Caribbean Port City Capitals as Cultural Landscapes

The coastal locations of Caribbean port cities are distinct cultural landscapes in settings around safe harbours sheltered by hillocks containing vital elements of historic urban landscapes. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recommended in 2011 the idea of the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) as a tool to integrate policies and practices of conservation of the built environment into the wider goals of urban development. Green, Robinson and Morgan (2013) caution that some efforts by the business community to regenerate port cities have limited the holistic nature of downtown to economic and physical enhancement leaving out the critical human /social /community components. Using the geo-political definition of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) the paper explores how Caribbean cities have extreme vulnerability under heightened threat of climate change. Additionally, as Barnett (2011) suggests that successful cities almost always grew up on rivers and harbours because large quantities of goods were moved most effectively by water, their growth spurred on by especially good location, energetic leadership, or abundant resources. The presentation explores how Caribbean port cites gained prominence under colonial plantation trade with the movement of goods and people through enslavement trafficking. This presentation argues that the communities representing diverse history bring value to any conservation effort of the Caribbean urban cultural landscape. Further, that Caribbean HUL should become centres of cultural heritage tourism, and where possible elaborated as creative cities. Exclusion of the community would negate the fundamental principles laid out in the various UNSDGs and their value to SIDS. In conclusion, this presentation puts forward that Caribbean cities should be designated regional cultural landscapes with a HUL of Caribbean creole and vernacular architecture, ���Caribbean Wooden Treasures��� (van Oers & Haraguchi 2005), including associative values as Sites of Memory. This cultural landscape is underrepresented globally.