Fisheries sector gets major boost

Headline:Fisheries sector gets major boost

UWI NOTEBOOK

THE Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) is giving the local fisheries sector a major boost as it funnels support into a new project by the Barbados Fisheries Advisory Committee (FAC) aimed at improving governance of the sector.

CERMES - through the small grant programme in its four-year Marine Resource Governance in the Eastern Caribbean (MarGov) Project - has committed BDS$17 500 to the FAC over the next four months.

The first tranche of these funds was presented to FAC chairperson, Felicia Corbin, by CERMES senior lecturer and MarGov project manager, Dr Patrick McConney, at the Fisheries Division on Princess Alice Highway on September 10.

The FAC project got under way on Tuesday with a meeting between the committee members and the fishing community in Consett Bay, St John. This is the first in a series of meetings planned between the FAC and fishers in Six Men's Bay, St Peter, today, Bridgetown on September 30, and at Oistins on October 7.

The project aims to strengthen the FAC in its legal mandate as the channel through which people in the fisheries sector can make their concerns and suggestions heard by Government.

Along with providing the funds, the MarGov Project will also act in an advisory capacity to the FAC, assisting it in strengthening its communication, and organisational capacity, through access to MarGov research on networks and governance.

This is the second MarGov small grant awarded for the year. The first - valued at $17 000 - was given to the Grenada Fisheries Division in April to assist it in developing a draft fisheries management plan and governance arrangements for the Grenada sea urchin fishery, using ecosystem-based and sustainable livelihood approaches to fisheries management.

The MarGov Project has awarded three grants since its launch in 2007. The Trinidad-based Caribbean Natural Resources Institute was the first to have received a grant, which was presented in October last year to support the body in its analysis of the current institutional framework and capacity for fisheries governance both at the national level and in a few selected regions across Trinidad and Tobago.

McConney said: "These small grant collaborations strengthen partnerships with like-minded organisations and advance the MarGov strategy of encouraging strong networks between fisheries stakeholders that lead to proactive instead of reactive planning for sustainable development and produce sustainable responses to issues that threaten the sector."