Caribbean Information

Total land area: c. 240,000 km².
Number of islands: 115 + c. 3400 rocky islets and cays.
Altitude: -40 m (Lago de Enriquillo) to 3087 m (Pico Duarte), both in Hispaniola.

Climate
The latitude and western Atlantic position indicate warm moist conditions determined by easterly or north-easterly trade winds and the intertropical convergence. Rainfall and temperature data are given by most of the authors referred to in Table 38.

Rainfall depends on topography, ranging from less than 600 mm along leeward coasts in rain-shadow to over 5000 mm on windward slopes of mountains. Most inland areas have annual rainfall within the 1500-2000 mm per annum range. All climates in the region are seasonal with, at sea-level in most years, at least one dry month when rainfall is less than 100 mm. The main dry period is usually between January and April; there may be a second dry period in more southerly latitudes in July to September.

A serious deficiency in climatic data is the lack of rainfall records for higher altitudes. Moisture conditions are usually more uniform due to the formation of cloud around mountain peaks, but they are sometimes excessive. Sastre (1978, 1979a) and Sastre and Portecop (1985) have recorded maximum annual rainfall on the upper windward slopes, at altitudes of c. 1450 m, of the volcanic peaks of Guadeloupe and Martinique of the order of 8000-10,000 mm.

The temperature regime is equable as befits intertropical oceanic islands. At sea-level, temperature in February, which is often the coolest and driest month, rarely falls to 12°C. Rainy seasons are usually warmer, but maxima rarely reach 33°C. Overall averages at sea-level are mostly in the range 25-27°C.

With rare occurrences in Grenada and Tobago, and even rarer ones in Trinidad, hurricanes may from time to time devastate other islands (see Factors causing loss of biodiversity). The tracks pass mostly from south-east to north-west across the region.

Population
The original Amerindian inhabitants, Caribs and Arawaks, have long since ceased to influence or modify the land and vegetation of the Antilles. Fewer than 2000 Caribs live today in a reserve in Dominica and fewer than 3% of these are of pure race. In any case, the original Amerindians had very little influence on the environment in comparison with Europeans, who invaded from the time of Columbus, and the Africans and Asians brought by Europeans, originally as slaves or indentured plantation workers. The modification of the West Indian landscape has taken almost 500 years to reach its present condition.

The population of the Caribbean islands in 1991 was estimated to be 35 million (FAO 1990), projected to rise to about 40 million by the year 2000, and to nearly 60 million by 2025. It is difficult to make a reliable overall forecast because the rates of increase vary considerably from island to island depending on internal social and economic factors and international political links which affect emigration. Life expectancy ranges from 51 in Haiti to 74 in Puerto Rico.

In general, although all island-totals are increasing, the incremental rates and the proportions of populations economically active in agriculture have fallen over the past decade. These trends reflect increase in mechanization and efficiency on farms and in importations of foods replacing local produce, combined with migration to towns and coastal tourist resorts. Higher growth-rates are associated with larger rural populations and relatively smaller movements away from agricultural pursuits, as in Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The totals of people living in agricultural communities actually rose in Jamaica and Haiti (by 7.5%) during the decade, this trend matching several of the poorer Central American republics, where, however, numbers of those actually economically active on the land also fell.

There are 16 urban centres in the Caribbean with over 100,000 inhabitants: Bahamas - Grand Bahama, Nassau; Cuba - Habana, Camaguey, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo; Jamaica - Kingston, Montego Bay; Haiti - Port-au-Prince; Dominican Republic - Santo Domingo, Santiago de los Caballeros; Puerto Rico - San Juan; Guadeloupe - Pointe-à-Pitre; Martinique Fort-de-France; Barbados - Bridgetown; Trinidad - Port-of-Spain.

Getting there

American Airlines (tel. 800/433-7300; www.aa.com) is the major carrier throughout the region. Other airlines serving the islands include Air Canada (tel. 888/247-2262 in the U.S. and Canada; www.aircanada.ca), Air Jamaica (tel. 800/523-5585; www.airjamaica.com), British Airways (tel. 800/247-9297 in U.S., 0870/850-9850 in the U.K.; www.britishairways.com), BWIA (tel. 800/538-2942; www.bwee.com), Continental (tel. 800/231-0856; www.continental.com), Delta (tel. 800/241-4141; www.delta.com), LIAT (tel. 888/844-5428 in most of the Caribbean, or 868/624-4727 elsewhere; www.liatairline.com), Northwest/KLM (tel. 800/447-4747; www.nwa.com), United (tel. 800/241-6522; www.united.com), and US Airways (tel. 800/428-4322; www.usairways.com), plus some smaller regional carriers. In each of the island chapters that follow, we'll list details on which airlines fly the various routes.