Barbuda land grabs
GLAN is supporting Barbudan land defenders taking on the big developers exploiting their homeland
Across the small, low-lying island of Barbuda, ultra-wealthy developers have been fencing off vast tracts of the coastline to build 'luxury developments' since Hurricane Irma devastated the island in 2017.
While locals were forcibly evacuated, the government allowed companies in, not to help rebuild but so they could start construction of an unnecessary second airport for private-jets and to continue their exploitation of the island while locals were removed.
GLAN has worked closely with the local community to support their work resisting disaster capitalists exploiting their home. We have worked with locals and visited Barbuda in 2023 and 2024 to map and catalogue the current leased areas, given to big developers despite local opposition, and highlight the areas under threat through new attempts to grab land.
The map: At present this is a basic map to represent the leases that are cutting off the coastline for local people, and marks other traditional land use by the local community. All areas of the island have historically been communal and used freely by locals for foraging, sustainable hunting, agriculture, gathering materials for traditional handicrafts and recreation. Most of the coastline is accessed by small scale fisher-people and this right to access their own coastline is now being threatened. We are working with locals to create a much more detailed map.
Barbuda land grab - map of developer 'leases'
Goat Island
Two Foot Bay
*Click the underlined map text for more detail about each lease. Best viewed on desktop.
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