R i s k , t r a n s p a r e n c y a n d s e c u r i t y The Caribbean Sea is a semi-enclosed sea and interconnected large marine ecosystem, a fact clearly demonstrated to us in recent years by the invasive Pacific lionfish, which entered the Caribbean Sea at a particular point and within a few years had spread to the entire Caribbean region. The lionfish is a major problem for Caribbean SIDS and shows that co-ordinated regional action is absolutely necessary if we’re going to manage and obtain sustainable optimum benefits effectively and value from the marine resources. Further reasons for working together include the shared nature of the marine living resources, close proximity of states and the overlapping boundaries in the Caribbean, maritime boundaries and approximation of the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) in the Caribbean. The fishing industry in the Caribbean is strategically important for a number of reasons. The sector provides stable employment in a region that suffers from high rates of unemployment and underemployment. It is an important source of foreign exchange earnings, with significant quantities of fish exported every year in circumstances where the countries have limited natural resources and are highly dependent on external trade for food security, economic activities and social wellbeing. There are about 25,000 vessels involved in the industry. Total production from the domestic fleet is increasing, although certain high-value species are fully developed and, in some cases, over-exploited. Fisheries are also important for livelihoods and for food security. Per capita consumption of fish in Caribbean SIDS is very high at approximately 32 kg per person, whereas the world average is about 19 kg per person. Aquaculture production, which we see as a priority for blue economic growth, has declined sharply in the wake of the recent economic crisis. But the industry is beginning to turn around and we are now seeing an upward trend. The most serious and difficult challenge that we face is ensuring that our living marine resources make an optimum sustainable contribution to our economies. Some of the main threats that have been identified are unsustainable fishing practices, pollution and habitat degradation, including pollution from land-based as well as marine sources, and the challenges of climate change and disaster risk management. Fishing communities are very vulnerable as they are at the land–water interface, and they have already been affected by climate change and frequent hurricanes. These tend to impact on fishing communities quite severely. The issue of IUU fishing is also a major problem for Caribbean SIDS, largely because of our limited capacity for monitoring control and surveillance (MCS) and the relatively large ocean space under their jurisdiction. It is very expensive to put in place the systems that are required for effective MCS. For these reasons, improving MCS and deterring IUU fishing are high priorities. Improving governance arrangements is another major challenge, and associated with that is strengthening the management and conservation systems to ensure protection and sustainability of resources. At the same time, improving income and added-value levels must be considered, which brings us to the issue of improving trade competitiveness and trade capacity, particularly in the areas of sanitary and phytosanitary systems, product diversification and technological improvements to boost fish and seafood exports. We have a common fisheries policy treaty that has been accepted by policy makers. It defines a pathway of regional co-operation, outlining the principles and standards that we will be applying to achieve blue economic growth. Fisheries science and management is another priority area in which we work in. Annual scientific meetings are used to analyse available statistics, make recommendations and develop management plans; for example, the flying fish management plan was recently approved in May 2014, the first such plan for the flying fish resource in the region – a pelagic species. The scientific work and meetings produce reports regarding the state of the stocks and recommendations for management and conservation. We have recently approved a regional strategy to promote the use of ICT in the fisheries sector because we believe that there are significant gains that can be realised by greater use of this technology and we have invested in a modern knowledge platform to share information and to promote collaboration. Human resource development is another major area of focus in the region if we’re going to achieve our objectives, and we’re working with a number of development partners in the region to build human and institutional capacity for sustainable blue growth. We see a role for the Commonwealth to strengthen collaboration and partnership, recognising that across the Commonwealth, Africa, Caribbean and Pacific regions many of the issues in fisheries are similar. There are donors and sister regional bodies among the Commonwealth states that we hope would be interested in working with us to implement these priorities and move towards blue economic growth. A Commonwealth priority3 Janet Strachan Forty-seven of the Commonwealth’s member states are coastal and 25 are SIDS. As such, coastal issues are especially important for the Commonwealth Secretariat and central to the well-being of the affected countries, which have become world leaders in this area of research and hold jurisdiction over global ocean areas. Some member states have an ocean to land mass ratio of 3,000:1 or 4,000:1. This is why ocean governance is so important to the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth advocates the development of national governance frameworks that are based on integrated holistic ecosystem management, with a very broad integrated view founded on national policy. Whereas we have had a lot of elaboration of the concepts of the green or blue economy, there really are no practical sources of information available to countries to actually implement these. Much of the advice available has a strong conservation agenda. We also find that many institutional frameworks and institutions are sectorial – fisheries, energy exploitation, shipping, etc. These are effective in their own spheres, but, as we have seen, not effective in the sustainable running of the whole ocean space. One area of work involves the OECS regional ocean policy, which incorporates all users of the ocean and was built through full stakeholder consultation with all the users in that ocean space. I think the important thing here is a sort of philosophical change in the approach. It’s an agreement based on a common objective, or a common set of objectives, to achieve common goals: in other words, it starts from the premise of what we collectively want to achieve, rather than the competing uses within the ocean states. Commonwealth Governance Handbook 2014/15 126
CEP template 2012
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