BELIZE CITY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2013—The ACP Fish II Programme—a 30.00 million Euro programme funded by the European Union (EU) through the European Development Fund (EDF), which has focused for the past four-and-a-half years on strengthening fisheries management, improving food security and alleviating poverty in 78 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States, including 15 in the Caribbean—draws to a close this month. With the foundation laid by this programme, new regional initiatives will help ensure that the region’s fisheries serve the needs of the 15 million people who depended on them.

Caribbean Projects

1 regional fisheries policy

5 national fisheries policies

2 fisheries legislations

4 fisheries management plans

3 aquaculture strategies

5 monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) projects

5 national conch assessments

1 training in underwater visual conch survey

8 training for fisher folks

2 websites updated/developed

4 awareness campaigns

In October 2009, The ACP Fish II Programme (www.acpfish2-eu.org) opened its Regional Facilitation Unit, Caribbean Office in Belize City, Belize, and it culminated with the Fourth and final Programme Monitoring Workshop and Sixth and final Steering Committee Meeting in The Bahamas.

According to Sandra Grant, ACP Fish II’s Regional Manager for the Caribbean, 184 capacity-building projects were planned and implemented throughout the ACP region. Of these, 36 projects (including regional and inter-regional projects) were successfully implemented in the Caribbean. One very important outcome for the region was the finalization of the Draft Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Community Common Fisheries Policy and a supporting public awareness campaign to sensitize fisheries stakeholders and the general public on the importance of our fisheries sector (see HERE). The Policy is still awaiting final approval and signature by the CARICOM Heads of Government.

The programme’s results include improved fisheries policies and management plans, reinforced control and enforcement capabilities, reinforced research strategies and initiatives, new business supportive regulatory frameworks and private sector investments, and increased knowledge sharing on fisheries management and trade.

Gustavo Miranda, Programme Coordinator of the ACP Fish II Programme, noted that the projects supported by ACP Fish II covered a wide range of sector concerns and priorities, among them the role of fisher folk organizations in the region, as well as regional and national policies and legal frameworks, the strengthening of control and enforcement mechanisms, and the training staff across various fisheries administrations. Central to the outputs is improved information-sharing for the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) and its Member States.

“In a nutshell, ACP Fish II proved that it is possible to create enabling conditions for further implementation of common fisheries policies in Caribbean countries. The region is now armed with the relevant instruments to develop sound fisheries management and control mechanisms, which it can deploy to bolster aquaculture development,” Miranda said.

At the final Steering Committee meeting participants reflected on the achievements and shortcomings of the Programme:

Nisa Surujbally, CARICOM Secretariat Programme Manager – Agriculture and Industry, said, “The body of work that has been produced by the ACP Fish II Programme will support the implementation of the ACP Strategic Action Plan, which was adopted in 2012 by our ministers of fisheries. Both initiatives, once again, underscore the value of ACP Cooperation and the work of the ACP Secretariat in Brussels in securing the interests of our group. We may be geographically apart but our main objective [is] sustainable development and poverty reduction within our member states, as well as our greater integration into the world’s economy… There is clear consistency with the objectives of the ACP Fish II Programme and that of the ACP Groups as a whole.”

Antonio Recca, Head of Section, Agriculture/Rural Development from the EU Commission in Brussels, stated: “ACP Fish II has been a complex program that went beyond national and regional levels. In spite of its difficulties and inherent limitations, it has permitted important innovative initiatives, and has generated a wide reflection on future sectoral needs and solutions. We should consider it an element on which to congratulate each other. Looking back today, we can say we’ve come a long way from the beginning of ACP Fish II Programme. All three programme estimates add up to some 184 projects in six different regions.”

Recca added that the implementation ratio of the programme is around 84%, and such a result, looking back to the start of the project, and even to the last Steering Committee meeting, can be considered as an excellent performance.

Meeting future fisheries sector needs

It is clear that more needs to be done to support fisheries activities in the region; hence the call for a follow-up programme to succeed ACP Fish II. Such a programme would allow finalization of project results, especially policy and legal framework proposals that still need to be implemented.

Miranda notes that the ACP Fisheries Mechanism: Strategic Plan of Action for Fisheries and Aquaculture 2012-2016 is the framework for future programs. He expressed the need for a centralized approach to future initiatives and the need to give regional economic organizations and regional fisheries bodies a role in the implementation and management of future programs. He said that any unspent funds from the ACP Fish II should be used to support immediate follow-up initiatives.

Caribbean beneficiaries:

Antigua and Barbuda,

Bahamas,

Barbados,

Belize,

Dominica,

Dominican Republic,

Grenada,

Guyana,

Haiti,

Jamaica,

St. Kitts & Nevis,

St. Lucia,

St. Vincent & the Grenadines,

Suriname

Trinidad and Tobago

Achille Bassilekin III, Assistant Secretary General in charge of Sustainable Economic Development and Trade at the ACP Secretariat, said, “It is clear from [our] discussions the need to implement, in a very efficient way, the strategic plan of action as adopted by our ministers last year. We need to carry out the recommendations in the programming exercise under the 11th EDF which is about to start. So you can rest assured of the fact that we in Brussels at the ACP Secretariat are going to do the utmost to ensure that these genuine concerns are addressed. This is the message of hope that I would like you to go back home with, and once again the future is in our hands and the future is precisely what we want it to be.”

Milton Haughton, Executive Director of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), lauded the EU and ACP Secretariat, as well as the ACP Fish II Coordinating Unit and the Regional Coordinating Unit, for the invaluable work done in the region over the past 4 years. Haughton said that the region looks forward to strengthened collaboration, as it moves forward to address the development challenges to propel Caribbean fisheries forward.

Thank you all!

The staff of the Coordinating Unit in Brussels and the RFU — Caribbean Office in Belize would like to thank all 15 CARIFORUM countries and regional fisheries bodies for their support and cooperation over the years. Our many successes were due to the efforts that you have put into ensuring that our targets were met.