Fifteen Caribbean Community (CARICOM) fisheries personnel, including senior fisheries officers, fisheries officers, analysts, and policy officers, traveled to Australia recently to participate in a specialized training course on “Enhancing Fisheries Management Capacity in the Caribbean Region.”
The Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) and the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) partnered in developing the four-week course, to strengthen the region’s capacity in fisheries law and fisheries management.
More specifically, the training — which is being held at the Innovation Centre at ANCORS, University of Wollongong, ranked among Australia’s top ten universities — is intended to address the conservation and protection of living marine resources and biodiversity; monitoring and surveillance; as well as measures to curb illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing.
“This is a great training opportunity for CRFM member states, and we are grateful for the valued contributions which Australia continues to make to help advance fisheries management and development across the CARICOM region. The CRFM appreciates this sustained support,” said Milton Haughton, CRFM Executive Director.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the Australian government institution that is funding the training, awarded Australian Awards Fellowship to nominees who were selected from ten CRFM member states. It is expected that, when the training concludes on October 15, they will partner with relevant stakeholders to help improve frameworks and cooperative agreements at home and across the wider Caribbean, to achieve sustainable fisheries, which would, in turn, mean more dollars for the fishing industry and improved socio-economic conditions in beneficiary states.
“Caribbean citizens are important stakeholders in the global Internet. ISOC is here to foster greater understanding of the issues that are relevant to the growing the Caribbean internet, and stimulating the regional internet economy,” said Shernon Osepa, Regional Affairs Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean at ISOC.
St. Maarten on the Move is part of a five-day event called “Internet Week St. Maarten,” which is expected to attract a broad profile of internet stakeholders, including government officials, policymakers, regulators, academic researchers, journalists, and all ordinary internet users. The St. Maarten telecommunications regulator, BTP, is coordinating the weeklong conference.
BTP Public Relations Manager, Ryan Wijngaarde, described the week as “a valuable opportunity for anyone who wants to learn about what it takes to accelerate internet development and make it accessible and affordable to all.”
The 12th regional meeting of the Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG 12), from October 24 to 26, will kick off the week. Bevil Wooding, one of the CaribNOG founders, explained that the three-day meeting was designed to give telecom competitors “an opportunity to engage as colleagues with a common interest in defending Caribbean networks.”
The collaboration between LACNIC, ISOC, and CaribNOG is significant, as it signals the commitment of regional and international organizations to work together to strengthen the internet in St. Maarten and throughout the Caribbean, said Kevon Swift, Head of Strategic Relations and Integration at LACNIC. “LACNIC, ISOC and CaribNOG are committed to developing the technical capacity of the region to solve Caribbean issues and address Caribbean challenges.”