UTech planner urges land reform at 2026 Churches Emancipation Lecture

KINGSTON — Professor Carol Archer, professor of urban and regional planning and public policy at the University of Technology, Jamaica, delivered the 2026 Churches Emancipation Lecture on July 26 at Webster Memorial United Church, arguing that disaster risk, the built environment and unfinished land emancipation remain tightly linked in Jamaica.

Hosted by the Churches Emancipation Lecture Committee, the service featured praise led by Nexus Performing Arts Company, marking 25 years of the group's ministry, before scripture readings from Isaiah 55:6-11 and Mark 4:35-41 and Archer's address on "disaster, built environment and emancipation: the lessons and the legacy."

Archer, who traces her roots to Jeffrey Town in St. Mary and has written widely on housing, local government reform and urban renewal, told the congregation there is no such thing as a natural disaster — only natural hazards made catastrophic by human choices such as clearing mangroves, unapproved construction and car-centred planning that worsens heat and emissions.

Citing an International Organization for Migration report from November 2025, she said Hurricane Melissa damaged or destroyed about 120,000 buildings and directly affected more than 279,000 people, with western communities including Treasure Beach, Black River and Montego Bay still showing severe coastal destruction. She noted that roughly half of Jamaican households are female-headed and that about 70 per cent of those households live below the poverty line, sharpening the storm's social impact.

Linking Melissa to emancipation history, Archer said land ownership was never secured for formerly enslaved Africans after 1838, pushing families onto marginal crown-controlled hillsides, informal settlement and insecure tenure. She pointed to the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865, subsequent local-government changes and the Registration of Titles Act, while noting that about 40 per cent of Jamaican land remains unregistered.

She urged the church to press legislators for land reform rather than only short-term housing grants, to stay first responders and public educators on climate-safe building, and to work with local authorities. Resilient settlements, she said, must fit Jamaica's natural conditions — protecting mangroves and wetlands, designing for people as well as cars, and improving data for recovery decisions — so that dignity and secure land access finally reach those still left vulnerable.

Dr Pansy Hamilton presented a gift of thanks on behalf of the committee after the lecture.