Attorney advocates for protecting nature’s gifts

At that point in time, I was working within the ACS secretariat under the Caribbean Sea Commission.

I was acting as a legal researcher and unit assistant. After the legal adviser had left the organisation, I acted temporarily as legal adviser for the ACS.” She said it was there her passion for ocean governance and protection of the region’s marine environment grew. “The Caribbean Sea Commission itself was a project by the ACS to seek to get the United Nations (UN) to declare the Caribbean Sea a special area in the context of sustainable development, recognising that several of the territories within our Caribbean region are heavily dependent on our Caribbean Sea, to generate their economies.

For example, when tourists come to TT or any other of the Caribbean territories one of the principal attractions for tourists is the beaches.” Stephens began writing and compiling her book last year, after being invited by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Hamburg, Germany to conduct research in the area. She said, “Naturally my leaning was to our own Caribbean Sea and trying to talk about the legal implications for the mechanisms for protection of our sea.” In the 88-page book, Stephens defines the Caribbean Sea and the Caribbean region, and explains the importance of the sea to the region [the ACS region and not just Caricom].

She looked at Caribbean economies and the role the sea plays in their development, and explored the concept of the wider Caribbean. “These countries have a shared patrimony which is the Caribbean Sea,” she explained.

Stephens is currently advocating for a delimitation of the Caribbean Sea, as it is a matter of a balancing of rights because there are, “States that have a right to navigation within the high seas and States that have a right to protect their marine area.” “What are we going to do in respect of areas outside of the national jurisdiction, and how are we going to deal with the areas that fall outside of the scope of what we are legally entitled to and which is binding in the international community? “In the text I examine the issue of the protection of our waters, even outside of the scope of national jurisdiction and how we can go about doing that as well as alternative approaches.” For her, designating the Caribbean Sea a special area is so important for the Caribbean since, “it generates much revenue for our Caribbean territories in terms of the tourism industry. The Caribbean Sea is also a repository for the oil and other hydrocarbons and the fishing industries are also dependent on the Caribbean Sea…Antigua and Barbuda, one of their principal industries, is fishing,” and it was estimated that at least one million dollars is generated on these islands through fishing alone. Stephens said protection for the sea should not only be national and regional, but rather a wide net protection as possible should exist and be recognised internationally.

While she notes that there were legislative frameworks in place, she believes they were not adequate or wide enough for the sea’s protection. She said this country’s Environmental Management Act, which includes management of the marine environment, is not enough. “You have specially protected areas demarcated under the EMA, but this is only national recognition of our territorial waters and the jurisdiction within our exclusive economic zone.” She does not think that TT and the region has as wide legal recognition, especially of the special status of the importance of the Caribbean Sea. She said while there were conventions that TT and the region are signatory to, such as the Marpol Convention 1978 [protection for pollution from ships], Cartagena Convention [which governs entire Caribbean region], and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, among others, many of these are ‘soft law’ which are not enforceable and to which states are not bound. “What was recognised within these conventions was that even though there is an attempt to protect the marine environment, we wanted a specific type of protection. In that there is widespread protection of the entire Caribbean Sea….” She said it is very important to do so since there are many threats to the Caribbean Sea, among them tourism, highlighting that in the past there had been destruction of the coral reef as a result of tourism.

“You have the whole issue now where you have issues resulting from climate change. This is something that is really critical to our Caribbean territories, because with the impact of global warming you have issues such as coastal erosion and you have a number of natural disasters…you don’t have to look too far back to see the number of natural disasters.” While, Stephens said, there were some organisations and individuals in the region, such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and professionals like Dr Wendel Parham, executive director of Caribbean Agriculture and Research and Development Institute who recognised the threat posed to the Caribbean Sea, she believes many more need to be ‘sensitised’ on the issue, with the media playing a major role. When asked if Government was doing enough on the issue of climate change, she replied, “I don’t think there is enough sensitisation about the issue of climate change. I think that should be an on-going project to have these things earmarked in the media so people are more and more sensitised to the impact of climate change.” She noted that it is so important, it has been included as part of the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, and UN representatives will be visiting to TT to discuss entering into an an agreement about what is happening with the areas outside of national jurisdiction.

“It will not just affect TT and our Caricom neighbours and ACS neighbours, but it will also impact on the international community.” Nature’s Gift the Caribbean Sea is available on Amazon.