Anguilla represented at two regional fisheries meetings and a leadership training workshop in Belize

Map of the region

(The Valley, Anguilla) - Anguilla was recently represented at two regional fisheries meetings and a one week leadership training workshop in Belize.  Representing Anguilla was the Director of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Mr. James Gumbs.

The first meeting was the Sixteenth Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Caribbean Fisheries Forum (CFF), and immediately following that one day meeting was the Eighth Meeting of the CFF.  The two-day Forum meeting was chaired by Mr. Gumbs, as Anguilla took up the Chair of both the Executive Committee of the CFF and the Forum itself at the beginning of the meeting.

The major discussion points at both meetings were:

• The draft annual work plan and budget for the year (April 2010 to March 2011);
•  Work completed by the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) Secretariat since the Seventh Meeting of the Forum;
• The Common Fisheries Policy for the Caribbean Community;
• A regional Draft Declaration on Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing; and
• The recruitment of the Executive Director and Deputy Executive Director of the CRFM Secretariat.

Following the meetings was an advanced leadership training workshop geared towards Heads of national fisheries authorities in the seventeen CRFM Participating Member States.  The specific objective of the leadership training was to ensure that Heads of these national fisheries authorities are equipped with the knowledge and skills required to provide high quality leadership in their organizations.  Topics covered in the training included: the differences between leadership and management; building excellence in an organisation; a leader’s personality and personality traits; creating a strategic vision; ethics and the leader; and leading organizational change.

The leadership training could not have come at a more appropriate time given the current decline in fish catches around the world (and indeed in Anguilla), the uncertainties of global climate change and the potential impacts on capture fisheries, the loss of key habitats associated with commercial fish species (for example, coral reefs and seagrass beds), and the rising global demand for fish products as a result of population growth.  Added to these problems is the downturn in the global and local economies, which will require sound leadership as more must be done with less.

The training workshop was a collaborative initiative between the CRFM, The United Nations University – Fisheries Training Programme, The University of Akureyri Iceland, The University of Belize, and The University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, through a grant awarded to the CRFM by the Island Growth Initiative Fund of the Government of Iceland.