Coastal Tourism, Sustainability, and Climate Change in the Caribbean, Volume I

Martha Honey, Samantha Hogenson

• Publisher: Business Expert Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781631574733
• eBook ISBN: 9781631574740
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Small Business
• Index: Business

The Caribbean is the most tourism-dependent region in the world, and its tourism attractions and infrastructure and three-quarters of its people are concentrated along its coastlines. While the Caribbean contributes to less than 1 percent of global carbon emissions, its beaches and hotels are among the most vulnerable to climate impacts, including increasingly fierce and frequent hurricanes, sea-level rise, and loss of coral and mangroves. This book details many techniques for mitigating and adapting to climate impacts and demonstrates how socially and environmentally responsible companies are proving resilient in coping with climate change.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Martha Honey

Coastal and marine tourism are the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry. Beaches and coastlines are being rapidly bought up and built up by resort and vacation home developers, while the number, size, and ports-of-call of cruise ships are growing rapidly. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Caribbean, the most tourism dependent region in the world. In 2015, for the first time, tourism in the Caribbean grew at a faster pace than any other region in the world. Typically, some 50 million overnight tourists and cruise passengers—most from the United States—vacation in the Caribbean each year. Yet large-scale, mass market, sun-and-sand tourism, the staple of much of the Caribbean, at times can cause a range of environmental and social problems.

In recent years, these Caribbean island nations have also become extremely vulnerable to climate change impacts, including sea level rise (SLR) and ocean warming, coral and mangrove destruction, increasingly fierce and erratic storms, and a host of other human-induced phenomena. As an industry, tourism both contributes to and is a victim of climate change. Given these realities, tourism cannot continue to pursue business as usual. Fortunately, as the essays and case studies in this and its companion volume demonstrate, there is today a growing number of sustainable tourism businesses that are providing social and environmental benefits to destinations and local communities.

This volume is the first of two on coastal tourism and is organized around a central theme: How coastal tourism must be planned, built, and operated in this era of climate change. While our focus is on the Caribbean, we have included for purposes of comparison a few case studies from other destinations that provide innovative and transferable applications for this region. In the two volumes on coastal tourism, the 30-plus authors who contributed overview essays and case studies include tourism practitioners, academics, scientists, and community and nonprofit leaders. In broad terms, we seek to look at four key questions surrounding tourism and climate change in the Caribbean:

• How do various sectors of coastal tourism contribute to climate change?
• How are the various sectors experiencing the impacts of climate change?
• What measures have tourism businesses (and governments) taken to date to address climate change?
• Given what climate scientists are predicting for the future, what are the main gaps between current best practices by tourism businesses and the changes required to effectively address climate change?

There are two truths that run through this and its companion volume on coastal tourism. The first is that many of the problems facing the Caribbean’s natural environment predate but are exacerbated by climate change. Therefore, oftentimes the solutions to addressing problems such as coral die-offs or storm surges or fresh water shortages involve addressing multiple issues, not simply climate change. A second truth is that many of the techniques for mitigating and adapting to climate change are part of the tool kit of sustainable tourism that has been honed over recent decades by innovative companies and entrepreneurs, often backed by NGOs, researchers, scientists, governments, and international development agencies. Therefore, companies, communities, and coastal destinations that are already adhering to the principles and practices of sustainable development are likely to be more resilient in coping with climate change.

The following are brief synopses of each of this volume’s chapters.

Chapter 2: Beach and Shoreline Protection

In the opening essay, Judi Clarke looks at the importance of beaches and shorelines as both the Caribbean’s most important tourism asset and as the frontline in battle to confront climate change. For decades, beaches and shorelines have been facing pressures from natural forces and human impacts, including destructive and shortsighted tourism development. Now climate change is accelerating these pressures. Despite the realities of coastal vulnerability and loss, Clarke writes that “complacency continues to be the norm in much of the Caribbean.” Beaches and shorelines are living, evolving ecosystems, and tourism’s built structures often require different approaches to effectively cope with climate change impacts. Clarke describes four types of climate resilient interventions: setbacks and retreat, build back better, hard engineering, and soft engineering. While not all of these approaches embrace the concept of living shorelines, ultimately the most successful solutions incorporate a combination of these four approaches.

