OECS/FAO Regional Workshop

by Lucius Doxerie

August 2, 1997 - Over 15 participants from around the region, as well as officials from the Rome Office of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), assembled at the Caribees Hotel to discuss issues pertinent to the 1993 FAO Compliance Agreement and the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement.

The workshop which ended on August 1, marks the third phase of the process of harmonization of fisheries law among members of the OECS with assistance from the FAO and financial support from the government of Norway. The first phase of the process embodied the development of a first draft of an OECS Harmonized Fisheries Act and Regulations which came to pass in the early 1980's.

Head of the OECS Natural Resource Management Unit (NRMU) Dr. Vasantha Chase, said that the workshop was being held as a request from the OECS to FAO for the development of legal regimes for the management of fisheries resources within the context of the United Nations Convention on the law of the sea as it relates to the conservation and management of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks, more popularly referred to as "The Fish Stocks Agreement", the FAO compliance or high seas agreement and the FAO code of conduct for responsible fisheries.

The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States have a vested interest in the coming into force of these agreements, given the importance of fisheries resources to these member states. With the current state of world fisheries, the lack of implementation of these agreements, could very well lead to a collapse in high seas fish stocks in general. A common OECS approach would ensure that management controls over the level of exploitation of the fisheries resources are maintained and that member states will be compensated for resources harvested in their waters, in a form appropriate to them.

The establishment of an appropriate sub-regional management mechanism would allow OECS member states to influence the management of these fisheries resources.

FAO's Legal Advisor, William Edeson, said that the OECS must be commended for their achievement in the area of the protection and management of their fish stocks. According to Mr. Edeson, the subject of the workshop was not only timely, but was of global significance.

It is expected that at the end of the workshop, there will be an adoption of the draft law as it pertains to the 1993 FAO compliance agreement and the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement.

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