Land Policy and Management
Jacqueline DaCosta, Office of the Cabinet

Preparing for a rainy age: sustainable tourism development in the Caribbean in the context of climate change
Maurene Attzs, UWI, Inter American Development Bank

Urban-Rural Development: An Indian Ocean Perspective
H. Hurrynag, Mauritius, Development Indian Ocean Network

Resilience in Island Knowledge
El Parker, Coventry Centre for Disaster Management. Coventry University and Helen Dawson, Forum for Island Research and Experience, Institute for Archaeology, University College London.

LAND MANAGEMENT

“Regional Overview: Informal Settlements and Policy Options”
Lucy Winchester, UN ECLAC, Chile

Secure Land Tenure for the Urban Poor: Understanding the Issues, Enabling Access
Alain Williams, Kingston Restoration Company

Official Approach to Squatter Settlement
Desmond Hall, UTECH

URBAN - RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Issues in Caribbean and UK Small Territories: A Comparative Study
C. Douglas, United Kingdom

Local Sustainable Development Planning in Jamaica
Maurice Swaby, NEPA, ENACT

Proximity to Disaster: Natural Hazards & the Kingston Metropolitan Region
P. Lyew-Ayee, UWI

Lessons Learnt from Portmore: Urban Planning for Mass Housing
Patrick Stanigar, architect

CULTURE

Multi-Terrained: Meaning & Memory” in Island Village, Ocho Rios
E. Pigou-Dennis, UTECH

Cultural Heritage Case Study: Trench Town, Kingston
Christopher Whyms-Stone, architect

Sugar Islands: A Comparative Analysis of Guadeloupe and Barbados
Antony Maragnes, Guadeloupe

THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2005

The Importance of Land Ownership & Registration to Effect Land Use and Planning
Joy Douglas, Planning Institute of Jamaica

Energy Resource Issues in Small Islands
Raymond Wright, Petroleum Company of Jamaica

Community: Destination for Development”
Diana McIntyre-Pike, Countrystyle Ltd.

LAND INFORMATION

GIS Data and Land Management::Case Study
Alan Jones, Cayman Islands

GIS and Urban Redevelopment: Jones Town, Kingston”
Desmond Hall, UTECH

ENERGY & GREEN BUILDING

Multi-Sectoral Analysis of Energy Efficiency & its Contribution to a Sustainable Economy in Jamaica
Earl Green, UWI

Sustainable Energy Research Institute”
Hugh Dunbar, architect, Jamaica & USA

Green Building Education Transfer: Case Study”
Barbara Dabrowski,, Canada, British Columbia Institute of Technology

Floor-plate to Footprint: Green Buildings’ Role in Urban Sustainability
Jennie Moore, Easton - Moore Associates Canada

The U.K. Private Finance Initiative: Lessons for Small Developing Economies
Herbert Robinson and Barry Symonds, London South Bank University, United Kingdom

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Social Capital in the Alleviation of Urban Poverty: Methods for its Formation & Use in the Inner-City
Morin Seymour Kingston Restoration Company

Building Communities not Housing”
Desmond Brown, Transport Authority

Community Participation in Solid Waste management
C. Archer, T. McClean, UTECH

FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 2005

Natural Disaster Recovery Planning
Roger Brewster, Australia

Social, Political, Cultural & Economic Aspects of Disaster Risk Reduction in Latin America & The Caribbean
J. Murria, Venezuela

Lessons Learnt in Implementing Environmental Agreements in Small Island Developing States
Hon. Ferguson John, Minister, Government of St. Lucia

DISASTER MITIGATION

Seismic Risk Mitigation in Caribbean Islands
P. Balandier, Martinique

Hurricane Risk Reduction in Windward Islands
Ferdinand & Parker, U.K.

