Coastal Capital: Jamaica

The report evaluates the economic contributions of Jamaica's coral reefs, highlighting their critical role in maintaining beaches for tourism, supporting reef-associated fisheries, and reducing coastal flooding. It warns that further reef degradation will lead to increased beach erosion, reduced tourism revenue, and higher vulnerability to storm-induced inundation, while noting that overfishing has already caused significant historical revenue losses.

• Increased beach erosion due to further reef degradation is projected to cause an annual loss in consumer satisfaction of US$32.7 million after 10 years, which is a US$13.5 million increase over the base scenario. This could reduce annual tourist visitation by 9,000 to 18,000 people, costing the Jamaican economy between US$11 million and US$23 million per year.
• Reef-related fisheries support between 15,000 and 20,000 active fishermen and contribute to the livelihoods of over 100,000 people, approximately 5 percent of the population. Between 2001 and 2005, these fisheries generated average annual gross revenues of US$33.1 million, with an additional US$1.2 million from subsistence catches.
• Ineffective fisheries management led to an estimated loss of US$1.6 billion in revenues between 1975 and 2000. Current trends show declining fish size and quality, forcing fishermen to travel further to sea, and necessitating the import of most fish consumed on the island.
• Coral reefs protect approximately 60 percent of Jamaica's shoreline by reducing wave energy by more than 75 percent. Modeling shows that severe reef degradation would significantly increase water levels at the shoreline during storms; for example, at Discovery Bay, the difference in water level between current and degraded reef scenarios is 0.8 m for a 1-year storm and 0.6 m for a 25-year storm.
• Severe reef degradation would increase coastal inundation during 25-year storm events. In the central north coast near Discovery Bay, this would result in additional inundated areas including over 100 structures, such as two hotels, a church, and an airfield.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Coastal Capital: Jamaica. http://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/coastal_capital_jamaica_summary_0.pdf

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Coastal Capital: Jamaica. n.d. http://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/coastal_capital_jamaica_summary_0.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Coastal Capital: Jamaica |url=http://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/coastal_capital_jamaica_summary_0.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendcoastal, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Coastal Capital: Jamaica}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {http://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/coastal_capital_jamaica_summary_0.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }