PART I

I. INTRODUCTION

The Italian funded FAO/AQUILA II Project (GCP/RLA/102/ITA) “Support to Regional Aquaculture Activities in Latin America and the Caribbean” is based in Mexico City and started its operations in early 1992.

The objectives of the project are:

• Reinforce the public structures for aquaculture development to enhance the development of its functions, that is:

  • support in preparing the general lines of development for the subsector including identification of potential and limitations for development;

  • formulation of a simplified framework which, according the individual country, will be adapted juridically and will serve to regulate and stimulate development of the subsector;

  • assistance in upgrading the public and private sectors through multidisciplinary training programmes;

  • support in the identification, formulation or implementation of socially-oriented aquaculture projects which involve small-scale producers and low-income communities;

  • assistance in setting up channels of information and aquaculture data banks.

• Assist in promoting, formulating and coordinating cooperation/investment projects channeling the resources of multi- and bilateral external cooperation agencies and of international financing organizations according to priorities identified together with the countries concerned.

• Study and prepare the possible alternatives for the institutional/legal/financial framework for the regional structure capable of continuing project activities when FAO management ceases.

One of the first activities of AQUILA II in the Caribbean region was to field a mission to collect information on the status of aquaculture within the countries. The objectives were to orient future activities of AQUILA II, and prepare a regional project on aquaculture development at the request of CARICOM Secretariat to FAO.

II. GENERAL

The Caribbean countries visited by the mission were the following:

Insular countries:

• The Commonwealth of Bahamas
• Barbados
• Commonwealth of Dominica
• Dominican Republic
• Grenada
• Jamaica
• St. Lucia
• Saint Vincent and The Grenadines
• Republic of Trinidad and Tobago

Continental countries:

• Belize
• Co-operative Republic of Guyana
• Republic of Suriname.

The countries considered can be classified in three geo-economic groups (Table 1), namely:

(1) Continental America - Belize, Guyana and Suriname characterized by:

• low population density;
• low income;
• abundant natural resources (essentially land and water) for aquaculture activities;
• humid tropical climate; and
• export of fishery products.

(2) Greater Antilles - Jamaica and the Dominican Republic characterized by:

• high population density;
• low income;
• availability of areas suitable for aquaculture (inland water bodies, coastal lagoons, land complementary to agriculture);
• humid tropical climate; and
• great import of fishery products.

(3) Lesser Antilles - Bahamas, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago characterized by:

• population density from high to very high;
• income from medium to medium high;
• resources near to the stress (agricultural areas and woodlands, coastal areas);
• Scarce availability of land and water for aquaculture; and
• humid tropical climate.

III. CARIBBEAN AQUACULTURE

Starting from the fifties for some countries (e.g. Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago) or only very recently for others (e.g. Grenada) many species were introduced within the region which are now object either of aquaculture production (tilapia, freshwater prawn, penaeid shrimp) or experimentation. Among the indigenous species it is worth mentioning the limited amounts of cascadura (Hoplosternum littorale) produced in Trinidad and Suriname, while most of them (e.g. Epinephelus striatus, Lutjanus spp., Mithrax spinosissimus) are still in the experimental stages.
Marine algae, which have reasonable development perspectives, are at the moment limited to Gracilaria culture in St. Lucia.
Data on aquaculture production are reported in Table 2. Total fish supply, production (i.e. capture and culture fisheries), import and export quantities are shown in Table 3.

IV. ORGANIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Due to the relatively early stages in development of the aquaculture industry in most of the Caribbean countries, at present the respective public sectors in charge of regulating and assisting the promotion of the industry are generally weakly organized. In all of the countries, Aquaculture Units, have been established within the Department of Fisheries attached to the Ministries of Agriculture. The personnel, however, has generally little experience in aquaculture and scarce resources to operate developmental activities. Currently most of the capital expenditure is borne by external cooperation.

Among the countries visited, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic can be regarded as the leading Caribbean countries in terms of aquaculture development. It is worth noting that:

• Jamaica is presently re-structuring its public sector which will inevitably affect the structure and consequently the functions of the Inland Fishery Unit (IFU). The IFU played an important role in promoting and assisting in the establishment of the country's freshwater aquaculture industry (e.g. tilapia culture).

• The Dominican Republic urgently needs to re-structure its public sector in charge of aquaculture development. In fact, advantage is not taken of available, competent human resources as well as the achievements of past activities to promote the development of the sector due to poor availability of financial resources and high personnel turnover due to low salaries.

Figure 1. Insular and continental Caribbean countries visited by the AQUILA II mission.