The case studies in this chapter highlight failures by vacation home owners, vacationers, and governments to fully grasp the realities of climate change. In the first case study, researchers found that less than 30 percent of home owners along North Carolina’s Outer Banks believe that climate change will negatively impact property values over the next 25 years. The second case study finds that while available research is limited, sun-and-sand tourists appear to be intolerant of climate change realities: both beach erosion and hard engineering devices intended to preserve beaches and shorelines may cause tourists to stop visiting the destination. The longer term implications may be that tourists decide to abandon the Caribbean for other less impacted vacation spots. Finally, a case study of the Dominican Republic finds the government’s strategy to expand the numbers of large all-inclusive resorts is straining coastal resources and not addressing the realities of climate change. In contrast, Counterpart International and local partners in the DR are piloting coastal and marine projects to expand nature-based community tourism and other sustainable economic activities. They have come to understand that active community participation is key for conservation, protection of local livelihoods, and successful adoption of climate change resilience strategies.

Chapter 3: Siting, Architecture, Design, and Construction

The overview essay by Denaye Hinds and Esteban Biondi argues that tourism master planning and building today requires a new normal that incorporates present risks and climate change projections using smart planning, sustainable design, and responsible construction. They argue that most coastal resorts in the Caribbean have not been properly designed to withstand present-day hurricane conditions, let alone the increased vulnerabilities due to climate change. The authors describe a range of new tools, policies, and certification programs designed to increase sustainability and resilience to climate change. These include legal setbacks from the high water mark, protection of open spaces, repurposing of existing sites and buildings, elevated construction, passive and flexible architectural designs, renewable energy, prefabricated buildings, and native and drought-resistant plants. They argue that tourism projects that incorporate sustainable and climate resilient innovations have the ability to bounce forward with recovery improvements after storms and flooding and also have increased value and longer life span.

The case study of the Ritz Carlton Grand Cayman outlines how, after the resort suffered severe hurricane damage, a team of experts developed a multipurpose recovery plan, including mangrove restoration, protective rock structures, and other measures that simultaneously provided resilience and improved amenities and activities, therefore making the project justifiable on both environmental and economic grounds. The case study of Sugar Ridge, a Green Globe certified boutique resort in Antigua, demonstrates how its mountain location provides a range of natural assets including wide vistas, ocean views, fresh air, lush vegetation, and range of non-beach activities. The third case study is of Via Verde, a sustainable and affordable mixed-used development built on a brownfield in the Bronx, New York, that fuses together natural and urban space. Unlikely as it sounds, this LEED-certified project encompasses architectural and construction principles and designs relevant to the Caribbean, including open space, green roofs, solar energy, water conserving plumbing, and other climate-resilient features.

Chapter 4: Coastal Hotel Chains and Independent Resorts

In her overview essay, Denaye Hinds reviews the forecasts of climate change impacts for Caribbean coastal tourism, including the loss of 150 resorts with a 2°C rise in global temperatures and damages totaling $22 billion a year by 2050. She then discusses a wide range of sustainable technologies and eco-certification programs that both independent boutique hotels and branded resort chains are using to reduce their own carbon footprint and to adapt their construction and operations to cope with climate change. Several Caribbean-wide initiatives, backed by governments, tourism associations, and international agencies, are also promoting transitions to more sustainable practices, especially for energy and water. Hinds concludes, “For every climate related challenge, there is, it seems, a solution.” She says that going forward, “the mantra must be: Sustain, Elevate, Innovate.”

