Renegotiating Barbuda's commons: recent changes in Barbudan open-range cattle herding

Abstract

Barbuda remains little developed and sparsely populated relative to its neighbors in the Leeward Lesser Antilles, a rather extraordinary and relatively unknown Caribbean place. Much of its distinctiveness derives from the communal land-tenure system, itself rooted in three centuries of open-range cattle herding. Yet, as revealed through interviews, newspaper archives, and landscape observations, open-range cattle herding has declined over the past three decades, with related changes in land tenure. As the new Barbuda Land Act came into effect in 2008, codifying the communal tenure system, the very landscape elements that manifest open-range herding have become obscure. In particular, the rock-walled stockwells have become largely defunct, many of the walls lie in ruins or have been entirely consumed by the crusher that converted them into gravel to surface roads. With the principal land use that had supported communal control largely out of practice, usufruct access to land now largely obsolete, the new act might have little actual impact in preserving Barbuda's uniqueness.

Keywords:

• Caribbean
• Antigua and Barbuda
• land tenure
• land use

Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks go to the many Barbudans for their patience with questions and other intrusions. Carina Giusti, Sophia A. Sluyter, and Nicole C. Sluyter assisted with fieldwork. The staffs of the National Archives of Antigua and Barbuda, the Museum of Antigua and Barbuda, the National Anthropological Archives (United States of America), and the National Archives (United Kingdom) located and reproduced archival materials. The American Geographical Society, Foreign Military Studies Office of the US Army, Robert C. West Field Research Award, LSU Data, Equipment, Lab Supplies Award, and the Association of American Geographers funded the research. Thanks go to Dr. David Harris and family for sharing Barbuda memories and photographs. Many thanks also to the anonymous reviewers who provided insightful feedback.

Notes

1. Unless otherwise cited, the following information related to current cattle herding methods and other current island issues comes from interview notes and transcriptions from fieldwork conducted in June 2007 and June 2008.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amy E. Potter

Amy E. Potter is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

Andrew Sluyter

Andrew Sluyter is an Associate Professor at the Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA