The lack of awareness in the part if fisherfolk in the Caribbean regarding the possible impact of climate change on the viability of the sector is moving to the forefront of the intra-regional debate on the future of the industry.
A report on a November 2008 fisheries forum on climate change and small-scale fisheries in the Caribbean prepared by the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) alludes to the absence of information on climate change issues that specifically targets fisherfolk in the region. The report notes that fishers who had attended the 60th Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI) forum in 2007 had expressed concern over the fact that while they had heard about climate change generally they knew little about how it could impact specifically on the livelihoods associated with small-scale fishing. “Although much research by universities, intergovernmental organizations, and governmental organizations is in progress, there has not been much aimed specifically at small scale fisheries, the report said. And according to the report the significance of climate change for the future of the regional fisheries sector has given rise to an opportunity for institutions like the University of rthe West Indies, the Caribbean Climate Change Centre and the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute, among others, to target fisherfolk in the dissemination of information on climate change and the fisheries sector.
Last year’s GCFI Fishers Forum was held against the backdrop of a study titled “Impacts of Climate Change On Small Scale Fisheries in the Eastern Caribbean. The report says that the forum was also set in the context of fishers becoming more organized to have greater say in regional fisheries policy.
At last month’s forum of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Machinery (CRFM) held in Georgetown the Ministry of Agriculture here had reacted sharply to suggestions made by a local fisherman and contained in a report on the forum prepared by the Caribbean Community Secretariat that Corentyne fisherfolk were experiencing dwindling fish stocks, Stabroek Business has since confirmed with an industry official that that area has in fact been hit by dwindling fish stocks though he attributed the phenomenon to over-fishing rather than climate change.
