Barbuda People's Movement (BPM) leader Trevor Walker has declared that Barbuda will never support the sale of its lands, reaffirming the party's long-standing commitment to a leasehold system designed to protect the island's resources for future generations.
According to Antigua News Room, Walker made the remarks at a BPM rally held this week, where he described land as Barbuda's most valuable asset and warned firmly against any move toward freehold ownership.
"Barbuda lands is the only thing that we have," Walker told supporters. "This party is totally against the sale of land and this party will never agree for lands to be sold."
Walker argued that the existing leasehold model strikes the right balance — allowing development to proceed while keeping communal ownership intact. Under that system, he noted, land can be leased for decades without permanently leaving Barbudan hands.
"In the past every single development… [was] done on a leasehold basis," he said. "When your children come, they can review that lease — it's not sold."
The BPM leader warned that outright land sales would strip future generations of control over the island's resources, framing land as both "power and wealth" that must be actively safeguarded.
To underscore the stakes, Walker pointed to a recent inquiry involving a 20-acre parcel reportedly valued at $33 million. "So when we sit down and make jokes and believe that all is well, all is not well," he said, urging residents to remain vigilant about how the island's land is managed.
Barbuda's land tenure system has long been one of the island's most contentious political issues, with debates over ownership, development and communal control shaping both elections and legal battles over the years.
Walker framed the upcoming April 30 general election as a critical moment for preserving that system, calling on voters to back the BPM as the only guarantee that land remains collectively held.
"We're not going to allow anybody to gamble with the lands of Barbuda," he said.
