OECS Media Release — Tuesday, September 14, 2021
The Caribbean Sea covers a total area of 2.75 million square kilometres and supports the economies of 34 coastal and small island countries and territories, including the OECS Member States. Recognising the immense potential for economic development in this extensive marine space, the OECS adopted the Eastern Caribbean Regional Ocean Policy (ECROP) in 2013, which promotes effective ocean governance and pursues a Blue Economy. A Blue Economy approach focuses on the use of ocean resources for economic growth and improving livelihoods, while maintaining ocean ecosystem health.
The OECS Environmental Sustainability Division is hosting its second Blue Economy Roundtable on September 21, 2021, attended by regional and international development partners. At the first Blue Economy Roundtable in 2020, Saint Vincent’s Minister of Finance Honourable Camillo Gonsalves said: “The Sea that surrounds us and connects us has the potential to catapult us to an entirely new development trajectory. OECS territories are roughly 90 to 99 percent ocean. We may be small island developing states, but we are also large ocean developing states. We are a lot bigger than we think we are. To ignore our vast seascape and its tremendous potential is developmental malpractice. We must cast our eyes outward and recognise that the beach or the coastline is not the edge of our world but the beginning of the immense untapped resource that can sustainably fuel our growth and development.” The OECS and World Bank are currently implementing the Caribbean Regional Oceanscape Project (CROP) through Global Environmental Facility funding, through which Coastal Marine Spatial Plans have been developed and validated for five OECS Member States.