Sargassum.
Since 2015, UWI-CERMES has undertaken to bring together top natural and social scientists from across the University with key stakeholders in the Caribbean’s tourism, business and fisheries sectors to discuss the sargassum seaweed phenomenon inundating our region’s beaches and threatening key economic sectors.

CERMES has been instructed by the UWI Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal to lead the University's applied sargassum research, knowledge mobilisation, adaptive capacity development and resilience building. Since the second Sargassum Symposium (2018), CERMES has been continuing sargassum-related research and collaborations, planning and developing new projects and seeking funding to build on the work completed so far.

We are pleased to announce the launch of our SargAdapt Project that will be implemented over the next three years (2020-2022) with various Caribbean project partners.

We are also continuing to actively pursue opportunities for partnerships, collaborations and synergies with others working on sargassum adaptation in the region. Click here to learn more about CERMES projects and activities related to sargassum influxes in the Caribbean.

The BIOPAMA programme is an initiative of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group which is financially supported by the European Union’s 10th European Development Fund (EDF) and jointly implemented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the EC’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). The programme aims to address threats to biodiversity in ACP countries, while reducing poverty in communities in and around protected areas by improving data availability and developing capacity to strengthen protected area management. The Caribbean Protected Area Gateway (Caribbean Gateway) was established for the Caribbean region.
 

The STOREM Project aims at curriculum development at 5 higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Latin American and Caribbean region (LAC) on the subjects of environmental management and sustainable tourism, which are thematic priorities of the region.
 

The MaCoBios project (Marine Coastal Ecosystems Biodiversity and Services in a Changing World) broadly aims to disentangle the ways and means by which ecosystems services can help us respond to climate change and study the effectiveness of nature based solutions (NBS) with a focus on marine and coastal ecosystems. With funding from the European Union, MaCoBioS brings together a multidisciplinary team of experts from 16 institutions to tackle its overall objective. The project features several case study locations across three ecoregions (the Caribbean, the Western Mediterranean Sea and Northern Europe), with CERMES leading the Barbados case study.

 

Just BE Fisherfolk
A 2-year project of capacity building for a proactive climate justice approach among fisherfolk in Barbados, with attention to the inclusion and participation of women and young people, through empowerment as advocates and influencers in anticipation of climate change adaptation within Barbados blue economy initiatives.

 

StewardFish
Developing Organisational Capacity for Ecosystem Stewardship and Livelihoods in Caribbean Small-Scale Fisheries. The StewardFish project aims to empower fisherfolk throughout fisheries value chains to engage in resource management, decision-making processes and sustainable livelihoods with strengthened institutional support at all levels.


 

The Gender In Fisheries Team (GIFT) is a research team led by The University of the West Indies (UWI)- Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES). It seeks to facilitate and support the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines), particularly the sub-section on Gender Equality, in member states of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM).
 

Throughout 2022, CERMES IYAFA team in collaboration with regional partners will convene various meetings and disseminate information through various channels. Watch this space to learn more.
 

The Small Scale Fisheries (SSF) Guidelines addresses key concerns of small-scale fishers, fish workers and/or their communities using a human rights-based approach. The focus of the project is to incorporate the SSF Guidelines into Caribbean Community Common Fisheries Policy (CCCFP) so they can be moved from policy into practice. This project is being conducted in collaboration with stakeholders and partners – CNFO, CERMES, CRFM Secretariat and CANARI.
 

SSF Gender led by the Gender in Fisheries Team (GIFT) - Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (UWI-CERMES) - aims to provide more in-depth knowledge of gender in fisheries to inform the implementation of the FAO's Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF) Guidelines and the Caribbean Community Common Fisheries Policy (CCCFP) SSF Protocol, and in various projects to support FAO's Blue Growth initiative.
 

As a Regional Node for EBM-DSS dissemination and application, the aim is to demonstrate that an Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) approach, moving beyond the Business-as-Usual- "sectoral" management, is key to maintaining viable healthy ecosystems and their associated good and services.

 

Water-aCCSIS is a regional initiative that is contributing to the improvement of water management and climate change adaptation of Caribbean states and the development of adaptive management strategies that will balance the sustainability of ecosystems and societal needs. The University of the West Indies (UWI) - Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES), the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), are collaborating to build the scientific knowledge base and expand research capacity within the Caribbean.
 

