For more than two decades, the Pink Sands Beach Bar on the Caribbean island of Barbuda served as a popular gathering place for residents and visitors. Located along the island’s famous pink shoreline, the small beach bar was known for community events, Sunday relaxation and friendly domino games.
Its owner, Miranda Beazer, says everything changed in 2017 when Hurricane Irma devastated Barbuda and forced the evacuation of the island’s entire population to neighbouring Antigua.
The hurricane destroyed both her bar and her home. “It was heartbreaking. Almost nobody escaped the damage,” she recalls.
After the disaster, Miranda planned to rebuild, but her husband later passed away, making the process even more difficult. Soon after, foreign investors reportedly began offering large sums of money for her beachfront property. She refused every offer.
“I’m not interested in selling,” she says. “I want to keep my land.”
Today, Miranda is involved in a legal battle over access to the area she considers her property. According to her, parts of the land have since been occupied by tourism developers.
The situation is complicated by Barbuda’s unique land system. Unlike many countries, land on the island is collectively owned by Barbudans rather than held privately by individuals. Residents can apply for leases to use plots, but ownership remains communal under the Barbuda Land Act adopted in 2007.
Miranda says she holds a lease covering around 30 acres of coastline, though she currently has access to only a small section of it.
Legal support group Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) claims some of the disputed land is being occupied by foreign-backed tourism projects. The companies involved deny any wrongdoing and insist their operations are fully legal and authorised.
For many residents, the conflict goes beyond property rights. Locals fear that increasing luxury tourism developments are slowly limiting public access to beaches traditionally used by the community.
One of the largest projects underway on the island is The Beach Club Barbuda, linked to Hollywood actor Robert De Niro and Australian businessman James Packer.
The luxury development includes villas, beachfront homes and a high-end hotel complex expected to attract wealthy international visitors. Property prices within the resort reportedly begin at several million dollars.
Residents say access to parts of the coastline has already become more restricted because of new roads and construction surrounding the resort area.
Developers behind the project maintain that all work complies with the laws of Antigua and Barbuda and insist public beach access remains protected.
The controversy has sparked wider debate across the Caribbean, where tourism remains one of the region’s most important economic sectors.
In Jamaica, campaign groups are also raising concerns about shrinking public access to beaches. Activists argue that many coastal areas are increasingly controlled by hotels and private developments, forcing locals to pay for access to spaces they once freely used.
Environmental and land-rights advocates warn that unchecked tourism expansion could permanently alter island communities, weaken local control over natural resources and reduce access to ancestral coastlines.
Supporters of tourism projects argue that foreign investment brings jobs, infrastructure and economic growth to small island nations that heavily depend on visitors.
However, campaigners say development should not come at the expense of local communities.
As tourism demand continues to rise across the Caribbean, many residents fear the region’s beaches may increasingly become exclusive spaces for wealthy travellers rather than shared public spaces for the people who have lived there for generations.
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