The Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) looks forward to another opportunity to engage, connect, and collaborate with our stakeholders and partners during the 18th Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA), to be hosted by Saint Vincent and the Grenadines from 7-11 October 2024. In keeping with the objective of CWA 2024, to highlight and coordinate efforts towards accelerating climate-smart mitigation and adaptation measures to reduce climatic impacts on food production systems, the CRFM intends to host three key events. 

Our CARICOM Ministers responsible for Fisheries will meet in a private session at the 14th Special Meeting of the Ministerial Council, as they continue to chart the way forward for the Fisheries and Aquaculture sector through evidence-based policies that will continue to propel us forward, as we apply innovative solutions to address challenges such as climate change and develop value chains from the marine living resources. 

In addition to our showcase of the sector at the annual CWA Tradeshow & Expo, the CRFM will host two public events: a fisher’s forum and a session showcasing our innovative approaches to utilizing Sargassum seaweed by transforming it into agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer and compost to reduce dependence on expensive imported inorganic fertilizers. These events will spotlight the CRFM’s area of emphasis: Engendering Climate-Smart and Resilient Fisheries and Aquaculture for CARICOM’s Food Sovereignty and a Sustainable Future, as we address the overarching CWA 2024 theme: “Climate Smart Agriculture for a Sustainable Future.”

Fisheries and aquaculture are among the productive sectors being impacted by climate change and ocean acidification, warming oceans, extreme weather events, changing ocean circulation, the extremities of intense and reduced rainfalls, and seasonal shifts. There is too much at stake to do nothing! The fisheries and aquaculture sector employs approximately 120,000 people, with 90% of the employment being provided in marine capture fisheries. Between 2017 and 2022, the sector’s annual production averaged US$522 million, with exports averaging US$289 million and imports averaging US$295 million annually for the same period. As large ocean-small island developing states, our vast marine expanse has the potential to drive blue and green economic growth through sector diversification, including mariculture and onshore aquaponics and the utilization of numerous unutilized marine species, such as Sargassum. The combined area of our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which spans 2,060,721 km2, is almost 5 times our combined land area of 433,549 km2. We have over 30,000 fishing vessels operating mainly in the coastal waters. There are over 200 fish processing establishments in the CARICOM countries. 

As the CARICOM institution vested with the responsibility for steering the way forward for the sector, the CRFM’s mission is to promote and facilitate responsible and sustainable use of the region’s fisheries and other living aquatic resources for improved food security, livelihood, and the welfare of Caribbean people. The CARICOM Common Fisheries Policy and the CRFM’s Third Strategic Plan for the period 2022-2030 are the main frameworks within which we are realizing our mission. Our fourth strategic goal articulates the CRFM’s commitment to promoting the development of a regional fisheries sector that is resilient to climate change, ocean acidification, natural disasters, and external shocks; and enhanced through comprehensive disaster risk management and recovery arrangements.

In addition to strengthening the region’s policy and strategic framework for addressing climate change, the CRFM continues to mobilize resources for bolstering climate resilience in the fisheries sector of CRFM Member States. In April, the Ministerial Council passed a Resolution on Climate Resilience in the Fisheries Sector of CRFM Member States, in which it welcomed the approval of the Project Preparation Facility of approximately USD 1 million for the project concept: “Road to Resilient (R2R) fisheries – adopting ecosystem-based adaptation in four CARICOM Member States.” The Council also welcomed the approval by Global Affairs Canada of a new regional project entitled, “Sustainable Technologies for Adaptation and Resilience in Fisheries – STAR-fish,” valued at CAD$4.324 million, which will be implemented in CRFM Member States by the CRFM Secretariat. 

During CWA 2024, we intend to spotlight our innovative work under the Sargassum Products for Climate Resilience Project, funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. This project intervention is a proactive response to addressing the climate-related phenomenon of Sargassum inundations which has been plaguing our region since 2011. Using science, technology, and evidence-based decision-making, the CRFM, with support from the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited (PFR), has been seeing major progress with this regional intervention which addresses the Sargassum inundations through converting the seaweed into fertilizer and compost for the agriculture sector. The spotlight on the CRFM-PFR Sargassum Products for Climate Resilience fits well within the CWA 2024 theme of climate-smart agriculture for a sustainable future, which is centered on climate-smart actions to enhance and integrate methods to improve soils, biofertilizers and chemicals, water availability and conservation, crop resilience, biodiversity, ecology, and climate financing. 

We are also working towards building resilience in ecosystems health and developing seafood value chains to improve food security and the welfare of fishers through the USD 48 million CAF / FAO / CRFM / GEF BE:CLME+ project entitled, “Promoting National Blue Economy Priorities Through Marine Spatial Planning in the Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem Plus,” which is being executed by the CRFM. With funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), this project, being co-implemented by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), aims to maintain and preserve cultural heritage through sustainable fisheries management, improved livelihoods, and alternative livelihoods. There is also a keen focus on strengthening climate resilience through activities such as targeted carbon footprint assessments, as we work towards transitioning to a low carbon or carbon positive sector. 

Our fishers’ forum will be focused on these and other key issues of importance to small-scale fisheries, including insurance to improve the sector’s resilience, as we work to advance our collaborative efforts to implement the CNFO/CRFM Small-Scale Fisheries Action Plan 2023-2025: Contributing to Achieving the 25% Reduction by 2025 in the Caribbean Community Food Import Bill. In April 2024, the Ministerial Council of the CRFM also passed a resolution approving the implementation of this Action Plan, which charts a progressive course of action in response to the mandate by the CARICOM Heads of Government at the Thirty-Third Inter-Sessional Meeting held in March 2022, to reduce the region’s food import bill by 25% by the year 2025 (called “Vision 25 by 2025”). 

Two of the key challenges confronting the Fisheries and Aquaculture sector are inadequate access to climate-smart technologies and climate proofing of onshore infrastructure for small-scale fisheries, as well as inadequate access to social protection to build resilience to cope with climate change and other major events, such as the  COVID-19 pandemic and the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines volcanic eruption of 2021. 

The CNFO/CRFM Action Plan calls for priority action with respect to the provision of climate-proof onshore infrastructure for small-scale fisheries operations to deal with the impacts of climate change. It also recognizes that, to increase resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts in the fisheries sector, adaptation measures in fisheries management and capacity building of fisherfolk and aquaculturists are vital. 

CWA 2024 is a welcomed opportunity for us to strengthen our alliances towards advancing these initiatives and to forge common visions and actions to further develop fisheries, aquaculture, and agriculture while enhancing food security and the quality of life of our people. 

– ENDS –