The first case study discusses the disconnect in the time frame or ROI (return on investment) between guest facing and back of the house improvements and how Starwood properties are working to overcome this disconnect through a combination of environment goals, foundational initiatives, and innovative financing. The next case study describes how Ewald Biemans, owner of Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort in Aruba, has built a highly successful, award-winning green resort with an all-encompassing commitment to environmental and social sustainability and climate-resilient measures, including compliance to four international eco-certification programs. The third case study looks at Grupo Puntacana in the Dominican Republic whose owners have, since 1969, built one of the Caribbean’s oldest, largest, and most popular tourism resort complexes, while simultaneously financing environmental and social programs to improve local livelihoods, ensure environmental protection, and address climate change. The final case study describes the CHENACT project, implemented by industry associations, whose mandate is to work with Caribbean hotels to improve energy efficiency, reduce utility costs, and mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

As stated, this volume focuses on coastal hotels, beaches, and shorelines. This focus is closely linked to a second volume on three auxiliary sectors—golf, local agriculture and cuisine, and airlines and airports—that are important components of the coastal tourism industry in the Caribbean. This second volume contains a final essay by Roger-Mark De Souza, “Challenges and Opportunities for the Caribbean,” which serves as a conclusion for both these volumes. De Souza argues that “two key issues top the list of concerns and opportunities” for the Caribbean: “the impacts of climate change and imperative of responsible tourism.” He goes on to summarize central themes from both volumes and to offer a five-point roadmap for sustainable coastal tourism and successful adaptation and mitigation to climate change in the Caribbean.

CHAPTER 2

Beach and Shoreline Protection

Overview—Protecting Shorelines from Impacts of Climate Change

Judi Clarke

Now more than ever, the Small Island Developing States (SIDS)ⁱ of the Caribbean need to find ways of reducing the vulnerability of their people and fragile tourism-reliant economies to the impacts of climate change. This is particularly important for beaches and shorelines, which are both the Caribbean’s most important tourism assets and the front line in the battle to confront climate change. For decades, these beach and shoreline areas have been facing pressure from natural forces (such as wind, waves, tides, and currents) and human activities (beach sand removal and inappropriate tourism construction). The impacts of climate change, including sea level rise (SLR) and increasingly fierce and erratic storms, are already magnifying these pressures.

At the December 2015 United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP21) in Paris,¹ governments struck a deal that commits countries to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions with the aim of limiting the further increase of global average temperature to 1.5°C. Although Caribbean and other small island states are already experiencing harsh impacts at current levels of warming, the 1.5°C target is seen as somewhat of a victory. Why? Two degrees of average warming would lead to SLR of some 2.7 m, which would spell the end for low-lying island countries. But despite the headway made at the Paris meeting, present-day SLR coupled with extreme weather events induced by climate change continues to pose one of the most immediate threats to Caribbean countries.

Finding workable solutions to protect beaches and shorelines as living, evolving ecosystems that also hold resorts and other built infrastructure is a complex balancing act. Many mistakes have been, and continue to be, made by those involved in protecting shorelines’ natural and built environments, from property developers and owners, governments, and insurance companies, to social and natural scientists, engineers, and other technical experts. Really, it is essential that beach and shoreline protection be carried out in support of integrated sustainable development processes.

Coastal areas in the Caribbean, for all their appeal, are at the forefront of increasingly fierce and frequent tropical storms. Coastal ecosystems and the livelihoods that depend on them are also under increasing pressure. Beach erosion has removed public spaces where craft vendors ply their trade and has compromised landing sites for small fishing and tour boats. Warmer sea surface temperatures have resulted in coral bleaching, making underwater sceneries less attractive to dive tourism.

Image 2.0.1 Effects of coastal erosion in Barbados²

Beach resorts and other coastal development projects are supposed to adhere to the legal coastal setback, the prescribed distance from a coastal feature such as the seaward line of vegetation, high tide mark, or dune crest (Fig. 2.1).

In the Caribbean, legal setbacks from the high tide mark range from 5 to 152 m depending on the country (Table 2.1).

However, in many locations, existing structures are allowed to be renovated and continue to operate within restricted zones. What’s more, some developers intentionally violate the existing legal setback distance and they then either go unpunished or receive the penalty of a relatively modest fine. Such ill-conceived ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword and Acknowledgments
• Key Definitions
• List of Acronyms
• Map of the Caribbean
• Chapter 1 Introduction by Martha Honey
• Chapter 2 Beach and Shoreline Protection
• Chapter 3 Siting, Architecture, Design, and Construction
• Chapter 4 Coastal Hotels and Resorts
• Conclusion and Volume 2 Preview
• Contributing Authors
• Index