Socio-economic Monitoring for Coastal Management (SocMon) is a global initiative of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA-Marine), Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The initiative is being implemented at the global and regional levels with the goal of establishing socio-economic coastal and marine monitoring programmes globally at the site level. CERMES is the regional SocMon node for the English-speaking Caribbean.
 

The Sustainable Grenadines Project (SusGren) aims to develop functional participatory co-management for integrated sustainable development in the Grenadines. The Grenadine islands lie on the Grenada Bank and straddle the boundary between Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Both Governments perceive their Grenadine Islands as having high potential for tourism and associated development.
 

Ocean Governance
CERMES is engaged in a diversity of activities relating to ocean governance in the Wider Caribbean Region and beyond. Many of these activities are based on the Large Marine Ecosystem Governance Framework which was conceived as a contribution to the development of the first phase of the GEF Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem (CLME) Project (2009-2012). CERMES has also developed the Governance Effectiveness Assessment Framework (GEAF) that is the basis for monitoring the CLME+ Strategic Action Programme (SAP) that is currently being implemented. It was also used in the GEF Transboundary Waters Assessment Programme (TWAP).
 

Lion Fish mitigation
In response to the arrival of lionfish in the territorial waters of Barbados in November 2011, a campaign was launched to mitigate the potential threat this invasive species posed to the marine environment. Since the first confirmed sighting in 2011, a lot has taken place regarding the fight against lionfish, particularly in the areas of: tracking the local invasion; public awareness and education; research and; management and control. This webpage, developed through a European Union funded project, seeks to provide pertinent information on all aspects of the lionfish invasion in Barbados. 
 

Conset Bay Pilot Project and its surrounding communities are situated on the East coast of Barbados in the parish of St. John and lie on the southern boundary of the National Park Land Use Plan for Barbados (Physical Development Plan 2003).
In an effort to upscale sustainable resource management in the area, UNEP and the Ministry of Environment and Drainage of Barbados, in conjunction with CERMES are cooperating on a pilot project entitled “Upscaling Sustainable Resource Management in Coastal Watershed Communities of Barbados’ National Park and System of Open Space”.
 

FORCE project is an integrated research project which takes an ecosystem approach, linking social and ecological aspects towards managing Caribbean coral reefs in the face of climate change.

Please visit the main site for this project at:
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/244161

 

Too Big to Ignore (TBTI) is a global research network and knowledge mobilization partnership on small-scale fisheries (SSF). The main goal of TBTI is to enhance the understanding of the real contribution of SSF to food security, nutrition, sustaining livelihoods, poverty alleviation, wealth generation and trade, as well as the impacts and implications of global change processes such as urbanization, globalization, migration, climate change, aquaculture, and communication technology on SSF.
 

The Community-based Coral Reef Monitoring and Management Project seeks to build capacity at the community level to support identification and analysis of the problems facing coral reefs within the Folkestone Marine reserve and the development and implementation of community-level strategies to combat the existing impacts.
 

MPA Governance - Developing adaptive capacity for MPA governance in the eastern Caribbean is essential for sustainable biodiversity conservation and livelihoods, taking social and ecological uncertainties, including climate change, into account. The focus of this research project is to facilitate beneficial changes in knowledge, attitudes and practices.

 

The Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem (CLME) Initiative
The CLME Project assists participating countries from the Wider Caribbean Region to improve the management of their shared Living Marine Resources.

CERMES contributed to many components of Phase one of this initiative and continues to be actively involved in several aspects of Phase two (CLME+).

CERMES hosted the PDF-B Phase of this project form 2006-2008. The outputs of the PDF-B phase can be found here.

Much of this work is reflected in the Ocean Governance work done by CERMES

Please visit the main site for this project at:
http://www.clmeproject.org/

MARSIS
The Grenadines Marine Resource Space-use Information System (MarSIS) brings together a variety of social, economic and environmental information drawn from both scientific and local knowledge into a single information system. Please visit the main site for this project at:
http://www.grenadinesmarsis.com/