Emerging Issues in Coastal Hazard Management
Franklin McDonald, UNEP

CONSTRUCTION STANDARDS

Safe Guarding the Region’s Physical Infrastructure through Safer Building
Jeremy Collymore, Elizabeth Riley, Avril Alexander, Kofi Dalrymple, CDERA, Barbados

Good Construction Practice for Caribbean Small Buildings”
S. Hodges & B. English, PADCO/USAID

Jamaica-International Building Code
Noel DaCosta, Chairman, National Committee

Efficient Construction Industry for Jamaica
Alvin Savage, UTECH

A Policy Exploration and Implementation Framework for Infrastructure Development in Developing Countries
Herbert Robinson and Barry Symonds, London South Bank University, United Kingdom

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Waste Management and the Environment
Chowdrey, Bangladesh

Informal Settlement and Environmental Management”
Ishemo, Elvey & Thomas, UTECH

Urban Poverty and Solid Waste Management: An Analysis of Scavenging in Port-au-Prince
C. Noel, Haiti

This paper will review the preliminary findings of a research network established in February 2005, to investigate the application of evidence and theory from archaeology, anthropology, and (modern) history, cultural heritage and “Local or Traditional Knowledge” (LTK) to modern risk reduction (engineered, technological, educational and so on) in small islands. The thematic meeting on Cultural Heritage Risk Management, UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction, (UNISDR, 2005), was pioneering in that for first time cultural heritage concerns were formally included in the International Agenda for Disaster Reduction.

The first conference hosted by the network, successfully encouraged the exchange of ideas between natural and social scientists: archaeologists, geographers, social anthropologists, engineers and disaster managers. Conference papers contrasted long- and short-term perspectives on ‘change’ (stimulated by environmental processes, conflict, colonisation/migration), the vulnerability and resilience of cultural and ecological systems in island settings, past and present, focusing on the role of LTK in resilience building.

A key to effective risk reduction and sustainable development in small islands, is a detailed understanding of local and traditional practices which have been influenced directly by the environment in which the population lives (Meltzer, 2003), and so, over time successful practices will have evolved and been communicated across generations (Human Behavioural Ecology Winterhalder and Smith (2001)). Rather than a ‘‘disappearing indigenous culture’’ as a casualty of globalization, islands exhibit hybridized local and global cultures as suggested in Appadurai’s (1996) work, as a result of intermittent re-colonisation over time.

Ancient (island) communities have been significantly affected by disaster; complex disaster preconditions brought populations close to thresholds for survival (Hionidou 2002) before a ‘final’ catastrophe. However, archaeological evidence shows that, despite challenges of limited resources, conflict and natural disaster, some ancient island communities were not as sensitive to hazards as might be expected (Dawson 2005). Resilient communities used as diverse a range of resources as possible (Photos-Jones and Hall, 2005), employed flexible agricultural practices, utilised several settlement locations (Cooper & Valcarcel Rojas, 2004) and traditional building practices. Even in what may be viewed, by outsiders, as catastrophic events, societies survived and coped.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified that small islands are particularly at risk from climate change: sea level rise and extreme weather. It is well documented in literature associated with adaptive capacity to climate change, that flexible species and societies will be best able to cope with uncertain futures. Governments of and responsible for islands face particular conflicts and constraints in the design and implementation of policy seeking to aid economic growth, manage resources and reduce the risk of disaster, under the umbrella of sustainability. However, recent research indicates that local or traditional knowledge still persists in globalising societies, which facilitates business and development decision-making (Meheux and Parker, 2004).

This paper will review the preliminary findings of the research network established in February 2005 and explain how it intends to work toward collation of existing research from the somewhat insular disciplines identified. An island cultural heritage and LTK catalogue (working name: Resilience in Islands Knowledge Index: RISK Index) is proposed since existing indices do not address these issues (Environmental Vulnerability Index and UNEP’s SIDS database).

Official Approach to Squatter Settlement
Desmond Hall, UTECH

The most pertinent characteristics of the Jamaica government’s approach to squatter settlements is that it has always treated them retrospectively. The paper argues that as long as the phenomenon of squatter settlements escapes an interpretive understanding at a micro-level, in its own contextuality, little optimism can be expected. After reviewing various official policies and programmes designed to address the issues of squatting, focus shifts to the urgent need for probing into the factors that obstruct effective programme implementation. Data from government documents, empirical studies, and first hand experience with squatters are used to address why the government is so ineffective at the practical level. A commendable step taken by government of Jamaica in 1994 with the implementation of the Programme for Redevelopment and Integrated Development Enterprise (PRIDE) is examined in relation to its implication on urban poverty alleviation and improved quality of life. Deep regard is expressed regarding a total absence of regular programme monitoring by the government and a sheer disregard for accountability at almost every level of implementation.

