For generations, Bahamians have gathered on our beaches — to swim, fish, launch boats, celebrate, and breathe. These aren’t just pretty places; they’re part of our culture and our identity.

But access is being chipped away: fences, locked gates, “No Trespassing” signs, disappearing pathways, private homeowners blocking long-used routes, and developments that wall off the sea. And in recent years, some of the very laws that once helped protect public access have been weakened or repealed — leaving the public with fewer tools to defend what should be ours.

Here’s the truth most people don’t realize: Bahamian law protects the beach below the high-water mark, but it does not protect the paths to reach it.

That gap allows anyone — a developer, a homeowner, or even government inaction — to cut off access one blocked road at a time.

Dis We Beach is a movement to change that.

Scroll through this site to learn about our laws, see how activism in other countries changed theirs, and discover ways you can take action — safely, in numbers or anonymously — right from your computer, tablet, or smartphone.

We’re here to keep our beaches open, safe, and accessible — now and for generations to come.

• This Act sounds like it should protect beach access — but it doesn’t.

  There is no automatic right for the public to access the beach, no requirement to keep pathways open, and no penalties for anyone who blocks long-used routes.

  What the Act does provide is limited but important:

  • It creates the Authority to designate, manage, and maintain public beaches and parks.

  • Government can secure access — but only if it chooses to — through agreement, vesting, or acquisition.

  • The Authority oversees safety, cleanliness, lifeguards, and conservation on officially designated public beaches.

  • It includes restrictions and penalties for damaging plants, structures, or public facilities.

  What’s missing?
  A right for the Bahamian people to reach the public beach they already own below the high-water mark.
  Without that, access remains inconsistent, unprotected, and vulnerable to fences, gates, and private control.

Click Here To Read The Act

Helpful sections: s.2 (definitions), s.5 (functions), s.12 (acquisition/vesting), s.26 (declaration), s.27–30 (restrictions/penalties).

Immovable Property (Acquisition by Foreign Persons) Act, 1981

     Purpose:

The Act required non-Bahamians to obtain a permit before purchasing land — including coastal land. This slowed the rapid private takeover of the shoreline and helped keep more beachfront property in Bahamian hands.

Because Bahamian landowners traditionally allowed long-used community footpaths and boat-launch routes to remain open, the Act indirectly helped protect beach access by limiting large-scale foreign acquisition of the coast.

     Repealed: Jan 1, 1994.

When this Act was repealed, the safeguards it created disappeared overnight.
Non-Bahamians no longer needed permits to purchase coastal land, making it far easier — and faster — for large stretches of shoreline to be bought, consolidated, and fenced off.

Because The Bahamas has no law protecting public access routes, the repeal meant:

• long-used footpaths and boat-launch routes lost their informal protection,

• private owners gained uninterrupted control of the coastline,

• and communities began losing access to beaches they had used for generations.

In effect, the repeal removed a barrier that once slowed the private takeover of the shoreline — and it happened without any new protections to secure the public’s right to reach the sea.

     Replaced by:

International Persons Landholding Act (1993/94).

The Immovable Property Act was replaced with a far more permissive law — one that removed the permit requirement and made it simple for non-Bahamian individuals and corporations to purchase coastal land with minimal oversight.

This shift accelerated private ownership along the shoreline.
And because The Bahamas still does not protect public access routes in law, each new acquisition increased the risk of:

• historic pathways being blocked or gated,

• community boat-launch spots disappearing,

• and entire stretches of coast becoming effectively off-limits to Bahamians.

The new Act opened the door wide for coastal development — but without a matching law to protect how Bahamians reach the sea, public access became more vulnerable than ever.

Read Springer Context Regarding Immovable Property Act

Click Here To Read An Editorial View On How Removing This Act Is Impacting Our Country

Click To Read The Act

The International Persons Landholding Act (1993/94) was introduced to modernize foreign land ownership by removing permit requirements and replacing them with simple registration. While the goal was to streamline investment, the change made it much easier for private buyers to acquire large stretches of coastal land.

The issue wasn’t the ownership itself — it was that this shift happened without adding any protections for public beach access. As more shoreline moved into private hands, and with no law requiring traditional or historic access routes to be preserved, many long-used community paths quietly disappeared.

The Act remains in force today, and its impact highlights how urgently The Bahamas now needs legally protected public access points.

Click To Read The Act

• Public Rights vs. Private Ownership — and How We’re Legally Able to Use OUR Beaches**

  • Foreshore (the wet sand between the high-water and low-water marks):
    This area is public. You can walk, swim, fish, and recreate there. No one can own it.

  • Above the high-water mark:
    This land can be private. And you cannot cross private property to get to the beach unless:
    • a public right-of-way already exists, or
    • the government has formally secured access.

  Bottom line:
  A beach can be public — but if the path to reach it is private, fenced, or blocked, the public loses access in practice.

  This is why The Bahamas urgently needs legally protected, mapped, and enforceable access points.

Not all access rights came from governments acting on their own. In many countries, public pressure, community organizing, and legal challenges forced lawmakers and courts to protect coastal access. These examples show how people — not just policies — have shaped shoreline rights.

Hawaii — PASH (1995)

Community advocacy and legal action strengthened customary and public shoreline rights. In the PASH v. Hawaii County Planning Commission decision, the court confirmed that Native Hawaiian traditional access must be considered in permitting, expanding protections the public now relies on.

Why it matters: It proved that communities can enforce public trust principles and stop developments that erase access.

England — Ramblers Campaign

Grassroots walkers and Ramblers groups campaigned for decades for a legal right to roam along the coast. Their pressure culminated in the Marine & Coastal Access Act (2009), which created today’s continuous England Coast Path and coastal margin.

Why it matters: A national access system exists because citizens demanded it — and didn’t stop.

California — Martins Beach

When a billionaire landowner locked the only road to Martins Beach, surfers, activists, and community groups fought back. Years of protests, legal challenges, and public pressure resulted in courts ordering the gate reopened and reaffirming California’s constitutional commitment to public beach access.

Why it matters: It showed that even powerful private interests can be overruled when public rights — and persistent advocacy — stand firm.

Click here to read:  A billionaire tests strength of public access laws.

Jamaica, An Island Without Beach Access

For decades, Jamaicans have watched their public shoreline shrink behind hotel walls, gated resorts, and private developments. Although the beaches themselves are technically public, the paths to reach them were never protected — creating the same legal gap The Bahamas now faces. As a result, most Jamaicans cannot freely access the coastline they were born into. This video by Al Jazeera’s The Take documents how activists, communities, and local fishers have had to fight back through protests, lawsuits, and public pressure just to defend their right to touch the sea.

Jamaica’s experience is a warning for every island nation:
If access routes aren’t protected, the public will lose the beach even if the law says it belongs to them.

Lesson for The Bahamas:
This is exactly what happens when a country has a high-water rule but no access law. Jamaica shows that once public paths disappear, reversing the loss takes decades of activism. The Bahamas must act now — map access points, secure them in law, and prevent our coastline from slipping away one gate at a time.