 |
This study will
be undertaken as a cooperative venture between Jessica MacIntosh,
until recently coordinator for Oceans and Coasts Educational Awareness Network
Society, Nova Scotia, and Zahidah (Zaidy) Afrin,
who recently completed a Nippon Research Fellowship, while working in with
the Fishery Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Forestry, Fisheries
and Environment of Grenada.
This March 2016 - October 2016 project will collaborate with the national
Network of fishers¡¯ cooperatives and associations and fishers leaders. The
project includes fishing communities from Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique
as well as their networks in Grenadines Islands, Union and Mayreau. It will
work towards creating a common dialogue by exploring opportunities for strengthening
the organizational and governance capacities of the fishers groups and using
community centred approaches outlined in the voluntary guidelines for small
scale fisheries within the framework adopted by the FAO¡¯s Committee on Fisheries
in 2014. A serious lack of communication between national and local governance
is exemplified by problems which have arisen since the establishment of the
Sandy Island Oyster Bay Marine Protected Area (SIOBMPA) is 2010. This project
seeks to engage fishers in the redesign of SIOBMPA, and bring the communities
together in order to effectively confront coastal development projects such
as the Tyrell Bay Marina which impinges on both the mangrove forest and the
coral reefs within the legally designated protected area.