Press release 22/2005
(14 January 2005)

Hon. Prime Ministers and Ministers
His Excellency Don McKinnon, Secretary General of the Commonwealth
Representative of the Secretary General of the Indian Ocean Commission, Mr. Raj Mohabber
His Excellency Greg Urwin, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum 
Dr Lennox Hinds, Senior Advisor, CIDA Ladies and Gentlemen

The Caribbean is one of the largest and most heavily traversed seas in the world. It touches some twenty-three sovereign states and a number of non-independent territories and departments for which three European and American metropolitan countries exercise sovereign jurisdiction. The overwhelming proportion of economic and social activities in the bulk of these countries, territories and departments take place within the Caribbean Sea or within 5 miles of its shores.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea which confers the rights over up to 200 nautical miles, means that several countries have overlapping Exclusive Economic Zones. All these factors bring into sharp focus, the need for collaborative governance of this shared resource.

In furtherance of this collaboration, the Third Summit of the Association of Caribbean States held in December 2001 in Margarita, Venezuela, reiterated the importance of the Caribbean Sea in the Declaration of Margarita which said:

"Recognising the Caribbean Sea as the common patrimony of the region, and an invaluable asset for which we give special priority to its preservation, we urge our countries to take fully into account the elements of the Resolution on 'Promoting an Integrated Management Approach to the Caribbean Sea Area in the context of Sustainable Development', approved by the Fifty-fifth session of the UN General Assembly and to continue taking steps for the Caribbean Sea to be recognised by the International Community in the context of sustainable development"

We have secured additional UN General Assembly resolutions on the issue, including most recently resolution A/RES/59/230 adopted at this Fifty-ninth Session.

We have also put in place an intra-regional partnership in the management of the fisheries resources through the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM). This permanent mechanism builds on a ten-year Caribbean Fisheries Assessment and Management project - CFRAMP - supported by CIDA. CFRM is the core of an interactive network. Membership is open to all CARICOM countries as well as CARIFORUM States and Caribbean non-independent territories which obtain special entrustment from their metropolitan powers.

We recognize however, that the management of other aspects of the Caribbean Sea still pose major challenges and must be pursued on the basis of the broadest possible collaboration. I am aware that ours friends in the Pacific and Indian Oceans have a level of experience and also challenges in dealing with this issue.

It is against that background that I take pleasure, on behalf of the Caribbean States, to join with our partners from the Indian and Pacific Oceans; the Commonwealth Secretariat and CIDA as co-sponsors of this event to highlight this collaborative endeavour involving the three regions for the sustainable development and management of our seas and oceans.

I welcome you all to what we consider a most important partnership event which aims to highlight the Inter-regional Ocean Governance Project which the three regions have developed with some assistance from CIDA. It is a project and requires international support. I do so confident of the tremendous potential it holds for the sustainable development of our nations and regions and for improving the lives and livelihoods of our peoples.