When my troubles seem so far away

The Marine Parks Bill:
Yesterday the Tobago House of Assembly  presented the draft Marine Parks Bill. While we were pleased to hear that minority Assemblyman Farley Augustine recommend the inclusion of a technical or advisory committee into the process,  we remain disappointed that it wasn't considered in the first place. Marine Parks are a fluid space, and as such require a virtual well of input given their importance to livelihoods and lifestyle. The idea of co-management is what we would have preferred to see in the foundation of the proposed Bill which is not entirely new in the Marine Park domain. Co-management is used in countries such as South Africa, St Vincent & The Grenadines (The Tobago Cays Marine Park). This global reach demonstrates how other regions and or jurisdictions similar to ours (in the Caribbean context) have adapted to suit this sort of shared responsibility. This is of course, much to the benefit of the operational aspect of the park, but also to the expertise and harmonious balance between civil society stakeholders and the state. 

Noting the challenges:
Do we have any other concerns pertaining to this matter? Well.. naturally we did. ET highly denigrates the suggestion forwarded in this draft that the full authority devolves to just one person, whose primary concern (if it remains a divisional Administrator), is mostly the management of money and income. Economic prosperity would be high on the agenda of any developing small island state, but one must also consider the environmental impact as it relates to conservation or lack thereof.
The function of any Marine Park in any community spans far greater in reach, than just to be seen as generating income and or the control of elements that threaten the smooth flow of said income.
For now our only focus is getting some sort of provision for co-management written into the draft bill. If that happens, all else falls into place. Right behind Climate Change impacts. But that as they say is a story for another day