ABSTRACT
St Kitts was one of the first sugar colonies in the West Indies and sugar dominated its economic, social and cultural history (Watts 1987). There is only one sugar factory left, but as recently as 1978 sugar accounted for 77 per cent of export earnings. Crisis in the sugar industry encouraged the government to diversify the economy and by 1987 tourism was the island’s main foreign exchange earner. One of St Kitts’ main tourist attractions is Brimstone Hill Fortress, a National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site. From its ramparts, the spectacular panorama of the island’s leeward coast portrays a landscape that encapsulates the essence of the region’s agricultural legacy. Lush green sugar cane still dominates the coastal plain that surrounds most of the island (Figure 3.1), though the cane fields are not as extensive as in former times. The site of an old windmill hints at the location of a former sugar plantation. Rising from the coast, cane gives way to a steep hillside landscape of mixed cropping and pasture, and at the highest elevations remnants of forest are shrouded in mist and cloud on the volcanic Mt Liamuiga. From colonial times, the slopes above the cane fields have been the domain of small farmers, cultivating land not needed by the precious sugar crop, though the land is susceptible to erosion and marginal to agriculture. Today sugar accounts for only 2 per cent of foreign exchange earnings yet employs 8 per cent of the workforce and occupies 30 per cent of agricultural land, so the legacy of the sugar plantation is still evident in the island’s landscape. Principal land uses in St Kitts https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315838144/3d83a73e-1d72-46c2-8977-a93a0b11b670/content/fig3_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Source: Physical Planning Division, Government of St Kitts and Nevis
