Caribbean fishing plan coming

CARICOM and the Japanese government have joined forces to develop a master plan for fisheries and aquaculture development in the Caribbean. Addressing a meeting of representatives of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Georgetown, Guyana last Friday, Caricom Secretary-General Edwin Carrington said the fisheries sector remains a major contributor to regional food security, employment and poverty alleviation.

While the importance of fishing to the region has assumed an even greater significance “with the decline of major traditional industries such as sugar and bananas” and moves to establish the Caricom Single Market and Economy, Carrington lamented that the sustainable development of fisheries and aquaculture in the region faces many obstacles.  Chief among them are limited research capacity, lack of harvesting and processing technology and scarcity of financial resources.

Noting that Japan has a proven track record in the management and utilisation of fisheries and other aquatic resources, Carrington said Caricom saw clear benefits from “capitalising on the wealth of knowledge, technical expertise and financial resources that Japan makes available through various technical agreements.” He added that the fisheries project with Japan was being pursued in the context of the new framework for Caricom-Japan cooperation for the 21st century which was approved by Caricom foreign ministers and their Japanese counterpart in November 2000, in Tokyo.