Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism

• 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: 774-792

774 THE CARICOM SYSTEM

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THE CARIBBEAN REGIONAL

FISHERIES MECHANISM

The Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism is an institutional arrangement aimed

at deepening regional integration in the management of regional marine resources.

The Mechanism is one output of the CARICOM Fisheries Resource Assessment and

Management Programme (CFRAMP) which is jointly funded by the Member States of

the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Government of Canada through the

Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The genesis of the Caribbean

Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) is a concept paper in 1996 which captured the

imagination and aspirations of CARICOM Member States in terms of the need for a

regional fisheries mechanism. The concept paper which identified possible functional

areas of endeavour to be addressed, resources required to develop and manage the

facility, and the need for a strategic plan or vision for its development, was circulated to

CARICOM Member States for information and reaction. This was followed by region-

wide consultations undertaken by Dr. Roderick Rainford, former Secretary-General of

CARICOM and Dr. Carlyle Mitchel, former Head of the OECS Economic Affairs Unit

in February 1998. These consultations resulted in a report entitled “A Regional Fisheries

Mechanism for CARICOM”. This report was examined in a series of regional

workshops attended by representatives of Ministries of Agriculture and Fisheries, Foreign

Affairs, Legal Affairs of Member States and regional specialists in the areas of fisheries

biology, finance, law, management which resulted in a Proposal for the Establishment

of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism in November 2000. This Proposal

was subsequently examined and refined by the Drafting Committee of the Legal Affairs

Committee of CARICOM which finally approved the instrument at its fifth ordinary

meeting in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on November 28 to30, 2001.

The objectives of the CRFM have been identified as the efficient management and

sustainable development of marine and other aquatic resources within the jurisdiction

of Member States; the promotion and establishment of cooperative arrangements among

interested States for the efficient management of shared, straddling or highly migratory

marine and other resources, and the provision of technical, advisory and consultative

services to fisheries divisions of CARICOM Member States in the development,

management and conservation of their marine and other aquatic resources. Pursuant to

these objectives the Mechanism is obliged to employ guiding principles based on capacity

building, post harvest technology, professional capacity building, data production and

dissemination, public awareness building, promotion of institutional networking,

The Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism 775

promotion of international trade standards and the fostering of cross-border cooperation

in fisheries management.

The institutional arrangements proposed for the Mechanism are based on an

interactive network of a variety of stakeholders in fisheries. At the base of these

institutional arrangements is the Ministerial Council which determines the policy of

the Mechanism, the Caribbean Fisheries Forum which determines the technical and

scientific work of the institution and the Caribbean Technical Fisheries Unit staffed by

managerial, technical and scientific personnel and which is designed to function as the

technical and administrative secretariat of the mechanism. During inter-sessional

periods, the Fisheries Forum is Executive Committee will function ad referendum the

Forum. The Mechanism will possess full juridical personality with capacity to contract,

acquire and dispose of moveable and immoveable property and to institute legal

proceedings. In any legal proceedings the Mechanism will be represented by the Director.

The Mechanism will enjoy a range of privileges and immunities in Member States and

is required to conclude an appropriate headquarters agreement with the Government of

Belize.

Among the significant benefits expected to be derived from closer cooperation in

fisheries among the CARICOM Member States are increased food security through a

more sustained supply of sea foods with enhanced stability in employment; institutional

capacity building through the sharing of managerial and technical expertise, the training

of staff and transfer of technology, the strengthening of institutional capacity; the

accessing of financial resources for the fisheries sector and enhanced efficiency in the

employment of limited human and financial resources of CARICOM Member States.

AGREEMENT ESTABLISHING

THE CARIBBEAN REGIONAL

FISHERIES MECHANISM

The States Parties:

Convinced of the need to promote sustainable use of the living marine and other

aquatic resources by the development, efficient management and conservation of such

resources;

Convinced further of the intrinsic and non-extractive value and interdependence

of the living marine and other aquatic resources;

Acknowledging that under international law, coastal States have sovereign rights

for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing the living and non-

living resources of their exclusive economic zones and their fisheries zones;

Conscious that certain of the living marine resources which are of interest to the

peoples of the Caribbean Region are highly migratory, straddle national boundaries

and are harvested by third States;

Recognising that the unsustainable exploitation of the living marine and other

aquatic resources can lead to irreparable damage to those resources;