Issues in Caribbean and UK Small Territories: A Comparative Study
C. Douglas, United Kingdom

The aim of this paper is to consider social, economic, environmental, and planning perspectives together in respect of built environment outcomes in small island states and territories. These combined perspectives, especially those with sustainable ecological/environmental strategies, are key sustainable development policy objectives yet are rarely treated together. The objective is to identify groups of built environment issues, their characteristics and attributes that influence people’s lives in small island contexts and from this to identify the principal factors that form the important basis for island built environment planning frameworks. The paper raises a debate about corporate social responsibility in approach to infrastructural provisions and land uses within small islands. It explores the function, roles and effectiveness of island planning functions so as to improve island rural and urban living, and modify the environmental and health impacts of built environment activities.

The method of approach draws upon a comparative study and exploration of planning approaches of three UK territories in the Caribbean region, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands and the Shetland Islands in the UK. Qualitative content analysis was applied to each island’s reports and planning framework. A factor analysis scenario was used to determine the major factors and groups of attributes of significance in the assessment of built environment effects on island living.

The study found that although each of the island territories were distinct according to their geographical, ecological, and socioeconomic and built environments characteristics, they nevertheless shared common problems and vulnerabilities that are associated with small islands brought about by decision making processes concerning the built form. That was in terms of development scale, locational sensitivities, relocations and dispersion.

Proximity to Disaster: Natural Hazards & the Kingston Metropolitan Region
P. Lyew-Ayee, UWI

The Kingston Metropolitan Region (KMR), comprising the parish of Kingston, urban St Andrew, and the dormitory community of Portmore in St Catherine, is a topographically and geologically diverse region, and represents a microcosm of the larger Jamaican geoscape. The region features coastal plains, reclaimed land, alluvial and debris fans, karst limestone and volcaniclastic landforms, along with steep slopes and fault escarpments reflecting the tectonic regime of which it is part. With a population of nearly 500,000, the KMR has the highest population density in Jamaica. However, this population is at risk from various natural hazards due to the very nature of the geophysical environment in which they reside.

Landslides and flooding are the most frequent natural hazards to impact the KMR. These hazards usually cause the most damage in terms of human casualties and property damage; most damages caused by hurricanes and earthquakes are from the flooding and landslides that these tend to produce, not from the direct impact of these hazards. Coastal communities, of which Portmore is a profound example, are at risk from coastal flooding associated with storm surges and tsunamis. Communities such as Kintyre in northeast St Andrew are at risk from river flooding following heavy rains. Upscale communities such as Jack’s Hill, as well as poorer areas such as Mavis Bank suffer from landslides induced by earthquakes, heavy rainfall and/or deforestation and vegetation alteration for construction or farming. Places like Port Royal in Kingston are even vulnerable to both coastal flooding and submarine landslides, as made evident in the 1692 earthquake that destroyed the town.

There is no such thing as a ‘natural hazards-free’ location and human settlement, throughout history, have routinely developed in places at risk from some form of natural hazard. However, human settlements have the ability to both mitigate against serious hazard impacts (through proper planning, legislation, common sense) as well as exacerbate a vulnerable situation (deforestation, unregulated construction, blocking gullies). The impact of humans on the natural environment has always been a major concern for many individuals and organizations, but it is the natural environment’s impact on humans in the form of natural disasters that is immediate, severe and too often catastrophic.

Lessons Learnt from Portmore: Urban Planning for Mass Housing
Patrick Stanigar, architect

1. Urban management is as important as building physical structures.
   
   Building and selling the Place is the least of the problem. Managing its growth and evolution, providing Services and maintaining its infrastructure is still beyond us.

2. A Town is a dynamic organism.
   
   Making a Town is not even just building the houses, Infrastructure and Institutions; it requires a strategy for internal Growth, Evolution and Aging. This strategy must recognize that the Social Infrastructure, Commercial Facilities and Civic Institutions must be aimed at a moving target as the population grows, evolves and ages and external forces on it change.

