Supports Caribbean Community Common Fisheries Policy (CCCFP) Ratification

The Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) recently started a project to design and carry out a public awareness campaign supporting ratification of the Caribbean Community Common Fisheries Policy (CCCFP), a regional treaty on conservation, management and sustainable utilisation of the region's fisheries resources.

The CCCFP has been approved at virtually every level of government in the affected nations, with the exception of the Head-of-State level. All that remains to do is having the policy approved and signed by at least eight CARICOM heads of state.

Who stands to benefit from the CCCFP’s projected closer cooperation among CARICOM Member States? All Caribbean citizens can partake of social and economic improvements in the livelihood and welfare of fishers, employment and income generation, food security and nutrition needs, and research to support marketing, trade and aquaculture.

All Caribbean peoples share a common link to the resource—the fishery—as well as a shared responsibility to protect and conserve fish stocks and ecosystems from degradation due to irresponsible fishing, pollution, habitat degradation and climate change. We all can move together toward securing a brighter, more prosperous future and sustainable fisheries through ratification and implementation of the treaty.

The CCCFP awareness project is funded by the ACP Fish II Programme, a European Union funded initiative. Representatives of PBLH International Consulting (Brussels) and SOJE Lonsdale (Barbados) are engaged on the project. Direct beneficiary countries are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, The Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

For further information please visit our website at www.crfm.net or www.crfm.int