Oceans Economy and Trade Strategies : Looking back and forging ahead - A Caribbean and Central American experience sharing workshop
23 September 2021
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to see you all and welcome you to this workshop on “Oceans Economy and Trade Strategies: Looking back and forging ahead”.
This workshop is organised by UNCTAD and DOALOS in cooperation with authorities and partners on Trade, Oceans Economy and Fisheries from the three project beneficiary countries: Barbados, Belize and Costa Rica. The OETS project has been a four years project, funded by the UN Development account, for which we are grateful.
This workshop focuses on the experiences of Barbados, Belize and Costa Rica in developing and implementing Oceans Economy and Trade Strategies. The goal is to promote sustainable trade in ocean-based economic sectors within the UNCLOS framework.
The ocean is key in our quest for a sustainable future. Oceanic resources and ecosystems represent more than 70 per cent of biosphere.
The ocean connects us. Over 80 per cent of global trade in volume is carried by sea.
The ocean enables our prosperity. We, at UNCTAD, estimate that the economic value of the “ocean” economy” in the form of tradable ocean goods and services contributes directly at least $2.5 trillion per year. Still, the actual value of the Ocean, while difficult to quantify, is much larger.
For example, the value of ocean assets, such as marine resources and marine ecosystems services have been estimated to be at least $24 trillion. This shows the massive contribution of the ocean to sustain life and economic activities.
Undeniably, the ocean enables many economic activities that support livelihoods of millions of people around the globe and allow societies to prosper. And it is also key for a global sustaimable recovery in a post COVID-19 era.
Nevertheless, the understanding of Ocean based sectors still is incipient, particularly in developing countries. The OETS project has allowed beneficiary countries to enhance their understanding on ocean-based economy sectors and applicable governance structure. Under the project, sectors such as fisheries, aquaculture, coastal environmental services and tourism links have been analysed in economic and regulatory terms to explore opportunities and challenges for sustainable growth.
Our three beneficiary countries identified coastal fish and large pelagic value chains as priorities due to their export value, the number of jobs involved and livelihoods significance. For example:
- Exports of fish and seafood products of Costa Rica represented more than 90 million US dollars in 2018, and involved more than 7’500 people engaged in the harvesting and processing phases.
- In the same year, specific exports of spiny lobster, queen conch and coastal fish products from Belize represented about 19 million US dollars and involved more than 2’500 fishers,
- While exports from Barbados reached 490,000 US dollars with the involvement of 6,000 jobs along the entire value chain.
Opportunities in these value chains exist in terms of enhanced stock and ecosystems management, product diversification, value addition, targeted traceability, branding and economic incentives shifting, higher consumer interest for sustainable products, as well as on sound local institutions.
Challenges to be addressed include lack of know-how, weak technical and absortive capacity, non-tariff barriers, negative economic incentives, outdated regulations, climate impacts, and limited financial resources and access to credit.
The OETS project has also assisted beneficiary countries in developing multistakeholder action plans to make relevant oceans value chains more sustainable, competitive, better managed and regulated. All these with the involvement of more than 400 stakeholders, of which about 40 per cent are women. Priority OETS implementation actions selected by beneficiary countries have led to the following outcomes:
- Design, consultations and potential registration of a collective trademark for sustainable fish and seafood in Costa Rica;
- Gather of landing data of coastal fin fish as well as the development of a multispecies fin fish management plan in Belize;
- Explore the local and export’s market potential for swordfish and evaluate experimental fishing methods to improve selectivity and reduce bycatch in Barbados.
More recently, the OETS project commissioned a study on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and policy response measures to enable redevelopment and resilience of the relevant value chains in beneficiary countries while looking at regional and global trends. The findings and key recommendations of these novel research will be presented today.
Finally, we would like to gather all partners and stakeholder comments on what UNCTAD and DOALOS can do to strengthen this novel tool, to expand its geographical scope and financial sustainability and enlarge the initiative to other interested Member States.
While this has been a modest intervention by UNCTAD and DOALOS, the project’s achievements have proven to go beyond expectations. We are sure that with your support OETS can be scaled up and fine-tuned to become a solid vehicle for SDG 14 implementation in all coastal and island developing countries.
Welcome on board to this timely workshop; the quest for sustainable oceans economies is just starting.
