Responsible Fisheries in the Caribbean: Balancing Regional, National and Community-based Management

Conventional management approaches have not been successful in protecting fisheries resources from decline either globally or in the Caribbean. Over the past 20 years co-management has emerged as a dominant paradigm when thinking about responsible fisheries in the Caribbean. At the same time there has been growing recognisition of the need for closer collaboration and cooperation among the countries of the Region, arising from the fact that most of the fisheries of economic importance are shared by two or more countries, and also the realization that as small island developing states, regional economic integration is necessary for survival in this age of globalization. In this connection significant attention has been given to the establishment of systems to promote and facilitate closer regional cooperation and strengthening of regional approaches to fisheries management, including the creation of a regional fisheries body (CRFM) and a common fisheries policy among the CARICOM Countries. Within the region we are therefore witnessing the emergence of an approach to responsible fisheries, which strongly embraces elements of community based-management, national management (traditional central government controlled approaches) and regional management. This paper takes a critical look at the structure of Caribbean fisheries and these emerging strategies for responsible fisheries, which are based on the culture, tradition, social and economic characteristics of Caribbean societies and the ecology of the fisheries resource systems, and seek to establish a balance between these three approaches.