Abstract

In the Caribbean, active government management of fisheries is relatively recent and generally based on the premise of strong government control of rules and procedures, with limited awareness of the current or potential role of fishers in management. At the same time, the capacity of Caribbean governments to make and enforce rules that effectively improve fisheries management is often weak. Co-management, in principle, has the potential to improve governance outcomes by strengthening the consideration given to fishers’ knowledge and their capacity for individual and collective action in the management system. Various fisheries co-management initiatives have been pursued in the Caribbean since the 1990’s. A recent program called Caribbean Fisheries Co-management (CARIFICO) supported by partnerships among the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) and the governments of six eastern Caribbean islands took a flexible and holistic approach in adapting a set of mutually reinforcing activities to local circumstances to expand and facilitate co-management of the offshore FAD fishery. This presentation will describe key elements of CARIFICO’s planning, implementation and evaluative components emphasizing strategies undertaken to build synergies among government and fisher stakeholders at local (national), sub-regional and regional geographic scales.

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