In September, Hurricane Irma leveled the island of Barbuda and all 1,800 residents were evacuated...
In September 2017, Hurricane Irma devastated several Caribbean islands, including tiny Barbuda. But Barbuda might lose something unique in the recovery process—its 200-year-old communal land ownership system. Part of the twin-island state of Antigua and Barbuda, the central government on much-larger Antigua, 39 miles away, has been advocating the removal of that land rights system in favor of freehold property. Barbudans see this as a land grab to open up their island to mass tourism development.