*: Fishery Trade Index= imports÷exports. Values from Table 3;
**: Trade values of 1988;
N.E.= No Exports).

V. TECHNICAL CAPACITY

Technical personnel with training in aquaculture both at university and lower level are lacking within the region. The situation is better in the countries with a more developed aquaculture such as Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and Trinidad and Tobago.

With respect to higher education, various universities are active in aquaculture, both at the regional level, such as the University of West Indies (UWI), and at the national level in the Dominican Republic such as the Universidad Autonoma Central de Santo Domingo (UASD) and the Universidad Central del Este (UCE). Aquaculture training at the technician or skilled level is not easily available and is a common constraint for the development of the industry throughout the region.

At the present time limited amount of aquaculture research is being carried out mainly by the universities mentioned above and to a lesser extent by the public sector through their aquaculture units or specialized agencies (e.g. at the Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA) in Trinidad and Tobago), as well as some NGOs like CANARI (Caribbean Natural Resources Institute) in St. Lucia. Some applied research is also being carried out by the private sector presently involved in commercial aquaculture production.

Scientific, technical and production information available is managed by organizations external to the Region and for the time being no specific system for Caribbean aquaculture exists.

Future Development:

With the exception of St. Vincent, for which aquaculture is not a priority at this time, all of the countries visited expressed a keen interest in promoting aquaculture development. They mentioned common objectives such as employment, agricultural diversification, earning of hard currency and conservation of natural resources.

Reasonable perspectives for the various geo-economic areas may include:

• possible development of aquaculture both for export and for the internal market (which could include high value products and social oriented aquaculture) in the larger Caribbean islands or continental countries, where physical resources are abundant and favorable; and

• aquaculture production should be focused on high value products with low “consumption” of land and water in the smaller islands, where potential areas suitable for aquaculture operations are scarce. Cultures should therefore be oriented towards higher intensity and price, destined mainly for internal markets which are essentially related to the increasing tourism industry.

* Average 1986–88

VI. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

One of the main aims of the mission was the identification of a regional cooperative project whose general objective is to promote aquaculture development in the participating countries. The selection of a regional project, based on the conviction that similarities and inequalities existing among participating countries as far as physical, biological, technological, economic and socio-cultural conditions are concerned, will permit the:

1. grouping of problems in order to share efforts in seeking common solutions; and

2. generation of intra-regional cooperation flows in order to accelerate overall aquaculture development for the benefit of all the participating countries, particularly the smaller nations for which the modest dimensions of their problems and developmental perspectives may not attract the necessary assistance on an individual approach basis.

The regional approach proposed should therefore highlight the following:

• common problems,
• differences in aquaculture development, and
• types of suitable interventions from external cooperation to be integrate to national actions and aimed at stimulating intra-regional cooperation.

Through the analysis of the available information, three stages of aquaculture development can be defined in the region. They are:

Using the above classification a summary table (Table 4) has been compiled describing the major species cultured, culture systems practiced and degree of development in the Caribbean.

The information presented in Table 4 indicates:

• the immediate regional priorities are the culture of tilapia and Macrobrachium in earthen ponds, and marine shrimps;

• the countries which can play a leading role in technology transfer and in promoting intra-regional cooperation are Jamaica, Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago; and

• the great interest in freshwater species by some small countries like St. Lucia and Commonwealth of Dominica.

The above analysis can also be used to determine the consecutive processes generally followed in the region for aquaculture development, where perspective producers enter an aquaculture operation only when the wide availability of proven technology and the existence of favorable side conditions (both granted through the action of public sector) make the profitability evident and the risk almost nil (exception to this logic pattern are Bahamas and Belize, where private industry established a production activity (even if a small-scale) without a national aquaculture development framework.

The whole development process is composed of three stages (experimental, developing and commercial) which occur in succession. The process starts from a “political” interest to explore aquaculture potential and is completed by the achievement of objectives related to the establishment of aquaculture as a productive economic activity.

Table 5, which represents the developmental process of the aquaculture industry as a continuous successions of the three stages, has been conceived as follows:

• for each stage the pre-requirements and expected results are defined (the expected results of a stage coincides with the pre-requirements of the following one);

• the national input which represents the minimum action each country should undertake to hope to reach expected results; and

• the possible activities to be undertaken by external cooperation to complement national actions.

Table 5. Developmental process of the aquaculture industry.