3. Learn again - Some things happen only in their own time.
   
   This isn’t arbitrary but relates to the fact that some things like Commercial Development, and Transportation facilities require a “Critical Mass” of people (And Voters) before they become realistic.

4. And again - Some things just take a long time.
   
   E.g. Social Cohesion

5. Urban Structure can help with the building of Community Structure and Cohesion Scaling of the Settlement thru clear physical definition of groups is a useful tool of community building. Thus the person can relate first to the House then the Street (Cluster) then the Sub-Neighborhood (Locale of a Park and Basic School) Then the Neighborhood (Territory of the Primary School) then the Town. Urban Management serves the Individual by connecting back down this path.

6. Informal individual energy is a powerful creative force. Just look at what people have built in Portmore.

7. Informal individual construction is a powerful economic force.
   
   Just look at what people have built in Portmore.

8. People want their “owna-house” for good reason.
   
   The house can then become a dynamic part of the life of their “family”

9. Class division as a Social Structure hampers the solution of our Problem

Large sections of our Society and of our Planning and Development Bureaucracy scorn Greater Portmore’s Character and shies away from the responsibility of Urban Management. They are willing on this basis to abandon the housing types which can work toward the problems of the mass at the bottom of the economic pyramid and focus resources on the building of communities that reinforce their own image and make their jobs easier.

Multi-Terrained: Meaning & Memory” in Island Village, Ocho Rios
E. Pigou-Dennis, UTECH

This paper critiques issues of meaning and memory through an analysis of the site “Island Village” located in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. This architectural and spatial creation of a site themed as a “village” is a destination for cruise ships which berth on the adjoining beach front. Visually, the architecture of the site creates a series of images related to traditional Caribbean vernacular. Materials, texture, colour and structure also offer a translation of rural vernaculars of the island territories of the Caribbean.

This paper applies concepts raised by M. Christine Boyer, Urbanist, in terms of the reconstitution of memory and tradition in “historic districts” within urban spaces. It also applies the concepts of Bruno Stagno, Architect, in terms of tropical architecture.

Island Village offers a convergence of discourses, which probe the imagery of the “island” and the “village” for tourist consumption, through specific strategies of “erasure” (overwriting the original terrain) and “sanitizing” (or filtering) for contemporary consumption. While Island Village is a fabricated “memory system” as defined by Boyer, it is also a kind of “petri dish” for a contemporary experiment in constituting a space of gathering with traditional elements and sensitivity to the tropical island ambience of vegetation, shade, shadow, light and water.

Cultural Heritage Case Study: Trench Town, Kingston
Christopher Whyms-Stone, architect

The lands now known as Trench Town are part of a parcel of land once called Trench Pen, which was part of the estate of the Irish Trench family from as far back as the 1700’s. Lands were acquired from the Trench Estate by the Central Housing Authority in approximately 1935 for one of Kingston’s first housing developments.

The original design was composed of residential, commercial, educational and civic buildings however most of the commercial and civic buildings were never built [refer to illustration]. From 1942 to 1949 the residential buildings (which later became known as Government Yards) were built to provide low income government housing for World War II veterans, the urban poor, and people migrating from the rural country. Over 168 residential buildings took seven years to build due to the method of construction. They were built using the knog method with some walls infilled with concrete made from brick aggregate and some with regular fired bricks. Each building’s frame is constructed from hand hewn Bullet wood, all windows and doors were made from Cedar, and roofs were finished with a flat concrete tile. The design of the dwellings are unique in their communal function as well as the courtyards which they form for privacy and outside living. The majority of the unit clusters share a kitchen and bathroom core. The residential buildings are also unique from street to street as they address the gently sloping topography. The Government Yards originally occupied six urban blocks but two of these blocks were completely razed in the political wars of the 1970’s-80’s.

The history of Trench Town is inclusive of politics, religion, sports, and music.

