Buff-Bay valley is Jamaica’s newest attraction

Agro‐Tourism Product launched to combine heritage and agriculture and provide a unique visitor experience

Published December 23, 2009 Hospitality Jamaica

Christopher Columbus’s description of Jamaica, the land of wood and water, aptly fits the Buff Bay Valley, which has these elements in abundance. This is an experience, which can be soaked in by visitors as the island’s newest attraction; Buff Bay Valley – The Heritage Corridor of the Blue Mountain – was launched on December 11 in Portland.

This new attraction intertwines agriculture and tourism components to provide visitors a comprehensive experience of local heritage, culture, food and nature adventure tours in one package. The project also aims to provide economic empowerment for the community who will assume responsibility for running the attractions.

“Certainly the various food festivals taking place all over the island ‐ like the Yam and Breadfruit Festivals – were a good beginning in Jamaica’s attempt to link Agriculture and Tourism,” said Information Minister Daryl Vaz at the launch.



The Buff Bay Valley agro‐tourism package covers the 20-mile corridor from the seaport of Buff Bay to 4000 ft into the Blue Mountains at Cascade encompassing over 20 communities and involving the participation of more than 10 community based organizations.

The agro‐tourism concept is intended to help diversify Jamaica’s tourism product; this initiative also seeks to appeal to the growing trend for authentic cultural experiences by promoting a greater cultural immersion for local and overseas visitors.

The tours of the valley will take visitors to the area where they can retrace Maroon heritage at their Charles Town Museum; they can see and learn about the over 200 medicinal and ornamental herbs grown in the area.

Visitors can also take a bee keeping educational tour at the Charles Town Bee Farmers’ Association Honey Production and Queen Rearing station. There are also several hiking and camping tours through the mountains and mist forests of the upper Valley.


Most of the physical structures of the proposed attractions are expected to be completed by the end of the year. “This is a process, and it is the matter of getting logistics in place,” informed Shauna Brandon, rural development specialist at IICA.

“The project will be fully operational by the end of the first quarter of 2010,” she added.

Local crafts, agro processed foods such as coconut oil, bammy and a variety of fruit wines including the popular gungo peas and aloe vera wines as well as farm produce from the Buff Bay Valley Marketing Cooperative will also be sold.



“I am grateful for the economic benefits it will bring to the area and the opportunity it will give residents to stay right here and earn instead of going to Kingston,” Vaz said.

The initiative to develop the Buff Bay Valley as a tourist destination evolved from a project implemented by Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) through funding from the European Union-Government of Jamaica Rural Diversification Programme.

IICA was one of six successful candidates in a 2008 call for proposals under the Rural Diversification Programme, which aims to facilitate the transition of banana workers who had exited the industry in the last decade as well as their communities into new, diverse and sustainable income generating activities.

Cynthia Currie IICA Jamaica Representative, speaking on the launch was upbeat on the initiative and hoped that Buff-Bay Valley would be a benchmark for similar projects in the future. “Our hope is that this model can be replicated in other communities across the island as an alternative for improving the incomes and potential economic viability of small farmers and rural communities,” she said.


amitabh.sharma@gleanerjm.com