CHAPTER 13: NO NOOK OF GROUND SECURE FROM RASH ASSAULT? ECOTOURISM, HERITAGE TOURSIM AND THE JAMAICAN MAROONS.

The active consideration of proposals by Jamaican government agencies to encourage heritage tourism by opening up the Cockpit Country (an ecologically sensitive area and home to the Maroons), raises questions about the manner in which this unique aspect of Jamaica's cultural and environmental heritage is to be exploited. The Maroons, the descendants of runaway slaves, secured treaty rights to land from the colonial authorities in the eighteenth century, were able to retain better their cultural traditions because of their inaccessibility. Tourism literature illustrates the difficulties and dangers in the development of heritage sites unless careful safeguards are put in place. It also raises questions about authenticity and leads to the suggestion that much more consultation both with the Maroons themselves, as well as anthropologists, historians and ecologists, needs to take place before this unique cultural and ecological heritage is developed by tourist entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]