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ABSTRACTS        Volume 2 Number 1 (November 1985)

Land abandonment in western Puerto Rico

Janice Monk Southwest Institute for Research on Women, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA

and Charles Alexander Department of Geography, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801, USA

Agricultural land abandonment is pronounced in Puerto Rico. Comparison of landowners who continue to farm with those who have ceased shows that the two groups are distinguished by differences in their strength of attachment to farming, perceptions of the adequacy of government support for agriculture, and use of that support.

Key Words    AGRICULTURAL GEOGRAPHY            IDLE LAND             PUERTO RICO

Limestone valley systems in north central Jamaica

Michael Day

Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201, USA

Limestone valley systems in north central Jamaica exhibit varied hydrologic regimes which reflect differences in karstic and non-karstic water supply. Valley patterns are influenced considerably by geological structure, whilst fluvial erosion, rather than karstic solution, is the dominant formative mechanism.

Key Words     KARST GEOMORPHOLOGY                JAMAICA

Agricultural change in the Belize River Valley

G. M. Robinson

Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9XP,United Kingdom

The Belize River Valley is one of the principal areas of farming activity in Belize. Agriculture is dominated by smallholders whose farming activities have been investigated by means of a survey of five communities in the Valley. Emphasis in this article is placed upon recent changes, constraints affecting the farmers and upon attempts to improve their situation.

Key Words       AGRICULTURAL GEOGRAPHY              BELIZE

Emerging environmental problems in a tourist zone: the case of Barbados

Ewart Archer

Department of International Relations, Florida International University, North Miami Campus,

Florida 33181, USA

In Caribbean islands like Barbados, damage to shallow water corals, nutrient enrichment and bacteriological contamination of coastal waters, and beach depletion are emerging environmental problems which could pose long term difficulties for the growing tourist industry. Policymakers need to pay more attention to the implementation of environmental regulations already on the books which can arrest these undesirable trends and protect the natural amenities on which much of the tourist appeal of the region is based.

Key Words       PLANNING            TOURISM                 BARBADOS

New directions for Jamaican agriculture

David Barker

Department of Geography, University of the West Indies, Mona campus, Jamaica

The paper describes some of the features of the new AGRO 21 programme which is intended to revitalise Jamaica's agricultural sector. It considers recent changes in land use, new technology, the impact on the resource base, and the potential role of small farmers.

Key Words        AGRICULTURAL GEOGRAPHY            AGRO 21                JAMAICA

ABSTRACTS       Volume 2 Number 2 (October 1986)

Jamaican coffee plantations, 1780-1860: a cartographic analysis

B. W. Higman

Department of History, University of the West Indies, Mona campus, Jamaica

Large-scale slave plantations were the dominant producers during Jamaica's first coffee boom. The internal spatial organization and land use patterns of these plantations can be analyzed cartometrically for the significant sample of plans surviving in the National Library of Jamaica. These patterns varied regionally and contrasted strongly with those found on sugar estates.

Key Words      HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY              PLANTATIONS                JAMAICA

Small farmers as resource managers: a note from St. Vincent

Jeremy Collymore

College of Architecture and Urban Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

Small farmers in the north of St. Vincent have demonstrated a wealth of local knowledge and environmental awareness which is adeptly used in dealing with the many problems inherent in the farming system.

Key Words       AGRICULTURAL GEOGRAPHY             ST VINCENT

Resources and practices in "A" level geography education in Jamaica and England

Graham Webb

Higher Education Development Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

In this paper it is argued that the very low pass rates experienced by students taking the "A" level geography examination in Jamaica are due to poor school-level resources and practices. Differences between provisions in Jamaica and England are highlighted. Finally, comments are made concerning the possibility of concentrating resources and improving standards by the development of sixth-form colleges.

Key Words      GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION                  JAMAICA

Towards an evolutionary model of plantations: a Cuban typology

Andrzej Dembicz

Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies, Warsaw University, Poland

A multivariate analysis of Cuban plantations using Kostrowicki's methodology produced a nine category classification scheme. A model of the evolution of plantation types is proposed.

Key Words      AGRICULTURAL GEOGRAPHY              PLANTATIONS               CUBA

Regional voting in Jamaica: trends, causes and implications

Carl Stone

Department of Government, University of the West Indies, Mona campus, Jamaica

The article analyses the traditional voting in parishes between 1959 and 1972, and then looks at changes in parish voting between 1976 and 1986. Traditional one-party voting has become eroded as the country has come to vote more like one constituency, with more uniform voting trends. There is increased instability and volatility of voting patterns across parishes.

Key Words      POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY                VOTING PATTERNS             JAMAICA

ABSTRACTS           Volume 2 Number 3 (October 1988)

Conceptualizing contemporary patterns of Caribbean international mobility

Dennis Conway

Department of Geography, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA

This paper presents a conceptual framework of contemporary international mobility patterns of individuals (and families) from the Commonwealth Caribbean who view North America as part of their world 'off the island'. A schema based on the nature of the spatial displacement is used to differentiate international circulation and emigration intentions and ensuing behaviour of international mobility (and immobility). Spatial displacement is interpreted in broad terms, incorporating time, psychological perspectives and information acquisition. The result is a series of generalized situations presented as a hypothetical set of contemporary Caribbean mobility relations with the dominant United States destination, New York City.

Key Words       MIGRATION             CARIBBEAN

The impact on 'Hurricane Allen' on the St. Lucia banana industry

Mervin C. Williams

Natural Resources Management Project, Organisation Eastern Caribbean States, Castries, St. Lucia

'Hurricane Allen' had a disastrous impact on the St. Lucia banana industry, destroying 100 percent of the standing crop. The paper provides details of crop losses and damage, and highlights the main features of the Banana Rehabilitation Programme. The rapid recovery of banana production and banana exports since "Hurricane Allen" has been dramatic.

Key Words      AGRICULTURAL GEOGRAPHY             NATURAL HAZARDS               ST LUCIA

The impact of migration on mortality and fertility in St. Kitts-Nevis

and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Jerome L. McElroy  Department of Economics, St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA

and   Klaus de Albuquerque  Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of Charleston, South Carolina 29424, USA

The age-sex selectivity of migration suggests that large-scale emigration retards the mortality transition and accelerates the fertility transition in sending societies while immigration accelerates the mortality transition and arrests or even reverses the fertility transition in receiving countries. This thesis is generally supported by a detailed analysis of the contrasting patterns of migration and return between St. Kitts-Nevis and the United States Virgin Islands for the period 1960 through 1980. In St. Kitts-Nevis, emigration produced fertility declines and mortality increases between 1960-1970, but the opposite effects during substantial return migration between 1970-1980. The Virgin Islands experienced a reversal of these patterns.

Key Words  MIGRATION             POPULATION            ST KITTS-NEVIS            U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS

Milk distribution by pushcart vendors in Kingston, Jamaica

Henk Jan Bierling and Dick Vos

Geographical Institute, National University at Groningen, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands

Pushcart vendors play an important role in the distribution of milk in Kingston. Competition with formal distribution outlets, however, is limited. Pushcart vending developed recently and the vendors concentrate their activities at the commercial centres within the Kingston Metropolitan Area. At these centres three types of sales location can be distinguished.

Key Words     URBAN GEOGRAPHY            INFORMAL SECTOR                JAMAICA

Uncontrolled Growth: rururban sprawl in Antigua

Oswald Zachariah

Consultant Planner, St John's, Antigua

This paper present evidence for urban sprawl in Antigua over the last decade and highlights the effects of such un-managed growth on agricultural land use. The building boom is associated with the growth of tourism and its effects on land use patterns show that the response of organised planning and the zoning of land use has been slow.

Key Words      URBAN GEOGRAPHY               PLANNING                  ANTIGUA

ABSTRACTS          Volume 2 Number 4 (October 1989)

Predicting traditional farmer's responses to modernization: case of a Jamaican Maroon Village

Balfour Spence

Department of Geography, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg R3T 2N2, Canada

The success of modernization initiatives aimed at increased agricultural productivity in the Third World is ultimately dependent on cognizance of the perceptions and responses of traditional small-scale farmers to these factors of change. Such cognizance can generate a reliable tool for the prediction of farmers' responses and thus the level of success of development initiatives.

Key Words      AGRICULTURAL GEOGRAPHY            MAROONS               JAMAICA

Waterfront development and redevelopment in the West Indies

Brian J. Hudson

Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture, University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 4001

Most of the major towns and cities in the West Indies have coastal locations which reflect their maritime origins, and commonly the waterfront areas occupy the original sites of these settlements. During nearly five hundred years of urbanization in the region, waterfront areas of many West Indian towns have undergone repeated redevelopment in consequence of destruction caused by natural and man-induced disasters and obsolescence related to technical and economic change. The creation of wharves and building sites on the waterfront often involve the reclamation of coastal shallows and swamps, a process which was also commonly undertaken as a public health measure. Some recent development schemes have swept away historic buildings, destroying the picturesque character of the old waterfront areas, but there is an increasing awareness of the importance of this architectural heritage and its potential value to the Caribbean tourist industry. Urban development has also adversely affected the natural environment of the coast, but now a rising of sea level poses a serious threat to the waterfronts of the town, themselves.

Key Words     URBAN GEOGRAPHY            PLANNING              CARIBBEAN

The Bahamas: the cost of fragmentation

Gerald Fish

Department of Biology, Winthrop College, South Carolina 29733, USA

The particular geographic situation of the Bahamas, the dispersal of a small population of about 250,000 over approximately thirty occupied islands, carries with it a variety of attendant costs. Among the broader of these are, a diversion of resources from development programmes, an increased tendency toward uneven development, an exacerbation of centre/periphery polarization, obligatory public sector delivery of some services and greatly increased infrastructural and operational costs.

Key Words     POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY             PLANNING                  THE BAHAMAS

Pattern of abandonment of sugar estates in Jamaica during the late nineteenth century

Veront Satchell

Department of History, University of the West Indies, Mona campus, Jamaica

The geographical pattern of abandonment of sugar estates in Jamaica during the late nineteenth century was not merely a process of natural selection or a consequence of backward or static technology. Rather, it was a direct response to a wider and more fundamental restructuring of the agrarian economy. The switch from sugar cane cultivation to new crops such as bananas and citrus and the expansion of livestock pens were causal factors for this geographical concentration.

Key Words    HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY             PLANTATIONS                JAMAICA

National Park Development in Grenada

L.Alan Eyre

Department of Geography, University of the West Indies, Mona campus, Jamaica

The paper analyses the rationale for the National Park programme in Grenada, and documents the characteristics of Grand Etang, Levera, Mount St Catherine and High North National Parks.

Key Words      NATIONAL PARKS               GRENADA