Aim of the Project:

To explore the prospects for sustainable, integrated, coordinated regional governance of the Caribbean Sea by studying the linkages that exist horizontally, across and within national borders, linking sectoral stakeholders, and vertically, amalgamating the views of relevant state and non-state actors, including sectoral and civil society stakeholders. The project seeks to support the work of the Caribbean Sea Commission in its efforts to marshal expertise and to formulate recommendations on regional cooperation and management of the Caribbean Sea, in conformity with international law and in recognition of the interests of the range of private and public sector constituencies in the region.

Background:

The sustainable development of the Caribbean Sea is a founding principle of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS). ACS documents indicate that the "Caribbean Sea Large Marine Ecosystem is a distinct ecological region" of great economic, social, and environmental importance to the more than 20 countries of the Caribbean. Special mention is given in these documents to the unique governance challenges to ensure the sustainability of the Sea.

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the mechanisms by which national governments (and their domestic stakeholders, including private sector and civil society actors) in the Wider Caribbean Region (WCR) are linked to regional organizations and institutions for ocean governance and to develop guidelines for best practices in establishing and operating these mechanisms.

All countries, including those of the WCR, have a variety of linkages with regional and international organizations and processes. These arise from the need to:

• service commitments under Multilateral Environmental Agreements;
• derive technical and financial benefits from funding agencies; and
• otherwise participate in regional/international activities of mutual benefit.

These interactions also have real and transaction costs for: consultation at the national level, gathering and processing of data and information, reporting and participation in meetings, providing feedback to stakeholders. When multiplied by the number of MEAs and intergovernmental processes that each country must engage in to be a full partner in regional development, these costs can be extremely burdensome, especially for small countries. Consequently, the engagement with these processes may not be as effective as needed for countries to obtain the full benefits of the relationships. Conversely, weak engagement may result in regional processes not getting the quality of involvement that is needed for effective action at the regional level.

The linkage mechanisms that currently exist in Caribbean countries appear to suffer from a variety of problems relating to: the principles upon which they are established, how they are organized and the capacity of those who are responsible for implementing them. Informal discussions at regional meetings indicate that different Caribbean countries have different arrangements for these linkages and that these may have various strengths and weaknesses.

In the context of ocean governance for living marine resources, the countries of the Wider Caribbean Region have, through the Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem Project, adopted an approach based on the Large Marine Ecosystem Governance Framework (Fanning et al 2007). The framework is multilevel (local to international) and policy cycle-based. It places emphasis on the completeness and functionality of policy cycles at all levels and on the linkages among them. This research focuses on the part of the framework where national governments link to subnational and subregional actors, institutions and processes below them, and regional levels above them and on the national level policy cycles that underlie these linkages.

Proposed Research:

The proposed research will examine both the linkages and the underlying policy cycles relating to integrated governance of the Caribbean Sea. It will proceed in two stages. The first stage will be a broad-scale survey for all members of the Wider Caribbean Region, which subsume the members of the Association of Caribbean States, to determine if they have mechanisms for coordinating the linkages between private and public sector stakeholders horizontally across the region and within countries; and vertically to regional institutions and processes. 

In the second stage the study will describe and evaluate the effectiveness of the arrangements in a cross section of Caribbean countries selected from the information acquired in the first phase. The focus is on a variety of horizontal and vertical linkages, including interministerial and intersectoral linkages within national contexts; transnational and domestic network linkages between sectoral stakeholders; and civil society linkages within national contexts. It will assess the arrangements against criteria such as efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, inclusivity and accountability. It will also examine what is considered to be working well in these mechanisms. Ultimately, the project will seek to identify best practices with reference to country size and capacity and to present options for establishing and operating mechanisms that reflect these practices. Case selection will take into consideration the cultural, political, and economic diversity of Caribbean states to ensure a sampling of states that transcends linguistic and other regional boundaries. To the degree that our findings can be generalized beyond the Caribbean region to suggest general best practices for integrated and coordinated regional governance based on effective linkage mechanisms, we encourage that.

Stakeholders:

• The Caribbean Sea Commission, CARICOM, and other regional organizations and processes
• Interested member governments of the Association of Caribbean States
• Research and policy communities, including think tanks, interested in the coordinated or integrated governance of regional seas specifically and international waters more generally
• Private sector stakeholders in the Caribbean region
• Civil society groups in the Caribbean region

Outputs:

• Improved understanding of the modes, needs and challenges for transnational, horizontal linkages between and across private and public sector stakeholders in the Caribbean, as well as the vertical linkages between domestic stakeholders, their national governments, on up to regional organizations and processes;
• Documentation of the diversity of approaches used within the region;
• Documentation of best practices;
• Recommendations for improved arrangements.

Results will be made available on the ACUNS, One Earth Future, CERMES, IIR, and ACS websites.

Partners:

• The University of the West Indies
  Professor Timothy Shaw, Director of the Institute for International Relations, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago
  Professor Robin Mahon, Director, Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados

• Dalhousie University, Marine Affairs Program
  Dr. Lucia Fanning, Director, MAP

• One Earth Future
  Mr. Bob Haywood, Executive Director