THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF TOURISM
on the ECOLOGY of JAMAICA
by
Elaina Kozyr
BLPR 101.51
Introduction
Tourism and the environment have a very complex and interdependent relationship. Today,
tourism is one of the largest industries in todays
world economy and is a great source of foreign exchange for many developing countries,
whose major assets are their natural resources.1 At the same time, it is the environmental
quality of a place that will determine the success of the tourism industry, since it is the
main attraction for tourists. There have been a lot of arguments about whether tourism is
beneficial or harmful to the environment. A lot of the developing countries whose main
source of foreign exchange is tourism industry overlook certain setbacks such as the fact
that sometimes they are not prepared to meet and support such a vast amount of people.
Most of the islands in the Caribbean, including Jamaica, try to make the best out of this,
taking everything out of the environment and causing damage to their land that sometimes
can be permanent.
Not only do they use up their natural resources to support the growing tourism industry,
but they also deprive local population of what is righifully theirs. It is sad to see how
developing countries try to stay afloat in this competitive world, how they are pressured to
do everything and anything so that they could be economically one step up from where
they were before. Yet, all they do is take and take without putting much back in. It doesnt
work that way, in fact, everything and everybody in some way depend on one another. This
brings us to the point that even tough economic well being and development of the country
depends on this multi-million industry, tourism has its downside. Negative effects caused
by tourism industry can be very costly to the country and its population.
For the island of Jamaica as well as other islands, the effects include pollution animal and
plant extinction, coral reef destruction, inadequate sewage and waste disposal system,
deforestation, destruction and erosion of the beaches. This doesnt seem like a lot, but as
the time goes by, the problem intensifies especially if there is nothing done about it. Local
community suffers as well, through shortages of water and natural resources; most of the
local population of Jamaica does not directly benefit from the industry at all. An example
of this would be the food that is used by hotels, it is exported and almost nothing is
purchased from the Jamaican community.
Jamaicas Fragile Environment and Tourism
Jamaica is an island paradise located in the northern Carribean. It is one of the islands that
is visited by hundreds of thousands tourist annually. The main attraction is its natural
beauty: sandy beaches, clear water, distinguished wildlife, and, of course, warm climate.
Jamaica has been once known as the land of wood and water, and the rich diversity of flora
and fauna is still amazing to this day. There are reported to be about 3,000 species of
flowering plants alone, 827 of which are not found anywhere else. There are also 25
species and 21 subspecies of birds which are found nowhere else.2
Jamaica relies heavily on its tourism industry; however, in the process, ecology of the
island is suffering. Every little thing that is done to accommodate tourists sets Jamaica one
step back on the environmental scale. This is also due to the fact that there is little done to
improve present conditions of the island. The government, in an attempt to encourage
tourism investment, has let the hoteliers to keep their money where they want.
Basically, the owner or operator of an approved hotel enterprise or resort cottage is entitled
to relief from income and dividend tax for a period of up to ten years. In addition, the
owner may also benefit from a duty exemption on imports for constructing or expanding
hotels3. So, all of this profit is usually kept in private offshore accounts or invested in
other projects overseas. Thus, it is not even certain what percent of the money generated
from the industry is put back into the national economy and improvement of the ecology.
Pollution: The Effects of Increasing Population and Consumption
Recently, a lot of researchers have been paying attention at how the island has been
stressed by heavy population load. The islands visiting population has more than tripled in
twenty years now equal to almost half the size of its native, resident population. Although
the impact is rather different if the transient population increases at this rate than if the
permanent population does, an increase in the tourist population of this magnitude poses
very similar challenges and problems as any other kind of population increase.4
In addition to the increasing number of tourists, the migration of native people in search of
jobs drawn bytourism growth has led people to live in environmentally vulnerable
locations. Such areas are already exposed to unfavorable conditions, and more pressure
caused by constant overuse of these territories by people makes it more damaging to the
island and its inhabitants.
The heavy flow of tourists is also related to the pollution of the environment. Ordinary
things that we usually dont dwell on very much can have severe consequences on such a
small island as Jamaica. The use of airplanes to transport people to and from the island,
growing number of vehicles contribute to pollution. This is a serious threat to an island of
such proportions, the areas available to people are highly sensitive to the wastes produced