The Government Yards were built while National Hero Sir Alexander Bustamante was the Premier of Jamaica. His close friend and public orator, Labour Activist, and Black Nationalist the Hon. St. William Grant lived in the community. Trench Town was the home of Rastafari’s ambassador Mortimer Planno. Revivalism was also alive in Trench Town as it was home to Shepherd Levi. In sports, the cricketer Collie ‘Mighty Mouse’ Smith was a resident of Trench Town. Father Hugh Sherlock nourished this talent at Boy’s Town. Ska, Rock Steady, and Reggae were born in the Government Yards. To name a few of Jamaica’s music greats who lived in Trench Town, Bob Marley, Alton Ellis, Hortense Ellis, Delroy Wilson, Joe Higgs, Vincent ‘Tarta’ Ford, Adina Edwards, Ernie Ranglin, Thedophoulus Beckford, Jimmy Tucker, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Leroy Sibbles, Dean Fraser, The Abyssinians, Wailing Soul and many others. Many of the residences of these personalities still exist.

The people of Trench Town have taken the first step in preserving its community by the restoration of the yard in and of which Bob Marley’s Trench Town anthem “No Woman No Cry” was written by Vincent ‘Tarta’ Ford. This Yard is now known as the Trench Town Culture Yard and its primary purpose is to be the vehicle through which the story of Trench Town may be displayed and presented. Its secondary purpose is to show the potential for the renovation or restoration of the Government Yards and their value as a heritage product for both the domestic and foreign tourist market.

The extent to which the community of Trench Town and the Government Yards in particular have impacted Jamaican and international culture is phenomenal. The architectural value of the Government Yards is that they exist as an ensemble of one of Kingston’s first planned residential communities. It is therefore important at this time that the Government Yards should be considered a National Heritage site. It is not too late to preserve and restore what remains of the community.

Sugar Islands: A Comparative Analysis of Guadeloupe and Barbados
Antony Maragnes, Guadeloupe

This paper postulates that every Land Policy should stem from a sound physical and cultural analysis of the land which is to be modified. It refutes the Western paradigm according to which Land Tenure and Property are universal concepts. On the contrary, in post-colonial societies, Geography and History have led to peculiar land configurations that do not really fit in with this Eurocentric perspective. Indeed, the bulk of Caribbean territories are small islands that have been shaped by the Plantation system, that is to say “sugar islands”.

The Comparative Analysis of the Guadeloupean and Barbadian Land Policies precisely aims at defining this particular “Land Family”. Besides it will question the specificities or the universality of this Land Systems. In the end, the ultimate goal of this study is to define the Land Identity of each territory.

In the fisrt part, the paper analyses the ways land is used and occupied in Guadeloupe and Barbados ; the monopoly of sugar cane over a long period of time has generated some spatial and social inequalities that can still be found in both islands. In the modern era, the development of new economic activities such as tourism and the social development induced by the Decolonization processes have eroded this hegemony and have modified the traditional landscape.

Nevertheless, although sugar cane plantations tend to physically disapear, they still largely influence the way both Guadeloupean and Bajan people value their land. For instance, the chronic shortfall of available land under the rule of plantation has not allowed any peasant class to emerge in these territories. The unformal tenure system that has developed in return is based on family and community. Hence it differs from the European land principles that assert the primacy of indivual rights. From this perspective, land appears to be valued more symbolically than economically.

Moreover, these peculiar land histories also explain how the inhabitants perceive their surrounding environment. To a large extent, sugar estates represent the basic socio-cultural unit in Guadeloupe and Barbados. Originally confined in a role of mere relay between the plantation and the colonial powers, the Caribbean main towns have maintained their organic link with the rural life for a long period of time. But, gradually, they have developed their own urban culture.

In the second part, the paper explores the developmental dimensions of land policies: the economic goal, the social one and the environmental one. Each dimension is made explicit and illustrated with land measures formulated and implemented in Guadeloupe and Barbados.

Finally, the study of Land Policies in Guadeloupe and Barbados could not but stress the overall context and culture in which they are elaborated. Notwithstanding their respective political status, both territories must come to terms with external pressures in this process. In Guadeloupe, Decentralization has not radically changed the role and place of the French State with regards to Land matters. In Barbados, the government has to conciliate the neo-liberal agenda of international and bilateral donors and the growing demands of its peolple. In the end, the paper stresses the fact that nowadays coastal zones represent the fundamental stake of land development in these territories.