope in this regard.  On July 17, the 
media reported that the National Environmental Protection Agency 
(NEPA) has withdrawn the permit for phase two construction (934 
rooms) on the Bahia Principe.  It is still unclear whether the 
company itself has decided not to proceed, or whether NEPA was the 
driving force behind the decision.  Either way, environmentalists 
consider this a small victory.  Lee fears that if the GoJ does not 
step in like this all along the north coast, the reef - formally one 
of the premier diving locations in Jamaica - will be completely 
destroyed. 
 
¶6. (SBU) But the Bahia is hardly the only project that has drawn the 
ire of the island's environmental protection community.  At Oyster 
Bay, one of few bodies of water in the world that exhibits natural 
phosphorescence, plans are underway to construct a hotel that will 
have rooms that are partially submerged, in order to best view the 
effects.  Additionally, construction of this hotel will entail the 
removal of large segments of rare and delicate mangrove swampland. 
At the RIU Negril, construction was halted by environmental groups 
on several occasions to address inadequacies in solid-waste 
management. 
 
 
------------------ 
Communities Suffer 
------------------ 
 
¶7. (SBU) Nor is it only a problem of servicing the hotels 
themselves.  Small communities across the north coast are feeling 
the strain that comes from both the construction and the staffing of 
these resorts.  In virtually all the major resort towns - Ocho Rios, 
Runaway Bay, Montego Bay, Negril - there is a burgeoning problem of 
squatting in the hills surrounding the coast, as unskilled labor 
floods in.  This in turn puts pressure on both the parish councils 
in the provision of utilities and services, as well as on the 
 
KINGSTON 00001125  002 OF 002 
 
 
watersheds.  Horace Peterkin (protect), the immediate past president 
of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourism Association, noted that the water 
in Dunn's River Falls is estimated to be many times above acceptable 
pollutant levels, although official GoJ data disputes this 
assertion. 
 
¶8. (U) Lee points to two illustrative examples of GoJ apathy towards 
her concerns.  A GoJ policy designed to protect forested areas, 
known as the National System of Protected Areas, has languished 
since 1997, with no evidence of GoJ commitment to its 
implementation.  Lee believes that this is because such a policy 
would run counter to many politicians' need to create jobs and spur 
investment.  Likewise, she pointed out the particularly self-serving 
process for the preparation of the required Environmental Impact 
Assessment (EIA) for any development.  She believes that NEPA is in 
the pocket of the politicians: the first EIA is contracted by the 
developers themselves.  Lee notes that "he who pays the piper calls 
the tune." 
 
------------------------- 
Infrastructure Weaknesses 
------------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Interestingly, hoteliers in general do not dispute many of 
Lee's contentions.  Their focus, however, has tended towards the 
need for the GoJ to address critical infrastructure inadequacies 
that lag behind the pace of private sector development.  Of the 
numerous hotel owners and operators that Emboffs spoke to for this 
report, not a single one was pleased with the GoJ's preparation for 
large-scale development.  Physical infrastructure: delays in the 
completion of the Highway 2000 project along the north coast are 
causing significant traffic congestion.  There have also been 
problems in the adequate provision of utilities such as water and 
power which will only increase as the room stock balloons.  Social 
infrastructure: housing, schooling, and social services for economic 
migrants to resort areas has barely been considered.  In Ocho Rios, 
crime is increasingly becoming a concern, and Prime Minister Portia 
Simpson Miller's recent announcement of 2000 extra police officers 
for the island can - for the time being - be considered little more 
than an election promise. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Many interlocutors also pointed to the difficulty in 
sourcing product, something that could be a significant benefit to 
the island's agricultural sector and, by extension, the poorest 
rural communities.  All of the large Spanish chains indicated that 
they would much prefer, for reasons both economic and social, to use 
local product.  However, there is neither adequate and sustained 
provision of product, nor is there consistent quality.  When asked 
why the GoJ had not attempted any programs to enhance these linkages 
between local communities and the foreign developers, most felt that 
there was a fundamental lack of vision among the political 
directorate. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) It is easy to understand the desire of the GoJ to attract 
large levels of investment to Jamaica to facilitate job creation, 
generate international exchange, and to boost a lackluster economy. 
What seems to be missing, however, is an understanding of the 
delicate balance between the product that is being offered, and that 
very product's potential to destroy itself.  Further destruction of 
one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet - in just one 
example of many, the bleaching of the coral reefs - will, in the 
end, drive customers away from Jamaica.  This irony seems lost on 
politicians who, in the eyes of hoteliers and environmentalists 
alike, lack any form of coherent, strategic vision for the future of 
the tourism sector in Jamaica.  Who that visionary might be, and 
when he or she might appear, is depressingly unclear.  End comment. 
 
JOHNSON