Abstract

Pedro Bank, lying about 100 km south of Jamaica is two-thirds the size of Jamaica (8,040 km2). Two of the three cays on the southeast edge of the bank are inhabited by fishing communities. Pedro Bank supports valuable conch, lobster and reef fish fisheries. The purpose of this governance assessment is to dissect and display the governance ar-rangements for the major living marine resource issues identified for the bank and to examine their degree of integration for an ecosystem approach. The assessment focussed mainly on the governance arrangements or architecture, but includ-ed a preliminary assessment of functionality according to several basic principles. Six key living marine resource issues requiring governance were identified for on Pedro Bank: (1) Finfish fishing, conch fishing, lobster fishing, seabird and sea turtle biodiversity, land-based pollution on marine ecosystems, marine-based pollution. The first observation is that there is the need to clarify the individual governance arrangements for the six issues and make them known to all stake-holders. A second observation is that the governance arrangements for the six issues do not appear to be well integrated at either the policy level or the management level. The recommended the long-term perspective for the Pedro Bank is as a Fisheries Management Area (FMA) as provided for in the new Fisheries Act. With regard to the assessment of functionali-ty, stakeholders did not perceive the processes as being highly functional with regard to the principles examined.

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