EXPERIMENTAL
Prerequisites	National Input	External Cooperation
• Political willingness	• Availability of basic infrastructure (e.g. land) • National counterpart	• Participation towards the construction of infrastructures (also 100%) • Technical assistance for (i) technology transfer and (ii) evaluation of potential
• Favourable physical conditions
• Market prospectives
DEVELOPING
Prerequisites	National Input	External Cooperation
• Functional infrastructure	• Flexible and willing public structure • Resources for infrastructures and support services • Availability of investments in pilot projects (public/private)	• Assistance: technical, management and institutional/ legal • Assistance towards investment opportunities and external funding sources
• Technology experimented
• Core of technically competent persons
• An idea of developmental potential
• Political awareness
COMMERCIAL
Prerequisites	National Input	External Cooperation
• Sector policy	• Private investments • Regulatory and legislative nature of the public sector • Availability of support services (public/private)	• Marketing information (integration) • Scientific and technical information (innovation)
• Budget for supporting actions
• Institutional/ legal framework
• Specific credit lines

In the twelve countries visited the conclusions are the following:

• St. Vincent and The Grenadines: aquaculture is not a priority at this time because emphasis is being placed on the development of the marine fisheries sector. No aquaculture activities are in progress and present programmes of the Department of Fisheries do not include aquaculture.

• Barbados, Grenada, Guyana: are at an experimental stage of aquaculture development. Actions of a regional project will mainly be oriented towards the transfer of technology (starting from the most elementary) and the assessment of aquaculture potential. A good deal of assistance will be devoted to installations and equipment in order to increase incountry training and research capabilities.

• Dominica, St. Lucia, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago: they have the features of a developing aquaculture industry. External assistance could handle increasingly sophisticated and specific topics related to the intensification of production. The core of external assistance will deal with policy making, planning and management together with economic-financial aspects of investment identification and evaluation, and search for financial sources. For St. Lucia and Dominica a component of assistance to the operational capacity could still include subsidies for installations and equipment.

• Bahamas, Belize, Jamaica, Dominican Republic: where commercial aquaculture is firmly established. External assistance will be oriented to improve technology to increase the economic efficiency of the species presently cultivated, and start production of other species presently under experimentation. The assistance will be focused on processing and marketing problems of species currently cultured and in the improvement of public sector capacities in policy making, planning and management.

All the above elements allow to conclude that a regional project is a tool to faster aquaculture development in the Caribbean Region; and as matter of fact, the countries visited expressed to AQUILA II mission their firm interest and support to such a regional project.

The proposal for a regional project, based on the reinforcement of national institutions dealing with aquaculture development and on the cooperation amongst the countries in the region, is justified by the following reasons:

• there are common problems in groups of countries which are related to planning of aquaculture development, training, information requirements and marketing;

• this approach is more economical to guarantee the assistance required by the region when compared to the establishment of a regional centre that would certainly generate additional pressure to the country hosting it and whose permanence cannot be guaranteed over a long-term period. This approach also ensures a more equitable distribution of benefits among the countries;

• a programme of this type will provide long-term comprehensive support to the countries now starting in aquaculture and which may not have a chance to attract sufficient funds to ensure the development of the sector based on independent projects; and

• the proposal would take into account the diverse levels of aquaculture development in the Caribbean as well as the presence of different facilities with various degrees of experiences in the countries of the region. The above facilities will assist in the implementation of the project activities aimed at the transfer of experiences and production technologies.

Development Objectives

The long-term development objectives would be in line with the main objectives identified by CARICOM for regional agriculture development and adopted for the Caribbean Community Programme for Agricultural Development (CCPAD). They mainly refer to:

• increase the level of food and markets security;

• greater diversification of products and markets;

• better use of human, physical and financial resources; and

• use of resources in such a way to secure environmental balance and stability.

In order to assist towards the achievement of the above objectives, the proposed project should address common needs of the different groups of countries classified according to the stage of advancement of their aquaculture industry.

Immediate Objectives

The immediate objectives are listed below.

• Strengthening and consolidation of institutions involved in the development of aquaculture in the region.

  This process would involve:

  • human resource development;

  • policy formulation and aquaculture planning;

  • improvement/establishment of facilities and procurement of equipment; and

  • transfer of experiences and technologies on a technical cooperation basis.

• Research and studies mainly for:

  • adaptation of technical packages for species for which production technologies exist to address the specific physical, socio-economic and marketing conditions of the various countries; and

  • research on local species which could be of commercial aquaculture interest. This second line of activity could evolve into research programmes involving more advanced institutions with twining arrangements for collaborative research.

• Generation of specific aquaculture projects.

• Coordination with the AQUILA II Project for:

  • integration of the Caribbean countries with the computerized information system for aquaculture planning in Latin America and the Caribbean (SIPAL) being developed and managed by AQUILA II; and

  • establishment of functional links for preparation and discussion of project proposals.