Caribbean Meteorological Organisation

• Author: Duke Pollard
• Profession: Sitting senior judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the highest appellate municipal court of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
• Pages: 722-733

722 THE CARICOM SYSTEM

26

THE CARIBBEAN METEOROLOGICAL

ORGANISATION

From time immemorial competent decision-makers in the Region were concerned to

establish a nexus between agricultural productivity and the weather. During the early

years of settlement sugar cane was the principal crop and this required large amounts

of water especially at the ratoon stage. Sugar cane was subsequently overtaken by

cotton and tobacco but when competition from the American colonies became too strong,

the planters had to revert to sugar cane and then to rice and bananas. All of these crops

depended on the weather for production and drought often spelled ruin for the planter

class. As agriculture became less competitive especially with heavy subsidies in Europe

and America to agricultural production, decision-makers diversified into services,

particularly tourism where the climate and beauty of the island chain in the Caribbean

Sea gave the islands a distinct competitive advantage. During the colder months of

winter in Europe and America the sun, sand and sea presented an alluring attraction to

tourists. However, the position of the island chain of CARICOM directly in the path of

hurricanes originating off the West Coast of Africa has made the islands’ beauty too

susceptible to destruction wreaked from the havoc these hurricanes have played. Other

natural disasters common in the Region like volcanoes and floods have also made their

contribution to the degradation of the environment.

Given, therefore, the influential role of the weather in the economic well being of

the Region, it was hardly surprising that the establishment of the Caribbean

Meteorological Organisation coincided with the setting up of the Caribbean Community

and Common Market in 1973. In fact, the preambular paragraphs of the Agreement

Establishing the Caribbean Meteorological Organisation made an express linkage

between its establishment and economic development of the Region. Membership of

the Organisation was open to the countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean in the

first instance and any other state of the Region willing to exercise the rights and assume

the obligations of membership. The functions of the Organisation indicate the concern

of competent decision-makers with the importance of the weather to the economic well-

being of the Region. These include meteorological services to civil aviation which is

vital for the tourist industry, provision of an efficient hurricane warning system in the

absence of which damage from hurricanes is likely to escalate with probable adverse

consequences for insurance and insurance premiums, escalating transportation costs

and a disincentive to foreign direct investment; and participation in agricultural

meteorology, hydrology and associated scientific research of direct relevance to the

Member States of the Region.