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KINGSTOWN, St Vincent -- The findings of a regional study to determine poverty levels in fishing communities in CARICOM/CRFM countries was the focus of a two-day regional workshop that concluded in St Vincent and the Grenadines on Thursday.

The study was jointly implemented by the Spanish consulting company Tragsatec and the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM).

Some thirty people representing the fisheries sector from CRFM member states and partner organisations interested in fisheries and poverty alleviation convened to discuss the findings and make recommendations for programmes and actions that should be pursued to alleviate poverty in fishing communities in the CARICOM countries.

Poverty continues to plague millions of people worldwide, and fishing communities are no exception. As a result, in recent years there has been a push to assess the levels of poverty and determine how poverty affects fishers and their communities. This could then improve our understanding of the fisheries sector and in turn better inform policy and management decisions aimed at improving livelihoods of coastal communities.

Recognising this need, the CRFM Secretariat and Tragsatec signed an agreement in 2009 to conduct a study to determine the poverty levels in CARICOM fishing communities. However, poverty is difficult to measure, and past studies have only focused on income and the fishers themselves, rather than consider multiple aspects of poverty and how it affects the entire fishing community.

Thus the study focussed on many fishing households and communities throughout the CARICOM region, with an examination of other poverty indicators such as education levels, dwelling quality, and access to basic services within these communities. Ten CRFM countries, which were considered to be a representative sample, were chosen to participate in this study. These countries included The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

In his address at the opening ceremony, executive director of CRFM Milton Haughton said that, while it was already known that poverty is a serious problem in some fishing communities, and that the level of poverty, as well as the underlying causes of poverty vary widely from country to country and place to place, this is the first time in the CARICOM region that such a study was undertaken to begin to define the nature, extent and underlying causes of the phenomenon in a comprehensive and scientific manner.

“Indeed the study confirmed that there are some CARICOM countries where no poor households were detected in the household surveyed and where poverty may not be a significant issue in fishing communities. On the other hand it also showed that there are other countries in which almost half of the households surveyed were either poor or vulnerable households,” the CRFM executive divulged.

From July 2010 – June 2011, local surveyors conducted household surveys in several fishing communities in each respective country. The information collected was then compiled and analysed by the CRFM and Spanish experts, and the diagnostic study report was prepared for the workshop.

The report gives a thorough account of poverty levels in each fishing community involved in the study. It also discusses certain vulnerabilities such as climate change, disease, and price fluctuations, as well as solutions to reduce poverty. Approaches to this end can take the form of upgrading and modernizing fishing boats and equipment, empowerment of women in fishing households, promotion of value-added products, diversification of activities, protection of the environment and alternative livelihood options.

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